The desire to travel virtually across time, space and realms has been a recurring theme in the collective imagination – one that many have explored through fictional narratives. As a result, portals are a recurring device in mainstream media: we read about them in books, see them on the screen, and even traverse them in games. These magical thresholds defy the laws of physics and can instantly send a person across time, space, or even other dimensions. 

Portals are door-like or hole-like thresholds that grant us entrance into another virtual environment of any kind and size. As digital media gains a third dimension and becomes immersive, the way in which we swap between spaces will have to be designed. Portals are one of the most popular means to switch from one environment to another and they will likely become the go-to reference for virtual travel. The Portal Galleries is an archive and exhibition that aims to compile a history of what we argue will be the key architectural element of the coming decades. Between 2020 and 2022 we compiled an archive of portals in fiction which has over 900 entries. The analysis of the archive has already led to initial conclusions and remains an open resource for study.

The exhibition Space Popular: The Portal Galleries at Sir John Soane’s Museum in London (June 29th - September 25th 2022) presented the archive of portals in response to ther virtuality of Soane’s work, bridging the technologies of his time and ours. Unfolding walls, cleverly placed mirrors, and scale shifts are just some of the numerous examples of portals at Sir John Soane’s Museum, making it one of the greatest collections of pre-electronic media teleportation devices.

The exhibition consists of several parts presenting a cross-media historical study of fictional portals: two immersive films with accompanying furniture pieces that enable a multi-sensory experience, a 2D film presenting the 18 portal archetypes found in the archive, analytical drawings of portals in Sir John Soane’s Museum,  and a curated series of drawings from Soane’s office representing a diversity of thresholds.