Synthetic Digital Ecologies (2012)
article⁄Synthetic Digital Ecologies (2012)
abstract⁄Why use the terms synthetic and ecology in the context of a conference dedicated to the field of digital architecture, computation and fabrication How do we begin to unpack the synthetic union of diverse elements, processes, collaborators, and code underlying any single contemporary design or research project What could our field gain by interrogating these diverse ecologies What are the relationships and interactions between our design processes, including our various tools and techniques, and the multiple environments with which we routinely work, collaborate and make It is these questions and more that we hope to address at this year’s ‘Synthetic Digital Ecologies’ conference. A quick scan of the papers and projects that will be presented at ACADIA reveals an extraordinary ecology of experimental research that emerged by working between messy labs, studios, workshops, hacker spaces and the like. In many ways today’s socalled ‘digital architects’ do not feel compelled to distinguish between what is digitally designed and what is not. They are leading the way through a promiscuous and synthetic mixing of skill sets, of pens and paper, hardware and software, electronics and gcode. In a single research project these designers might collaborate with a computer scientist, a robotics expert and a glass blower, and in many cases they might even attempt to do all of these things themselves. It was with this in mind that we put forth an international call inviting, ‘,AP architects, fabricators, engineers, media artists, technologists, software developers, hackers and others in related fields of inquiry ,AP’ to submit papers and projects for this year’s conference. This year the proceedings have been organized into twelve synthetic categories based around the potential for diverse research topics to inform new and unexpected conversations. Instead of organizing peerreviewed papers and projects through their formal characteristics, we were interested in forming new synthetic categories by curating unexpected juxtapositions. This ecology of ideas and research was meant to provoke and inspire new ways of thinking, making, building and collaborating.
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| Year |
2012 |
| Authors |
Johnson, Jason Kelly; Cabrinha, Mark; Steinfeld, Kyle. |
| Issue |
ACADIA 12: Synthetic Digital Ecologies |
| Pages |
15-17 |
| Library link |
N/A |
| Entry filename |
synthetic-digital-ecologies |
