Fangzhou Lu

MFA Digital + Media

Body in Process: Assembly, Control, and the Medical Gaze

What makes humans human? Is it the outer shell that resembles the human form, or our behaviors and emotions?

This project begins with the doll as a way to think through assemblage. It has a human form, but it is not born as a whole; it is assembled from parts. Its joints, holes, and modular structure make it more like a puzzle toy. I use it to examine the act of “assembly” itself, and to understand the body as something that can be taken apart, adjusted, and replaced.

This logic of assembly also runs through real-life practices surrounding living bodies. Medical repair and treatment, through suturing, fixation, replacement, and transplantation, maintain and extend the body’s reconfigurability. In the plant world, grafting likewise depends on connection and compatibility, allowing two living systems to form a new relationship through an interface. Across these different examples, a shared tendency emerges, shaped jointly by contemporary technology and everyday life: the body is increasingly understood as a system that can be reconfigured and assembled.