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In design, top-down approaches to the generation of form and its performance still dominate our discourse as the domains of geometry, fabrication, and performance remain fragmented across scales and methods. Biologically inspired computational processes offer an alternative to such traditions. Bottom-up computational protocols allow for the incorporation of local conditions and requirements into the design process as a whole. Biomimetic design supported by computational tools appears to promise exciting directions in this milieu. The upcoming conference entitled Silicon + Skin: Biological Processes and Computation fosters design work and research from the worlds of practice and academia that lie at the intersection between design, biology, and computation. More specifically, this conference seeks to identify and examine current trends in digital design technologies developed and applied in the framework of biologically inspired processes and digitally assisted sustainable design.

General call
The conference co-chairs seek papers and design work, realized or hypothetical, with an actual relationship to biology as opposed to those with a metaphorical or analogical one. Work selected for inclusion will interrogate architecture’s potential to move beyond isomorphic resemblances and visual equivalents of biology. These papers and projects will position design as capable of producing complex behavior and effects based upon dynamic processes and in dynamic contexts.

Call for papers
Papers and presentations promoting approaches and applications to Biomimetic Design and Computation are invited to formulate and contribute to the discussion. Graduate students are encouraged to submit research papers. Student research will be adjudicated separately, and a graduate research forum will be included at the conference. The papers can explore, but are not limited to, the list of topics below:

• Concepts of Nature and Technology
• Emergence and Self-Organization
• Biomimetics / Bionics / Biomimicry: Theory and Applications in Design
• Generative Design Processes
• Education, Collaboration, and Interdisciplinarity in Design
• Computational Approaches to Environmental Analysis
• Biologically Inspired Approaches to Computation
• New Materials Inspired by Nature
• Life Cycle Analysis and Management
• Responsive / Smart Environments
• Design Strategies for Complex Geometry
• Differentiated Systems, Landscapes, and Cities
• Sustainable Design and Computation
• Non-Standard Production Techniques

Call for projects
Submitted design work may include animation, algorithmic/evolutionary digital processes, material/fabrication research, research in sustainability, landscape architecture, urban design, collaboration with disciplines related to biology and research in dynamically responsive systems. Likewise, projects may be submitted from the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, urban planning, industrial design, engineering and material science.

Deadlines
Paper abstracts are due April 04, 2008. The abstracts are optional but encouraged.
Full papers and project submissions for exhibition at the conference are due on May 23, 2008.

Submission Guidelines
Abstract: Should be less then 500 words. Please use the “Abstract” field in the submission form to submit your abstract (no upload is necessary). Abstract submissions will only be used to ascertain the number of reviewers and session topics. Authors who are unable to submit abstracts may still submit full papers for review.

Full Papers: Use standard 8.5″x11″ or A4 format saved as PDF. Should be less then 2500 words. Images w/ captions can be included. If the paper is accepted, the author will be asked to make revisions based on the blind review comments and to reformat according to a more specific set of formatting guidelines for publishing. Your paper and filename may not include any identifying marks or author’s name.

Projects: A slide presentation, maximum of 10 slides, 96dpi each, in .pdf format. One of ten slides must include a project description, 500 words or less. Your slide presentation and filename may not include any identifying marks or author’s name.

The submission process is now closed. If you are an author or reviewer, you may login to the OpenConf review system here.