Phantasms

<p dir="ltr">Research Background </p><p dir="ltr">Phantasms for Future Ecologies comprises digital projection artworks installed throughout public spaces in Tai Kok Tsui, Hong Kong, as part of the Hong Kong Arts Centre's RE: Tai Kok Tsui urban renewal initiative. This collaboration between RMIT University School of Art and HKAC, supported by the Australian Government's Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program, responds to the neighbourhood's ecological and social transformation. Through poetic projections of the locally familiar barn swallow, the work examines how urban renewal impacts ecological systems while exploring public art's capacity to connect community, place, and heritage. The project establishes a research framework for understanding how creative practice can imagine sustainable urban futures through site-responsive digital interventions. </p><p dir="ltr">Research Contribution </p><p dir="ltr">This research advances methodologies for using digital projection as a conduit for community connection and ecological consciousness in rapidly changing urban environments. By deploying the barn swallow as a symbolic intermediary between human and non-human inhabitants of Tai Kok Tsui, Dwyer creates ephemeral encounters that transform public infrastructure into sites of ecological reflection. The work contributes to discourse on how immaterial digital practices can activate physical space without permanent alteration, offering models for art interventions that respect heritage contexts while addressing contemporary environmental concerns. The project develops innovative approaches to public art that prioritize accessibility, temporal experience, and cross-cultural exchange between Australian and Hong Kong creative communities. </p><p dir="ltr">Research Significance </p><p dir="ltr">Phantasms for Future Ecologies demonstrates how artistic research can facilitate international dialogue on sustainable urbanism while promoting Australian creative excellence in the Asia-Pacific region. The work's significance lies in its proposition that poetic, species-centred imagery can generate new imaginaries for urban ecological futures, making visible the often-overlooked relationships between built environments and migratory life. By deepening institutional connections between RMIT and HKAC, the project creates new pathways for collaborative research addressing shared challenges of urban density, ecological loss, and community cohesion, establishing frameworks for how public art can meaningfully contribute to conversations about environmental sustainability and cultural diplomacy.</p>