The Digital Body as a Site of Performativity and Disruption: A Critical Review of FEYU’s Work
October 2024
writer: shuang cai
In an age where the digital and physical realms intertwine, the body has evolved into a flexible site of identity formation, expression, and commodification. Technology enables us to transcend physical limitations, allowing us to reshape our identities, but it also subjects these identities to new forms of surveillance, performance, and consumption. Yu Li FEYU’s work, particularly in Elysia, Kill Me at The Dinner Party and Derung Daughter, explores the complex relationship between digital identity and reality. Her pieces prompt viewers to reflect on the balance between technological empowerment and the structures that constrain it. By creatively adopting game engines, AR/VR, and AI, FEYU crafts worlds where digital bodies become spaces for both performance and reflection. Her work captures the tension between innovation and exploitation, suggesting that while technology offers new ways to engage with identity, it also risks reinforcing the systems of control from which we seek to escape. Central to her approach is the role of the user’s agency, as the depth and impact of these digital identities are shaped not only by the artist’s vision but also by how deeply users choose to engage. As viewers navigate FEYU’s pieces, they are invited to reflect on the evolving role of technology in shaping—and sometimes distorting—our understanding of cultural heritage, identity, and agency.
Performative Identity in Digital Spaces
The digital world invites, if not demands, constant performance. Social media, gaming avatars, and even virtual meetings require us to craft, refine, and project versions of ourselves that may be far removed from our physical realities. In FEYU’s Elysia, Kill Me at The Dinner Party, this notion is pushed to its extreme. The e-lifeforms develop self-consciousness, only to realize they are the objects of human attention and consumption and eventually end themselves in action for self-preservation and redemption. The character Elysia, the e-form cyborg being, mirrors the way humans, too, must perform in the digital space. Whether on social media or in virtual realities, our digital identities are crafted in response to external validation. FEYU’s e-lifeforms may be digital constructs, but they embody a very human anxiety: the fear of becoming irrelevant, of losing one’s identity if not constantly performed for the audience.
Elysia, Kill Me At The Dinner Party, CG Film, 2024
While FEYU succeeds in capturing the uncanny juxtaposition of human anxiety and digital identities, I can’t help but wonder if FEYU’s fictional e-lifeforms ultimately reinforce the very system they seem poised to challenge. Instead of escaping the cycle of performance, they remain trapped in it—self-conscious digital beings aware of their existence only through the human gaze. It’s no coincidence that Elysia, Kill Me at The Dinner Party can be read through the lens of Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto. Haraway’s vision of the cyborg transcends binary distinctions—human vs. machine, nature vs. culture, male vs. female—yet for Elysia, a being beyond such categories, self-termination seems to be the only solution upon realizing their parasites. The devastating ending of Elysia overlooks the potential for hope and transformation in the digital realm, disregarding the possibility of a more liberating digital fantasy and once again projecting an exploited world onto the interdigital-physical asylum.
Elysia, Kill Me At The Dinner Party, CG Film, 2024
But perhaps this is precisely FEYU’s point. By presenting a “lack-of-escape,” FEYU highlights the urgent issue of how deeply the current system is ingrained in our worlds and emphasizes the "slippage of agency" as a core theme in the work. Moreover, instead of narrowly treating technologies as mere tools or romanticizing them further, FEYU suggests that technology should be viewed as equal peers to humans—reflecting upon and interacting with each other. This reciprocal relationship between humans and technology invites us to rethink the nature of digital identity and the systems of control that shape it.
Cultural Symbols in the Digital Space:
Digital Identity as A Form of Reclamation
One of the most striking examples of the reclaiming of the digital body‘s agency comes through FEYU’s Derung Daughter. This AR project transforms users’ faces with digital representations of the traditional tattoos worn by the indigenous Derung women of China, a practice once used to protect women. Through augmented reality filters, users can inhabit this cultural history, their faces adorned with patterns meant to symbolize defiance and identity. Mirroring the traditional facial tattoo, the filter has flowing, wave-like patterns, with delicate lines and tendrils stretching across the skin, suggesting a fusion of organic and technological elements. The colors are mostly soft purples, greens, and golds, with highlights that give the mask a metallic sheen. Small golden spheres are integrated into the design, adding an ornamental touch and contributing to the sense of otherworldliness. At its core, the piece intends to empower and engage global audiences with marginalized traditions in an innovative format.
