Portals are gold shipping containers equipped with immersive audio and video technology inside. When you enter one, you come face-to-face with someone in a distant Portal and can converse live, full-body, and making eye contact as if in the same room. Each Portal is staffed by a Portal Curator who provides translation as needed. While not a gold shipping container, our portal in Yangon is the same
experience. The Yangon portal was already used for exchanges with the portals in Kabul and Herat, Afghanistan and Mexico City. The portal is open to the public and can be used for person-to-person conversations with someone in a distant land or for an educational exchange or for any creative endeavor. We have taught people how to make sticky rice balls, how to dance in the Myanmar traditional style and how to apply thanaka. The possibilities are endless. The Yangon portal is located in Count Basie Hall in the American Center. For those who do not have an American Center library card, please contact Zaw Linn Htet, the portal curator, to sign up for a time so that he can put in an access request a week beforehand. For more details and to see videos of the portal in action, please see our website: www.sharedstudios.com or contact [email protected].
