"Synthetic Digital Ecologies"
ACADIA ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN IN ARCHITECTURE
October 18-21, 2012 _ San Francisco, California
www.acadia.org/acadia2012

The contemporary city is characterized by highly integrated and interdependent systems. More than ever this complex weave of bits and atoms demands the application of an eco-systemic methodology to architectural and urban analysis, digital design, fabrication and production. In this context, an emerging ecology of digital tools and techniques now allow designers to craft synthetic relationships and blur distinctions between the digital and the physical, between the natural and artificial, and between performance simulation and real-world analysis. These synthetic digital ecologies thrive at the intersection of creative and technical domains whose boundaries are elastic and continuously evolving. Navigating this dynamic terrain requires modes of synthetic reasoning in order to advance to advance design research and digital innovation. What are the implications for architecture, landscape, the city and beyond? What are the spatial, material and organizational possibilities? How do these influence the social, cultural and political life of cities?

The conference co-chairs seek papers and projects that highlight experimental research and explore the reciprocity and synergy between bits and atoms, the digital and the physical, and digital code and material logic. ACADIA 2012 will bring together designers, academics and practitioners who engage, question and aspire to stretch these boundaries. Architects, fabricators, engineers, media artists, technologists, software developers, hackers and others in related fields of inquiry are invited to submit works that explore, but are not limited to, the following topics:

Responsive environments; sensing, real-time computation, actuation and feedback
Synthetic fabrication and robotic craft; new paradigms in rapid prototyping and assembly
Energy, form, performance modeling, simulation and prototyping
Synthetic tectonics; composite materials, smart assemblies, emerging trends
Virtual environments; gaming; social networking; interaction and collaboration
Computational models of complex systems in design; emergent and self-organizing systems
Dynamic information modeling & design (body / building / landscape / urban micro-climate scales)
History and theory of digital architecture and synthetic production

Works may be submitted in one of the following three categories: 1. Full Papers (4,000 words); 2. Work-In-Progress Papers (2,000 words); and 3. Projects (for exhibition). Accepted works will be included in the peer-reviewed Paper Session Presentations and the published Conference Proceedings.

IMPORTANT DATES

Abstracts (500 words) due: March 5, 2012 (optional)
SUBMISSION DEADLINE for Full Papers, Work-In Progress, Projects (for blind peer-review): April 10, 2012
Notification of acceptance by e-mail: May 15, 2012
Revised submissions due (for proceedings): June 15, 2012

email 2012 Organizers (Jason Kelly Johnson, Chair; Mark Cabrinha & Kyle Steinfeld, Co-chairs): acadia.conf.2012@gmail.com