HAYMARKET 2050: Digital Dreaming in Chinatown

HAYMARKET 2050: Digital Dreaming in Chinatown is a multidisciplinary creative placemaking project that reimagines Sydney’s Haymarket through augmented memory and speculative futures.

Commissioned by 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art and led by interdisciplinary creative directors Gene Leung and Dan Tse of INJURY and REAL PARENT, the project unfolds across immersive exhibition-making and a site-responsive augmented reality walking experience in Chinatown.

Drawing on the fluid ontology of Zhuangzi’s Butterfly Dream, HAYMARKET2050 considers whether Haymarket is the city we physically inhabit, or the memory it continues to carry. The project collapses past, present and future into a layered, immersive environment in which late 1990s Cantonese culture — Hong Kong cinema, Mahjong tables, HK cafes and Bauhinia blossoms — flows into speculative 2050 imaginaries. Cultural memory is not positioned as archival residue, but as an active, generative force shaping possible futures.

Inspired by the suspended realities of cyber cinema, the digital works situate audiences within a world that feels simultaneously lived, remembered and digitally reconfigured. Lion gates ascend into sky gardens, Tai Chi unfolds within animated blossoms, and a fantastical mascot circulates through gachapon capsules as a symbol of qi, balance and collective luck. Through this interplay of digital filmmaking, 3D worldbuilding and sculptural fashion aesthetics, INJURY and REAL PARENT propose a city in which history and speculation co-exist in dynamic tension.

Extending beyond the gallery, the project activates Haymarket’s streetscape through an augmented reality walking tour developed in collaboration with AR artist Melanie Huang Buntine, with technical support from Culture Vault. Visitors are invited to engage Chinatown’s cultural landmarks through mobile interactions, unlocking digital overlays and a bespoke gachapon experience that bridges physical space and speculative narrative.

HAYMARKET 2050: Digital Dreaming in Chinatown positions Chinatown not as a fixed heritage site, but as a living, evolving cultural ecosystem. In this vision, memory is participatory, the city is porous, and the future remains in continuous dialogue with the past.

Guide to access the augmented-reality sites

Artists:

• INJURY

• REAL PARENT

• Melanie Huang Buntine