AUGMENTED CHINATOWN

Feb 2019

CAN Commission

A site specific promenade | Soho, London | Chinese Arts Now Festival 2019

Augmented Chinatown was an exhibition and site-specific installation presented as part of the Chinese Arts Now Festival 2019, which ran from 23 January to 3 February. The festival marked the first UK-wide programme dedicated to British Chinese performance and culture.

Conceived as a promenade work, the project unfolded as a guided exploration of London’s Chinatown in Soho, revealing a layered environment that straddles the digital and the physical. Through a combination of video installation and augmented reality sculptures, the work inserted digital forms into the existing urban fabric, producing moments of friction between the visible city and an unseen, speculative counterpart.

When experienced sequentially, the individual works form an alternative landscape that examines identity, cultural symbolism, myth, and the layered histories of Chinese communities and the wider diaspora. The narrative progresses from foundational creation myths within Chinese mythology to contemporary conditions, drawing connections across time and culture. By reactivating these stories within a technologically mediated environment, the project seeks to disrupt the predictability of everyday experience, inviting moments of estrangement that open new perspectives and critical reflection.

The augmented reality components were accessed via a bespoke iOS application developed by Shek for the exhibition, enabling participants to encounter the digital sculptures in situ throughout Chinatown.