NextNow portal brings participants face-to-face from countries apart

The Mexico in a Box exhibit was located outside The Clarice.

Senior Kamran Partovi stepped into a gold shipping container stationed outside of The Clarice and came face-to-face with another man named Kamran, 35, who was also standing in a gold shipping container — only his was stationed more than 6,000 miles away in Tehran, Iran.

“We had a lot in common. We talked about politics and things going on with the U.S. and Iran nuclear deal. We talked about traveling,” said Partovi, a government and politics major who is from Iran. “I really enjoyed the experience. … I get really homesick, and for me, it was kind of a way to travel [to Iran].” 

Partovi and Kamran were brought together as part of the “portals” program, an idea pioneered by a company called Shared Studios. Gold shipping containers stationed in different cities around the world connect people via real-time video feeds.

One of these global portals was on the campus during The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center’s NextNow Fest. Students and visitors could sign up for 20-minute sessions in the portal, where they could speak with someone living in Iran, Afghanistan, Mexico or Honduras.

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“The idea behind the portals came from many years of reporting and finding that some of the more compelling conversations I had were after I turned off the camera,” said Amar Bakshi, founder and lead artist of Shared Studios. “Even from some fleeting conversation with a stranger … we were able to talk about really personal things and things that would otherwise be difficult to bring up.”

Bakshi decided to launch the portals after traveling the world working as a foreign correspondent. He said when he returned from his travels, he noticed these kinds of meaningful conversations, especially with people very different from himself, were rare. He missed those connections.

The portals are about using technology to create a public space where people can interact, he said, and building connections between different places.

Alumna Lauren Shaw spoke to a mother and two young children living in Mexico City. She said she liked the idea of making the world a smaller place through conversation but was surprised by how real it felt.

“For just being a carpeted shipping container, it was amazing to me how it made you feel like the person was standing there with you,” Shaw said. “When I walked out, it felt like they were walking out with me.”

Shaw said she had expected to see a familiar video-chat screen, like on Skype, but it was designed to be more intimate.

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“A lot of information is conveyed through the whole human body and through eye contact, which are things that are not conveyed well through a small screen like through a webcam,” Bakshi said.

Erica Bondarev, associate executive director at The Clarice, said the portals fit into the NextNow Fest’s goal to welcome students of all backgrounds to campus through creative, artful and fun experiences.

Actors and dancers were also able to interact with other artists from around the world for collaboration experiences using the portals. Bondarev said her 9-year-old daughter even got to show off some breakdancing moves to a man in Mexico City.

Bondarev said the portals are an exciting example of how modern technology can bring people together in meaningful ways. She said the portals could also present learning opportunities for students, and representatives at The Clarice are already thinking of ways to bring the portals back to the campus.

“There really are amazing opportunities in terms of connection,” Bondarev said. “It goes beyond sort of the politics that are going on in the world and connects people on a very basic level. It’s about humanity.”

Partovi said the concept is a great opportunity to see what people from different parts of the world have in common. He said especially in places like Iran or Honduras, which are parts of the world that are often misunderstood, it can be good to get an in-depth look at people’s lives.

“It’s just bringing two people together to talk,” Partovi said. “That’s where the value is.”