VIR-TE

About VIR-TE

VIRTUAL TELEPORTER
The concept enables its users to contact the distant communities and access their natural and
cultural landscapes, thus eliminating long-distance travel as an economic component that is
hard to overcome. The virtual teleporter is a blend of hardware and software. The hardware
element is an installation commemorating the friendship, a landmark that has a dual role:
being a permanent reminder of the friendship, and being a “portal” through which a virtual
journey to the other community can be undertaken. The software consists of an AR
application with panoramic images that are activated on the mobile phone of the user when
they pass through the “memorial”/“portal”. The hardware component of the installation is
conceived as an open shell which the user enters, designed based on the shape of the noble
pen shell, an endangered and protected shell of the Mediterranean Sea. The lighting of the
installation, with its pulsating rhythm, is reminiscent of the living organism of the shell. The
symbolism of the shell was chosen because the economies of both communities are
historically oriented towards the sea and islands, and they are dependent on the sea. The noble
pen shell is a symbol of the fragility of the ecosystem and the need to preserve the ecological
balance of the sea.