Flower Market Imaginaries
Description
Flower Market Imaginaries brings together materials collected through workshops, discussions and reading groups conducted over the past year as part of the Ecologies of Participation research initiative. As a site currently undergoing urban regeneration, The Flower Market in Prince Edward is at risk of losing its identity and community. Supported by the Research Institute of the Humanities and a CUHK Direct Grant, the EoP initiative explores methods for participatory practice in urban space through field recordings, AI, 3D virtual worldbuilding, 3D scanning and 3D printing in collaboration with a network of artists, researchers and scholars.
This display features a repository of materials representing the collective imaginaries of the Flower Market through sound, text, photos, AI-generated images and 3D printed objects. This archive explores the market through sonic experiences, site-specific stories/memories and speculative images generated by AI creating a multilayered understanding of the market. These creative representations of the market from shared local experiences generate a form of collective knowledge production, which contrasts the grand narratives of property speculation and modernisation that homogenises the culture of the market. The materials collected from the market are displayed in an interactive map of the Flower Market presented on multiple layers, as well as in a physical display on the table.
Alongside these materials is an artwork called Chain Harvest Project by artists Pat Wing Shan Wong and Debbie Ding, who collaborated to create a virtual world experience of one of the oldest shops in the market, Pang Yuen Garden Co. Through conversations with the flower shop owner, Mrs. Tsang, the project adopts her local perspective to explore alternative flower trading possibilities in a virtual environment created using 3D scanning and VR Chat. The project moves beyond simply documenting the market for archival purposes and aims to develop participatory approaches that facilitate collaborative engagement by creating reciprocal value between the flower shop market and academic research. Visitors to the display can also input their own memories to contribute to the project, which will grow as the exhibition progresses to enrich our shared knowledge and experience of the market.
Biography
Ecologies of Participation (EoP) is a transdisciplinary research collaboration initiated by Yim Sui Fong (Assistant Professor of Fine Arts), Melody Hoi Lam Yiu (Research Assistant Professor of Architecture) and Ashley Lee Wong (Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2024. Through panel discussions, workshops, artistic projects and symposiums, the initiative aims to bridge research and practice by providing platforms for collaboration and to develop experiments with the creative arts and technology in urban space.
Melody Hoi-lam Yiu, PhD, is a designer and researcher in cultural architecture design and planning, investigating spatial and cultural development issues in Hong Kong and Asia. Her monograph, Cultural Architecture and Late-colonial Space: Constructing Cultural Centres in Hong Kong, was recently published by the Routledge Research in Architecture series.
Ashley Lee Wong, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies at the CUHK and the Founder and Artistic Director of MetaObjects, a studio that facilitates digital projects with artists and cultural institutions. She is the author of a monograph, Ecologies of Artistic Practice: Rethinking Cultural Economies through Art and Technology (The MIT Press, 2025).
Yim Sui Fong (Assistant Professor, Fine Arts, CUHK) is an artist and educator whose research focuses on socially engaged art, sound art, essay film, and experimental pedagogy. She is the co-founder of the charity organization Rooftop Institute and a board director of HASS Lab, dedicated to artist-led pedagogy and public engagement.
Materials
Physical + digital mixed-media display
Organisation
School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Acknowledgments
Artists:
Debbie Ding
Flyingpig
AI Workshop Interlocutors:
Brian Wong
Wong Ka Ying
Chieng Wei Shieng
Technical Lead:
Andrew Crowe (MetaObjects)
Production Coordination:
Tang Sin Chee Toby
Ip Ka Shun Seon