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Created by OnRamp Arts © 2002 Use & Exhibiton is permitted with the proper credits: |
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WHO MADE IT & WHY
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Tropical America was created by OnRamp Arts, a non-profit arts organization in Los Angeles whose mission it was to create and produce innovative, compelling digital media projects that bridge new technology, the arts and local communities. OnRamp closed its doors at the end of 2002, due to lack of funding. The game was produced as part of a media literacy program working with Title I high school students around issues of violence and games, funded primarily by the Department of Education. OnRamp worked with local artists and students from Belmont High School to produce a series of projects, which culminated in Tropical America. READ ABOUT THE PROCESS: Digital Divide Network SEE + HEAR: CBS Radio features Tropical America. DOWNLOAD: Debut Press Release (Oct. 7, 2002)
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| WHAT IT IS ABOUT |
Inspired by the similarly titled mural by David Alfaro Siqueiros- subsequently whitewashed in Los Angeles in 1932- Tropical America explores the causes and effects of the erasure of history. From the battles of Bolivar, to the single-crop economy of Cuba, the myth of El Dorado and the poems of Sor Juana de la Cruz, Tropical America reveals a forgotten terrain, the birthplace of contemporary cross-cultural life. The story of Rufina Amaya, sole survivor of the 1981 massacre of El Mozote in El Salvador, becomes the contextual anchor for Tropical America, and the impetus from which the game begins. El Mozote symbolizes the silencing of one people’s histories and the perseverance of its survivors to bring the events into the open.
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| AWARDS & PRESS |
U.N. World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Los Angeles Times ICA Philadelphia El Pais Net Art News AFC New Source Neural.it Libération.fr Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (debut) |
Inspirado en un mural pintado por David Alfaro Siqueiros, en la ciudad de Los Angeles – el cual fue borrado en 1932- América tropical explora las causas y los efectos del olvido en la historia latinoamericana. Desde las heroicas batallas de Bolívar, a la economía del monocultivo en Cuba y el Caribe, a las leyendas de El Dorado y a los poemas de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, América Tropical deja al descubierto motivos y expresiones de la transculturación contemporánea.
La historia de Rufina Amaya- única sobreviviente de la masacre de El Mozote en El Salvador en 1981- genera un vínculo contextual entre América Tropical y la motivación para iniciar el juego. El Mozote simboliza el silencio histórico de un pueblo y la perseverancia para sacarlo a la luz pública.OnRamp Arts es una organización sin ánimo de lucro, cuya misión es crear y producir, proyectos convincentes e innovativos, que establezcan lazos duraderos entre las nuevas tecnologías digitales, las artes y las comunidades locales.
COMUNICADO DE PRENSA (10/7/2002)