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Biome Symposium, August 18th, 2012, Sydney

Biome is a cluster of researchers, practitioners and artists investigating natural paradigms as a language shared in biology, mathematics, music, behavioural studies, engineering, interaction design and architecture. We call for paper contributions and artists statements on biomimicry, biomimetics and algorithmic phenomena, to be presented at the Biome Symposium, August 18th, 2012, Sydney, in the context of ‘Digital Interdisciplinations – Prototypes: Prosthetics, Parasites’, an exhibition at Tin Sheds Gallery in August 2012.

http://biome.cc

Call for Papers

Digital derivations of biological systems, biomimetics, are increasingly informing research in a diverse range of disciplines. This research engages in conversations that explore a mathematical language (code, script, parameter, algorithm) as a natural paradigm, and transfers of this language into and out of the diverse fields of biology, mathematics, music, behavioural studies, engineering, interaction design and architecture.

For some the goal is representation, for others it solves structural and function problems, for others still it is a creative medium of expression and exploration. The call for papers looks beyond our initial fascination with the idea of biomimicry to an era where digital biologies are everyday practice, where they become the backdrop to new paradigmatic forms. What have we achieved so far? What are the possibilities to come? What human experiences and relations can be expressed and supported through our imitation of nature?

This call for papers (with an optional opportunity to present the work at the Biome symposium linked to the Digital Interdisciplinations exhibition) invites submissions in the form of full research papers, artist statements and project descriptions with the aim of combining knowledge and expertise of a diverse set of professional interdisciplinary groups within the realm of the digital. We welcome participation from practice-led researchers and research-led practitioners from academia and industry, as well as others representing the many disciplines and perspectives bearing on the call. We are addressing architects, designers, interactive media artists, software professionals, biologists, mathematicians and scientists that work in interdisciplinary teams, who interface through digital media with other fields, and who push the boundaries of design and research.

Symposium

Biome Symposium is a one day event on August 18th, 2012, Sydney that collates research papers, speakers, artists statements, Skype reports and other contributions from researchers of an international calibre. We accept contributions through digital presentations, allowing also submissions without personal presence. Select contributions will form part of the book/syposium proceedings, to be published late 2012.

Submissions

Paper submissions are due on May 30, 2012. Full research papers should be up to 5000 words, and include figures, images and tables. To encourage submissions across disciplines, we are also inviting artist statements and project descriptions of up to 2000 words. For author instructions, please refer to the formatting guidelines and word template (see below). Submissions will be double-blind peer-reviewed by a program committee, with a selection based on the submission's significance, innovation and clarity of intent. A notification of acceptance will be sent to authors no later than June 20, 2012.

The call for papers is linked to the exhibition Digital Interdisciplination – Prototypes: Prosthetics, Parasites, Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney, in August 2012. The presentation of papers will take place on August 18, 2012, at the University of Sydney, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, as part of the Biome Symposium. Papers can be submitted with or without presentation. A publication of the papers in electronic and printed form is planned for end of 2012.

Guidelines for Submission:

These instructions provide formatting guidelines and instructions to help with preparing submissions to the call for papers as part of the Biome Symposium. 

1. Authors should use this template document to format their submissions, making use of preformatted styles provided by this template. Please do not change style settings. (The style names for each paragraph are shown in parentheses; use them in formatting your text. The page layout is based on A4.)

2. Full research papers should be up to 5000 words, artist statements and project descriptions should be up to 2000 words.

3. The images used in the document should have a resolution of 150 dpi or higher (print quality).

4. In a second document, please provide the full name of all authors, their affiliation, email addresses, and a short CV of approx. 200 words for each of the authors.

Please email your submission in PDF format by May 30, 2012 to Dr. Dagmar Reinhardt, mail: dagmar.reinhardt@sydney.edu.au.

Organising Committee: 

Dr Dagmar Reinhardt

Dr Martin Tomitsch

Dr Lian Loke

Dr Oliver Bown

Faculty of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney

About Biome

Biome is a cluster of researchers, practitioners and artists investigating natural paradigms as language shared in an interdisciplinary exchange between the fields of biology, mathematics, music, behavioural studies, engineering, interaction design and architecture. We explore language, gesture, sound and form by interfacing and generating interdisciplinary exchanges between our respective fields, and proceed through design, research, and creative artworks.

Generic systems as found in nature, universal biological methods and principles, biomimicry and biomimetics have increasingly become drivers and problem solvers in diverse fields ­ from science to design. In this current context, we are increasingly working with parametric formulas, algorithmic scripts, and processing codes ­ simple component rules that privilege the general over the specific, yet produce complex forms, behaviours and phenomena. A formal and procedural logic reproduces formative, performative, evolutionary solutions in biological systems. In nature, unique variations develop through universal code according to specific affordances. A code or mathematical formula varies in shape by application to different contexts and materials in which these are solved. Such code also leads to immaterial formations, and ephemeral expressions in behaviour and duration.

By reviewing the way code becomes matter and type in nature, and type and coded matter initiates/invites behaviour, this interdisciplinary discourse derives mathematical principles in natural forms as a language. A language of transformation which extends to include the nature of experiential effects and affects encountered in engagement with digitally organised and fabricated matter.

The Exhibition

Digital Interdisciplinations — Prototypes: Prosthetics, Parasites recognises the transition that has occurred from our initial collective amazement with digital technology towards a more nuanced fascination with the potential for new relationships it generates. The exhibition focuses on the delicacies of these relationships – are these symbiotic, prosthetic or parasitic? What happens in a digitally enhanced responsive environment, when mutual dependencies develop on a temporal individual basis? What happens when, as David Rokeby suggests, the interactive part becomes as much a material for designing as matter itself?

The exhibition is informed by these human concerns. Its approach to the digital (animation, advanced geometries, fabrication and interactivity) springs from more messy cultural and intersocial concerns, embedding desire, memory, hunt, loss, curiosity, imagination, identity and recognition, within the works and making these emotional qualities the drivers of exhibition projects that become prototypes of interactions and interdisciplinations.

Digital Interdisciplinations exists in a digital crossroads, bridging between design realms that develop in and out of the digital – it recognizes that digital techniques, software and computation have become a joint language between disciplines. The project pursues speculative ideas, concepts, processes, techniques, and technologies that develop at the boundary of art, architecture and interactive media art.

Curators: Dagmar Reinhardt, Martin Tomitsch, Marjo Niemelä. Participating artists and designers: Dirk Anderson, Eduardo Barata, Rob Beson, Oliver Bown, Lisa Fathalla, Hank Haeusler, Steven Janssen, Alexander Jung, Lian Loke, Marjo Niemelä, Dagmar Reinhardt, Martin Tomitsch, Elmar Trefz, Gabriele Ulacco, Melinda Wimborne.

Digital Interdisciplinations Exhibition

Opening Night: August 9, 2012

August 10 to September 8, Tues-Fri, 10-5pm

Tin Sheds Gallery, 148 City Road, Darlington NSW 2001