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27th August 2024
01:15pm BST
Two new cities have been added to the Dublin to New York portal this week.
Originally connecting the Irish capital to New York City, the North Earl St exhibit will now stream live feeds from Vilnius in Lithuania and Lublin in Poland.
It has been confirmed by Dublin City Council that the livestreams will rotate every 180 seconds.
The art installment which now connects the four cities, was the centre of a spate of controversial incidents upon its erection, leading Dublin City Council to step in with heightened security measures.
New changes were announced this month including the Portal's location in New York being moved from the Flatiron Plaza to a new unannounced location.
Lord Mayor of Dublin, James Geoghegan. discussed the new additions to the Portal, saying: "The Portal in Dublin has attracted over 340,000 visitors since its launch in May and has brought a new lease of life to North Earl Street.
“We are delighted to see the network of cities expand to Vilnius and Lublin and look forward to seeing more people enjoy the Portals experience.”
The Vilnius Portal is positioned adjacent to the city's central station, and the Lublin Portal is located on the central city square, Litewski Square.
"We are delighted today to welcome Dublin and New York - the next cities to join this unique project," said Beata Stepaniuk-Kuśmierzak, Deputy Mayor of the City of Lublin for Culture, Sport and Participation.
"We are excited that our Portal is growing in reach and popularity, opening up unlimited opportunities for communication and collaboration on an international scale.
"Thanks to the installation, we can now peek into New York's Manhattan and Dublin's city centre, share culture, experiences and initiate new projects together."
Aušrinė Armonaitė, Minister of the Economy and Innovation of Lithuania, added: “We can discover how similar we all are through the use of portals, which connect us to a shared network that brings people from different places and cultures closer together.
"I hope that this idea, which originated in Lithuania, will continue to grow and connect the entire world, allowing people to better understand each other."
It was also revealed that more Portal locations are being added to the network later this year.
The Portal has been the centre of numerous controversies since its initial installation in May.
Some incidents included a woman being arrested in front of it, someone showing a picture of the 9/11 attack on their phone and a man mooning some unsuspecting New Yorkers.
A woman on the New York side also flashed the Portal, with the video subsequently going viral online.
The Portal was subsequently closed for a temporary period, with Dublin City Council announcing it would operate under new time restrictions
The installation now runs daily from 11am to 9pm in Dublin (6am to 4pm in New York).
The council also said that the portals "are not meant to be touched or stepped upon" and that they have "taken steps to limit instances of people stepping on the Portal and holding phones up to the camera lens."
It was revealed that the Portals.org team (the organisers behind the installation) has "implemented a proximity-based solution", meaning that "if individuals step on the Portal and obstruct the camera, it will trigger a blurring of the livestream for everyone on both sides of the Atlantic.
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