Those who have been to LOVE Park in the past few weeks have gotten a front row seat to its new art installation, The Portal.
The large circular screen acts as a camera, linking the City of Brotherly Love with other cities worldwide (including Dublin, Ireland; Lublin, Poland; and Vilnius, Lithuania.) But how did the wildly popular viral sensation come to be in Philadelphia? It was actually driven out of a love for the city.
“I am a very proud Philadelphia native,” says technologist Joseph Callahan.
Callahan, who grew up in North Philly and attended North Catholic High School and Drexel University, was part of the team of experts at Portals.org. “Philly doesn’t get represented accurately nationally or globally. I don’t think the media coverage represents the true characteristics of the people from [here]. I think they’re missing the mark on that for various reasons.”
Callahan can be credited as part of bringing the unique project to the city. A year ago, the native Philadelphian got involved with Portals.org as an investor, director and one of the lead individuals guiding the global deployment of The Portal.
“My first meeting with them, I said, we need one of these in Philadelphia. I always refer to Philadelphia as a forgotten city, meaning Philadelphians have forgotten the importance of the city. We’re approaching the 250th birthday of the country, and I still remember the 200th birthday and the excitement around Philly. To think that Philly had 40,000 people in it in 1776…It was a melting pot of cultures, ethnicities, and religions,” explains Callahan.
“It was the people of Philadelphia that had the grit to push back on the King at the time to say it’s not going to work. To think that all that happened in Philly and set the new tone for democracy globally is pretty relative.”
The LOVE Park Portal rotates between the cities at 3-minute intervals. The location was chosen to showcase the heart of Philly (City Hall), and the installation will remain there until at least April. From there, it will find a permanent home, which Callahan says is still being discussed. Early plans however have been eyeing the Art Museum, Independence Park, or, staying exactly where it is in LOVE Park.
The project was conceived by Lithuanian artist and entrepreneur Benediktas Gylys, and Callahan was drawn to it through Gylys’ mission.
“I have a strong belief in this universal energy and [that] everything happens for a reason. [Portals.org] have a good, solid core of wanting to have an impact in the world,” says Callahan.
The technologist built his career working for corporations like General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, York International and Scott Paper as a computer programmer before starting his own $150 million-a-year company (which he sold a few years ago). Since then, Callahan has been a “serial entrepreneur” using his fascination for technology to build connections.
“We have always been one to innovate and push the boundaries of what’s possible. And [I’ve] always been a person that had strong ties to community, family and the environment of bringing people together,” he continues.
“It’s the two components of tourism and community. It’s a balance of those two because you want to have fresh people coming through every day, but you also want to have a community of people that’ll come out for activations. Whether they be book signings, whether they be artist performances, whether they be parades, or all kinds of things inside the community. We believe that it’ll bring people out of their homes and physically connect people back to the way it used to be decades ago.”
Speaking of activities impending at The Portal, Callahan says there will eventually be a published calendar of events spanning musical performances, meet and greets and even a movie launch.
But the personality of Philadelphia and its people is essentially what will draw crowds to The Portal. The installation (which was assembled by local unions, laborers and engineers) will operate 24 hours a day for the foreseeable future. And although it’s silent (“90% of communication is nonverbal” notes Callahan), The Portal has already reached over 600 million impressions on social media, with that number growing. All of which helps put different cities on the map.
“It’s really a process of inclusiveness and welcoming. [Philly has] a bad rap because of how passionate we are, and that passion sometimes is interpreted as anger, especially in our sports teams. But right, wrong, indifferent, whether they love you or they’re going to challenge you, the fans of Philadelphia are going to be fully engaged,” says Callahan.
“I’ve always been very proud of that. Spending a lot of time on the West Coast and a lot of time in Asia and Europe, when people ask where I’m from, I very proudly say Philadelphia.”
To learn more about the Portal Art Installation in Philadelphia, visit portals.org
