Personal — Anh Lê

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Finding “Vietnam” (findingvietnam.cargo.site) is a series of visual investigations into the multi-faceted narratives often attached to the name “Vietnam” and their role in the industrialisation and commodification of cultural memories. These projects aim to challenge the constructed terms and identity histories of "Vietnam" by examining the media landscape of America and its consumption.

Website
Presentation

Role: Designer/Art Director
Deliverable: Website

What is Vietnam? What constitutes Vietnam?

Role: Designer
Deliverable: Website/Video Archive

The One where they Vietnam is an interactive, hypertext FRIENDS episode, where all the dialogues, jokes and punchlines are about “Vietnam”. The project is designed to play out like an episode of FRIENDS, where the player can interact with the dialogues, shuffle through the punchlines, mix and match to uncover the best “Vietnam” punchline that will make the audience laugh.

Role: Designer/Developer
Deliverable: Point-and-click HTML game
Mentor: Allison Parrish

“Good Morning, Vietnam!” is a satirical voice assistant that loves America and hates Vietnam.

The project operates and receives commands like a regular voice assistant, except it was specifically trained to deliver any information with positive connotations to “America”, and any negative information is rendered as “Vietnam”.

The project reflects my personal experience as a Vietnamese residing in the United States, where the name “Vietnam” is often used as a euphemism for a “bad war”, a “nightmare”, and generally a “very stupid mistake”. I have a difficult time reconciling the multiple versions of my home country, with many of them sharing little relationship or reference to my own lived experiences. At the same time, I find the switch between loving America and hating Vietnam fascinating. What is it like to live in an echo chamber where the only binaries are “Vietnam” and “America”?

Role: Designer
Deliverable: Voice Assistant
Mentor: Nicole He

Loving Him is Red is a desktop performance that examines the experience of growing up enshrouded in propaganda.

The structure and aesthetic style of the performance is a homage to a well-known trend on TikTok, called “#toploader decorations”, where devoted fans record themselves decorating and embellishing photocards of their beloved celebrities with an often excessive amount of stickers.

Role: Designer
Deliverable: Desktop Performance
Mentor: Molly Soda

A series of tour guides that showcase all the locations chosen by Hollywood directors to recreate and film Vietnam or Vietnam-adjacent movies.

Role: Designer/Developer
Deliverable: Printed tour guides

“dick-sucking-lips” is an interactive PoseNet sketch that superimposed the “suck-dick” text onto the viewer's mouth.

The sketch was designed to identify and project a set of pre-defined text onto the viewer's mouth, like a sticky label that cannot be removed. By participating in this experience, the viewer's agency is taken away as they watch their face being digitally disembodied and objectified without their consent. In a way, “dick-sucking-lips” was programmed to mirror how we, as humans, were also conditioned to sexualise these body parts.

Role: Designer/Developer
Deliverable: Interactive Sketch

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