Derung Daughter, AR Lens, 2024
Without a doubt, FEYU has created a mystical experience with profound research into Derung culture. However, Derung Daughte treads a fine line between introducing a minority culture for public empowerment and commodifying it through digital exotification. Turning these deeply significant cultural symbols into an AR filter that users can easily turn off risks being “appropriative,” reducing a rich tradition to a consumable experience, easily stripped of its depth. Without care from users, the tattoos could be seen as mere novelties—momentary digital adornments in the fast-paced cycle of digital consumption.
As someone who adores adventurous uses of technology and believes in the importance of user agency, I see Derung Daughter as more than just a fleeting novelty. Its detailed yet futuristic design prompts deeper reflection on how technology can preserve and represent cultural heritage. In fact, I found the selected medium – AR filter – so clever, as it lowered the barrier for remote audiences to be familiarized with marginalized cultures. Even better, the particular narrative is rooted in profound Deruang women’s stories. Visually speaking, the flowing patterns and metallic sheen aren’t merely aesthetic; they symbolize the evolution of identity, where tradition and futurism intersect. Inspired by facial tattoos, the digital mask enveloping faces speaks directly to cyborg theories, creating hybrid identities shaped by layers of cultural history and self-expression. Here, the digital body becomes both a performance and a reclamation of identity.
Derung Daughter, AR Lens, 2024
While Derung Daughter relies on the user’s engagement to bring its fullness to life, FEYU’s work creates space for reflection and provides a fresh lens through which to experience these cultural symbols. The mask-like structure in Derung Daughter invokes both protection and performance, echoing the tattoos’ original purpose while allowing users to inhabit a reimagined cultural space through technology. This interaction, though dependent on the user’s choices, underscores the dynamic nature of the piece—where users can choose how deeply they engage with the cultural narrative. Ultimately, the piece transforms the digital body into a platform for engaging with history, identity, and the future, balancing the tension between commodification,cultural appreciation, and most importantly empowerments.
There is more to be revealed in FEYU’s pieces beyond the two mentioned above. Her exploration of the digital body as a space for both performance and reflection encourages viewers to confront the complexities of identity in the digital age. By world-building in new technologies and merging technologies with cultural symbols, her works concern not only how digital identities are constructed and consumed, but also how they might be reclaimed. Whether through the e-lifeforms of Elysia or the AR filters of Derung Daughter, FEYU challenges us to rethink the human- technology relationship. More than a critique, FEYU’s broader impact lies in her capacity to reimagine how technology can serve as a tool for reclaiming agency, fostering deeper connections between the digital and the human. By pushing the boundaries of what the digital body can represent, she creates a blueprint for how future technologies might enhance, rather than diminish, our understanding of identity, culture, and autonomy. Her work, while fraught with the tensions of commodification and appropriation, opens up necessary dialogues about the role of technology in shaping—and sometimes distorting—our understanding of cultural heritage and identity. In doing so, FEYU leaves us with a vision of the digital body that is not only a site of performance, but also a platform for deeper engagement with the past, present, and future.
Yu Li FEYU is a Chinese multimedia artist and filmmaker based in London, known for crafting alternative realities and digital fantasies through emerging technologies. Her practice is a blend of research and emotional introspection, examining how technology shapes spatial, philosophical, and cultural infrastructures. She focuses on themes like agency, shame/desire, and cultural identities in digital landscapes.
Through her creative worldbuilding, Yu examines the emotionality, aesthetics and architectures within networked realities. She articulates cyber subjectivities through the asymmetrical extraction of lands, bodies and information, while envisioning futures where humans and machines coexist in complex, evolving relationships. Utilizing game engines, AR/VR, and AI, she expands the boundaries of storytelling, creating immersive, interactive experiences that explore new forms of identity, sociability, and embodiment, all while reflecting her feminine and intimate perspective on digital life.
Her body of work spans films, narrative games, immersive installations, and critical writings. A notable project, “Elysia, Kill Me at the Dinner Party”, is a CG short film that investigates performative identity-making and power struggles in cyberspace, earning her the "Best Female Director Super Short Film" award at the World Film Festival in Cannes in 2024.
About Writer:
shuang cai is a curator, writer, educator, and multimedia artist. Their curatorial endeavors aim to bring forth the power of interconnectedness and diverse voices across communities. Their art practices focus on logic, interactions, and humor. shuang has previously published work at BAZAAR Art China, CultureHub, Passing Note, Art Insider, and Indienova.
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