Ding Lab is a speculative R&D department devoted to the creation of Tram0, a pioneering cyborg prototype that fuses AI-powered biomechanical structures with neuro-inspired systems, transforming the iconic Hong Kong tram into a living archive of the city’s evolving identity. At the heart of the project lies the 12-minute film The Vitiligo—The Myth of the Absent Green, which chronicles Tram0’s quest to rediscover the elusive “absent green”—a distinctive war-surplus paint from the 1940s that once defined the tram’s visual essence but has since become impossible to precisely replicate. Through this narrative, the work delves deeply into “nostalgia obsession,” where romanticised collective memories collide with the embodied, tactile expertise of the “painting c-fu” (craftsmen) who intimately understood the material reality of that hue.

This speculative vision is enriched by several interconnected components: the Defragmentation Programme, a live installation that reassembles fragmented urban data blocks into cohesive wholes, ensuring that even painful or inconvenient “old data” is preserved rather than erased; Open Data, a resin sculpture installed at Belcher Bay that embodies a severed “data packet”—a spectral wave yearning to reunite with the tram after disconnection caused by 1980s land reclamation; and Eternal Life, an electronic interface that enables the tram’s transition from its physical form into an optimized virtual realm, entrusting long-term preservation to individual custodians. Through Ding Lab, the city is reimagined as a dynamic organism in constant flux, prompting reflection on the fragile equilibrium between deep historical roots and bold future aspirations.

Employing a field research-driven anthropological lens, the project draws from the industrial philosophies and lived experiences of the Tram Depot’s blue-collar community to challenge prevailing social norms around nostalgia and urban development. By probing the lingering traces of 20th-century green paint—laden with colonial legacies and a “poisonous” environmental history—the initiative illuminates how such hues continue to subtly shape the city’s collective memory, blending tangible heritage with speculative futures in a mobile, immersive exploration aboard the reimagined tram itself.