“Imagine all the people sharing all the world.” -John Lennon
Favored topics in science-fantasy stories are time travel, teleportation, and, most of all, portals ― magical gateways that connect two distant locations separated in space and time. Such portals are simply shortcuts into the unknown that connect travelers to distant realms. Imagine if such portals actually existed? Well, it turns out, one actually does and it will take you around the world in a New York minute.
-Suzanne Dooley
A SMORGASBORD OF POTENTIAL
What city embraces the motley more than New York City? From cabs, couture, and cookery… to fiction, film, and fashion… to music, meditation, and mania ― the whole world exists inside New York City. Walk the frenzied streets and become captivated with the variety of languages spoken, smell the scents of multinational cuisine emitting from eateries, and experience diversity first-hand. By doing so, you stop and experience inclusion and international engagement NYC-style.
The Internet has surely made cities and countries borderless. However, New York City, one of the leading microcosms of our global world, is now expanding beyond its borders via the TimesSquare Portal. This Portal voyages across the Transatlantic and into areas otherwise not readily accessible to many Americans. And even better, this techy time-travel adventure requires no passport, takes only a few minutes, and is free.
New York City’s Times Square.
THE RED PILL OR BLUE PILL?
In the midst of Times Square’s super-sized billboards, public plazas, shopping areas, and theatre venues sits that gold-colored shipping container ― the TimesSquare Portal. This state-of-the-art Portal is equipped with immersive audio and visual technology that connects you to places around the world. What makes this Portal so unique is that it permits interaction between you and other users around the globe. It’s as though such persons are in the same room with you conversing in real-time.
Portals are situated in diverse locations around the world including technology hubs, refugee camps, art museums, community centers, and public plazas. They have connected more than 65,000 people in conversation, enabling them to share their stories. Countries housing Portals currently include Afghanistan, Germany, Honduras, India, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mexico, Myanmar, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Rwanda, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, Vietnam, and Yemen.
You are welcome to walk in from off the streets and spontaneously experience the TimesSquare Portal for the interactive adventure that it is ― a virtual excursion that will surely take you on a personalized journey. That journey will allow you to create an up-to-the-minute story of your own while becoming captivated by the stories of others, thereby bringing back the art of oral storytelling.
Reading Is Sexy.
ONCE UPON A STORY
Before the existence of books, oral storytelling was the traditional form of narrative shared amongst community members. People gathered close together, often seated in a circular fashion, to hear tales of adventure told by the storyteller and to broaden their imaginations through that storyteller’s spoken words. Through the story, the storyteller revealed him or herself through the narrative and listeners revealed themselves through their receiving of that story.
Oral stories eventually evolved into printed stories, and books are now a primary example of how we elusively cross cultures and transport ourselves into another’s experience. The TimesSquare Portal modernizes traditional storytelling into cyber-styled storytelling without the loss of intimacy, informality, and interplay.
By way of the TimesSquare Portal, you can become a player in the world’s stage of storytelling, both as a participant and storyteller yourself, as well as a recipient and listener of another’s story. Your curiosity will lead you to persons and places never before known to you: You can be introduced to a woman from Spain who shares her experience of becoming a mother for the first time, a group of male friends from Germany who share their stories of camaraderie, or Afghan children who are eager to know about American culture ―each revealing a part of themselves, their community, and their country. Through such real-time interaction, barriers are broken, stereotypes gently eviscerated, and bonds formed, even if only momentarily.
Through The Looking Glass.
As a world traveler and storyteller myself, listening to stories allows me to climb over cultural walls to embrace divergent experiences; telling stories expands my imagination and allows me to deepen my experience by making it another’s experience. I am able to compare stories from around the world and find the one story that exists in all stories: I am as much alike my global compatriots as I am different.
Through the exchange of stories, I eventually taste the words of a foreigner as a foreigner, hear the vibrant colors of diversification, and see the individual music notes that when sounded together create a new chord. And by savoring such stories, the stories themselves become the kaleidoscopic experience ― Peru becomes the country of chocolate, France becomes the country of coffee, Pakistan becomes the country of progressiveness, and the United States becomes the country of prudence.
TimesSquare Portal.
The TimesSquare Portal runs until November 21, 2017. To make a reservation or to access more information about the TimesSquare Portal, see links here: https://www.sharedstudios.com/times-square and https://www.sharedstudios.com
