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Abstract
This article studies Doku, a digital figure created by multimedia artist Lu Yang. Unlike Lu's previous works that celebrate how virtuality makes possible the fashioning of a formless figure free of bodily restraints and thus of various identity makers, Doku betrays a different take on the potentials of the virtual in relation to the corporeal. By closely examining select videos featuring Doku, I highlight Lu's emphasis on Doku's entangled bodily presence and affective intensity. Contextualized against the backdrop of contemporary digital cinema's engagement with corporeality and of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, these features of Doku invite us to reevaluate Lu's figuration of digital bodies.
Contributor Notes
Pao-chen Tang is a lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Manchester. He is currently working on a book manuscript, titled The Animist Imagination: A Cinematic Aesthetics of Personhood, that addresses broad-scale themes of environment and East Asian cinema through the logic and language of animism.