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Larry Nguyen

Larry Nguyen was born in Lowell, Massachusetts the son of Vietnamese immigrants. Currently, he is in his fourth and final year of study in the Electronic Media Arts & Design (eMAD) program at the University of Denver.

Throughout his career, Larry has been exploring issues of identity—primarily dealing with ethnicity and cross-cultural displacement. His work uses multiple disciplines to deal with several of these issues including video, print work, and web design. The subject matter of his work includes racially subversive humor, the emergence and proliferation of the "social chameleon" in immigrant culture, the increasing amalgamation of digital and material self, as well as exploration of family history as a method for grounding identity.

His work with the SouthWest Enclave for Art and Technology (SWEAT) is concerned with larger social identities in South American countries. In FI-FA! FO! FUM! Larry and the SWEAT collaborative utilize the model of soccer video games to present the ruthless otherworld of Colombian narcotics.

The actual gameplay of the video game intends to be as entertaining and addictive as a generic, low-bit two-player soccer game. However, the game is packaged within the context of social critique using the dissonance between two very different South American cultures: the illegal, cutthroat, hedonistic world of narcotics, and the legitimate, subjugated world of coffee farmers. Both worlds are seemingly represented as equals in the generic gameplay. Whoever "scores five to win," reveals outcomes referencing Pablo Escobar's vicious strategy for dealing with competition and authority. Juan, the coffee farmer is presented with two, and only two, choices: corruption, or death.

FI-FA! FO! FUM! is only a small part in a larger game called Juan and the Beanstalk currently in development by the collaborative.

Larry's hobbies include singing in the shower, playing guitar, and drawing comics. He plans to name his kids Medulla Oblongata, Chic N., and Gundam.

Larry is a Gemini in the year of the boar.