Vagamundo: a migrant's tale

ABSTRACT

Vagamundo is a mobile public art project and an online game. 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 City. Following an introduction -- Getting Across the Border, the player is challenged by various levels of social and cultural assimilation.

Ideally, the project achieves two goals. First to present an interesting tableau that interrupts the given codes of public space as an unsuspecting pedestrian discovers a free videogame in an ice cream cart - a vehicle that represents an economic means to new immigrants. Secondly, Vagamundo places the player in the role of a new, undocumented immigrant to New York City, an experience that may cause one to consider what life is like for others. The "others" that the project concerns itself with is an impoverished immigrant subculture that goes highly unnoticed by main-stream media.

References

1. National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights "Background on U.S. Border Militarization: Failed Immigration Enforcement Strategy Is Causing More Migrant Deaths," by migrantwatch.org July 2003 http://www.migrantwatch.org/mri/background_doc_to_press_statement.htm
2. "The Facts" prepared by The California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation's Border Project, July 2002 http://www.stopgatekeeper.org/English/facts.htm#strategy
3. Egan, Timothy "Border Desert Proves Deadly for Mexicans" New York Times, May 23, 2004
4. Yardley, Jim "A Rebound of Traffic of Mexican Workers" New York Times, November 24, 2003

Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Arts and humanities