Is It Genius, a Work of Art, or the Future of the Housing Market? The Camper Kart

Folks, I love myself a good camper or RV, but this next one takes the idea of mobile living to the very edge of what's humanly possible, not to mention humanly ethical! I'm talking about the contraption you have before you today, the Camper Kart, an idea spawned from the mind of one Kevin Cyr, a Canadian artist with a love for the American lifestyle scene.

Typically, his works focus on tagging (graffiti) and painting vehicles that "have defined the evolution of the American landscape." Themes incorporated into his works include "mobility, sustainability, mortality, and consumer culture," and the Camper Kart looks like it has all that. There's mobility, sustainability, consumer culture, and clearly some morality mixed into what's being expressed here today.

All that starts off with nothing more than a shopping cart, the kind you use to carry your groceries in and the same kind that countless homeless folk use to carry their belongings, sometimes even using them for actual sleeping and a sort of partial protection from the elements.

Starting from the ground up, the lower shelf of the cart seems to be holding onto some sort of tool chest, while the basket itself is filled with nothing more than hunks of wood. Already, this thing looks like a hunk of junk in a basket, so if you were to be pushing this down the street, it wouldn't really matter what designer clothes you're wearing. Although, you'd be sending some pretty mixed signals.

However, little do we and everyone else know, but this very wooden construction is to become the very essence of this mobile home if we can even call it that. Based upon a pop-top tent camper design, by lifting the top of that wooden construction, two lateral cubicles unfold to create a bedding area...I'm at a loss for words.

All I can picture when I look at the Camper Kart is nothing more than a dystopic future, overcrowded by humans due to our inability to create adequate housing for all. If there was ever a message the artist was trying to send with this work of "lifestyle" art, it just might be "Beware the future!"

Now, that's just one side of things, but a more grounded view of things reveals that the Camper Kart is actually a rather ingenious idea and one that's sure to be adopted by somebody after reading this article. Ready for a quick feeling of what a life lived out of a Camper Kart may be like?

If you're the proud owner of such a contraption, you may find yourself waking up on a beach somewhere, on the side of a road, or under a bridge. As you do, you'll be in a 2x6-foot enclosure with window shades keeping prying eyes out, a little gas lantern for lighting, some aluminum support struts, and tent canvas all around. Clearly, this is not a four-season option.

After lying around for a minute or two, you'll need to climb out of your home using that tiny door and to access the rest of this contraption's abilities, you'll need to break down the bed, hide the padding, and you now have to two little tables on each side of the camper for activities such as eating, working or some light toiletries. One is used as storage.

Back outside, the rear of the Kart also hides a neat little pass-through storage bay, and it's here that you can hide a portable cooktop, a gas canister, and even some water jugs. Pots and pans? This is also the perfect place to store those goods. If you're planning on taking long weekend trips out of town with this camper, all on foot, of course, you may need to bring along a portable shower and definitely a toilet.

However, let's say that the local 5-0 showed up overnight and forced you to leave whatever property you're trespassing on. When this happens, ask for a few minutes or so to fold your home back into the size of a TV, and off you go. Talk about the true nomad lifestyle.

Now, I'm sure you may have picked up on my rather jestful tone while talking about the Camper Kart, but in reality, this project conveys several serious messages. The first is the whole idea of just how much we need to survive. By the looks of it, not much at all. Whip up a shower, buy a toilet and a cooktop, and that's that.

Secondly, it's an exercise in product development. Heck, just switch out the shopping cart for something a bit more serious, preferably a steel chassis with some wheels, and honestly, we could be looking at a rather affordable weekend camper option.

As for a deeper message we can perceive while looking at this contraption, an artist's message, if you will, has a whole lot to do with how our modern society is structured and what's feeding the money wheel. But that's a conversation for a different day. I'm not even going to mention that it could hint at the growing housing issue spreading across the US and other nations across the globe.

For now, we can use the Camper Kart as nothing more than an exercise into how little we really need to explore this wild and grand world we live in.