Design Map · Eindhoven
I Am Not the Sum of My Parts
Graduation project by Eva van Caem at Design Academy Eindhoven, 2026. Shown during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven on Design Map, location F5.
Like many people living with chronic illness, Eva van Caem moves between medical specialists, each zooming in on a separate part of the body. Within this stratified system of care, the body is no longer understood as an interconnected whole. Repeatedly treated as a set of problems to be solved, it can begin to feel disconnected from both a person’s identity and their sense of wonder. This sensory installation invites touch, curiosity and play, making it suitable for venues ranging from art spaces to children’s hospitals. It translates adipose, muscle and epidermal tissue into knitted structures, each giving material form to a specific bodily behaviour: cushioning, contraction and protection. Enlarged from microscopic imagery, the tissues become soft, touchable and human-scale: something to encounter rather than diagnose. Reunited, they reveal the body as a collaborative system that is more than the sum of its parts.