The Digital Gallery, City of Canada Bay February 2026

10 February 2026

Inscribed Echo Wall at the Temple of Heavens

Reenactment at the the Echo Wall (referencing Whitlam's viisit in 1973

This is a black-and-white photograph of the Australian Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam during his historic visit to China between 31 October and 4 November 1973. Dressed in a long coat, Whitlam has his ear to part of the circular Echo Wall in the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Further along the wall, others are doing the same. Among a small crowd watching Whitlam is Australia’s first ambassador to China, Stephen Fitzgerald, dressed in a coat and tie. Beside him, with her arms crossed, is a Chinese interpreter. https://www.naa.gov.au/students-and-teachers/learning-resources/learning-resource-themes/government-and-democracy/prime-ministers-and-politicians/gough-whitlam-visiting-echo-wall-diplomatic-trip-china

In-conversation: 'What Lies Beneath' 2025

27 August 2025

In-Conversation: What Lies Beneath with John Tonkin & Robyn Backen

In-Conversation: What Lies Beneath 3:30–4:30pm, Wednesday 27 August SCA Gallery

Join exhibiting artists and curators Ben Joseph Andrews, Gail Priest, Robyn Backen and John Tonkin for a discussion about the ideas and processes behind ‘What Lies Beneath’.

Curated by collaborative team Robyn Backen and John Tonkin, the exhibition explores intersections of physical and virtual space. It reflects a renewed interest in immersion, through technologies such as VR and other multisensory experiences, while highlighting artists who have long engaged with these themes.

The exhibition continues until Saturday 6 September 2025.

Screen Cultures Research Forum 2025

20 August 2025

VR artwork 'On the Precipice of Forgetting' by Robyn Backen

Screen Cultures 1: Immersion - 27th August 2025, 5:00pm - 6:30pm Screen Cultures 2: Photograph - 5th November 2025, 12:00 – 1:30pm Location: A04 Level 2 Seminar Room 203, in person Organisers: Andrew Sully, Nicholas Croggon and Will Mu Register for Immersion now via Humanitix

Join us for the launch of Screen Cultures, a new research forum focused on the forms and futures of the screen. The forum has been designed as a site for higher degree researchers and academics from SACE to connect and share their research and ideas. In a set of gatherings over the course of 2025 and 2026, we hope to elaborate the historical, conceptual, and political stakes of our contemporary screen culture, and demonstrate the School’s unique capacity to address it. Our first meeting, Immersion, brings together perspectives from cinema, virtual reality, and digital art to reflect on how screen-based practices create embodied, affective, and temporal/spatial experiences in the form of immersivity. Our panel includes academic Dr Chris Chesher (Media and Communications), PhD candidate Wenqi Tan (Media and Communications) and Ben Joseph Andrews (new media artist and creative technologist).

This event will take place during the immersive and multisensory exhibition What Lies Beneath, curated by Robyn Backen and John Tonkin at the SCA Gallery. Opening: Wednesday 6 August, 6-8pm. Exhibition dates: 7 August - 6 September.

What Lies Beneath

19 August 2025

'What Lies Beneath' - introduction to the VR artworks at the entrance to the exhibition

“What Lies Beneath’ 7 August – 6 September SCA Gallery, Curated by Robyn Backen and John Tonkin Artists: Ben Joseph Andrews & Emma Roberts, Tully Arnot, Robyn Backen, Denis Beaubois, Gail Priest and John Tonkin

ISEA June 2024

23 June 2024

On the Precipice of Forgetting

Chatting | 6 April

06 April 2023

Performance Week 7 | John Tonkin & Robyn Backen

Chatting | John Tonkin & Robyn Backen at Old Teachers College, SCA - Performance evening