In the summer of 2002, while terrorism became the prevalent subject of news media in the U.S. and a global consciousness was temporarily awakened in the American psyche, I busily sat in front of my computer illustrating New York City scenes and programming a giant fighting cockroach. While car bombs explode, an Internet café fires burns, a US bomb interrupts a wedding, a quake strikes Iran, a Who member dies, North and South Korea exchange fire, two jets collide above Southern Germany, a Gnutella developer commits suicide and a Ukrainian air show ends in disaster, I remained in my studio building a small wooden cart.
Vagamundo is a mobile public art project designed for on the street interaction to create temporary public commons. Through a mobile cart resembling an ice cream cart pedestrians are invited to play a video game that reflects the plight of illegal immigrants in New York.
In the United States, there are currently over eight million illegal immigrants, including more than three million from Mexico. The vast majority of these immigrants compose a near slave labor population contributing to the U.S. economy. Vagamundo attempts to inform its audience by creatively investigating, the Latin American immigrant population in New York City via the video game format a format that leads to immersion through interaction.
The project is informed by interviews that I conducted with new immigrants from Latin America residing in Manhattan and Brooklyn as well as years of working as a busboy in San Francisco. The game, that is a computer, monitor and joystick are placed within a hand built cart that sits on two back tires and a front caster. The use of the hand built ice cream cart establishes a concrete association with the thousands of paleteros found in major U.S. cities pushing their carts and selling various flavors of crushed ice for a dollar through hot summer days.
The game is composed of three levels each level represents a move up in the social scale and assimilation to the United States. The player controls the main character of the game, Cantinflas, the famous Mexican comedian of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema; an iconic figure not unlike Charlie Chaplin. In each level, Cantinflas must overcome an obstacle to continue ahead:
Level 1: El Borracho, represents a “Culture of Poverty" as an outcome of cultural traits such as bad work habits, heavy drinking, and violence. The player must avoid the flying liquor bottles to earn a job.
Level 2: The Green Grocer Bagger represents a "Culture of Assimilation." In the second level, the player acquires a job at a corner grocery as a bagger and florist, jobs favored by new immigrants, because it allows them to begin learning English. However in the game, the player must fight and beat the stereotype monster, a giant cockroach.
Level 3: The Head Waiter represents a "Culture of Prosperity." The player has learned English and is now a waiter at an upscale restaurant in the Upper East Side. Cantinflas must keep the guests happy and earn $200 in tips to beat the game.
Extra Level: Once the player has won the game, s/he is offered the choice to discriminate against new immigrants or two help new immigrants. If the player selects to discriminate, s/he is awarded an extra level as border patrol, where one may fire at illegal immigrants. If the player selects to help, s/he is awarded a list of informative books and contact information to nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping new immigrants.
Ideally, the project achieves two goals. First to present an interesting tableau that interrupts the given codes of public space as an unexpecting pedestrian discovers a free videogame in an ice cream cart. And second, Vagamundo places the player in the role of a new immigrant to New York City, an experience that may cause one to consider what life is like for others.
Unfortunately, as I discovered this past September, as Vagamundo was part of The Kitchen’s Neighborhood Street Fair, most adults, although entertained by the concept and animation are either intimidated by the thought of playing a video game or simply not interested. While half of those who were truly interested and prepared to invest hours of playing time, did not really care to consider the content of the game and did not quite understand it as they belonged to the 4-8 year old age group. There was one half of this group however who presented a target audience, they were prepared to play and understood the concept that is the age group of 9-18 year olds.
