On 21 August 2026, Art Pharmacy and Sugar Glider Digital Founder Emilya Colliver took the mainstage at REMIX Summit Sydney to moderate a panel titled Art, Digital Culture and the Search for Connection, held at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour.
REMIX Summit is one of Australia’s most important gatherings for the creative industries, two days of talks, discussion and networking at the intersection of culture, technology and entrepreneurship. Being on the mainstage, not just as attendees but as contributors to the conversation, was a moment we did not take lightly.
The session brought together three practitioners working right at the edge of art and technology: Billy Ryan of Babekühl, a Sydney-based video and photographic artist who captures light beyond the visible spectrum; visual artist Gabby Malpas, who works across paper, canvas and ceramics on Gadigal land; and Dan Walkington of Butter Media, a digital art specialist bringing technology-driven art experiences into built environments. The conversation explored how digital art activates physical spaces, anchors community identity and keeps humanity at the core of a fast-moving technological world.
Where Is the Human in All of This?
That was the question at the heart of the session. Not a rhetorical one, but a genuine inquiry into what is being lost, protected and rediscovered as AI and generative technology reshape the creative landscape. The panel did not land on a single answer, but there were threads that ran through every response.
The Return of the Handmade
Billy Ryan spoke about how AI has pushed him toward making his work more expressive and imperfect, not less. Rather than competing with machine-generated imagery, his response has been to lean further into the qualities only a human hand can produce: spontaneity, error, texture, feeling.
Gabby Malpas echoed this. After years of corporate and digital work, she spoke about returning to handmade art and community as a deliberate act. Not as nostalgia, but as a values statement about what she wants her practice to stand for.
Handmade and organic work is having a real moment right now. What this panel suggested, however, is that it is not a trend. It is a response to speed, to saturation, and to the growing hunger for work that carries a genuine human signature.
The Discipline of Slowing Down
Dan Walkington, drawing on his documentary background, spoke about the discipline required to tell a story honestly in a world that moves faster than ever. Slowing down enough to find the truth in a subject, to sit with complexity rather than flatten it, is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
The best art is not the art that looks impressive in a brief. It is the art that continues to do its work long after the installation is complete, that earns its place in a space by being genuinely, stubbornly, honestly itself.
What Spaces Need to Hold
One of the most compelling threads of the conversation was about the future of galleries, public spaces and built environments. As technology accelerates, the spaces we inhabit will need to hold more room for different psychological needs, not less. For quiet. For wonder. For the kind of encounter that cannot be replicated on a screen.
Reflection and time are becoming harder to protect. That makes them more important, not less. And it is precisely where art, curated with intention and placed with purpose, has a role that technology cannot replace.
Why This Conversation Matters
At Art Pharmacy and Sugar Glider Digital, we work at the intersection of art, technology and the built environment every day. The question of where the human sits in all of this is not abstract for us. It shapes every commission, every digital art program and every collection we build.
REMIX Summit gave us the platform to have that conversation publicly, with practitioners whose work we genuinely admire, in front of an audience of creative leaders, technologists and cultural thinkers asking the same questions.
Thank you to REMIX Summit for the platform, and to Billy, Gabby and Dan for such an honest and generous conversation.
We will be sharing more conversations, events and ideas like this throughout the year. Stay tuned for upcoming talks and speaking engagements from Art Pharmacy and Sugar Glider Digital.
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Sugar Glider Digital: @sugarglider.digital on Instagram and LinkedIn
Have a question or want to work with us? Get in touch or email us at info@artpharmacy.com.au
Article by Gabriela Reyes
Art Pharmacy is a B Corp-certified art consultancy working with developers, architects, and government agencies to deliver public art strategies, artist commissions and integrated cultural programs. We specialise in embedding art into major developments, public spaces, transport infrastructure, and commercial buildings.