In Encinitas, California, you'll find the one and only Neptunes Portal. It is an interactive art project that the public can participate in by peeking into a mystifying green cylinder. Jack Lampl, the creator of this project, has the green cylinder sitting on top of his mailbox outside of his house. When you look into the portal, you can press a button to record your face and leave a message. The messages are posted on the Neptunes Portal website. The project has been ongoing since 2007 and was even active during the pandemic (with safety precautions intact). Look through the archive of recordings that have taken place over the last 15 years.
The Neptunes Portal artist statement from the website:
"Since my intention is to make this an exploratory and interactive experience, I hesitate to say too much right now about my intentions in case this might limit the possibilities.
Let me say that Neptune's Portal evolved from a kind of visionary state that combined my joy and gratefulness to be able to live at this spot with an awareness of what surrounds me/us – which is not all visible on the surface and not always postcard beautiful.
Each of us is a composite of what we consciously know and what lies buried beneath – out of our awareness, but not without impact on our thoughts, feelings and actions. The ocean is also a good example of this phenomenon.
NeptunesPortal is my invitation to all of us to stop, look inside and perhaps find something new, something hidden, something unexpected and then share it honestly and without self censorship. I know this is not an easy task and not without imagined risk. We are very used to limiting our experience to the more routine and to expressing the same thing over and over again.
In reality we are always changing. NeptunesPortal is a passageway between the past and the future. A place to discover in ourselves what is true right now and each now that you pass by and feel moved to leave a message for the community.
Hold down the red button and speak. I post your messages at www.neptunesportal.tv
I look forward to sharing with you in this discovery. Jack"
