DeSForM 2012 Conference: Meaning Matter Making
Press Release: School of Design, Victoria University of Wellington
Wednesday 7th March 2012
DeSForM 2012 Conference: Meaning Matter Making
The School of Design, Victoria University of Wellington is delighted to host the 7th annual Design Semantics Form and
Movement (DeSForM) conference from April 18 - 20th 2012.
This is the first time this prestigious international conference has been held in the Southern Hemisphere.
The DeSForM 2012 Conference: Meaning Matter Making will celebrate and explore the many exciting developments within New
Zealand’s emerging digital creative sector, with a series of academic presentations, keynote speeches, and a one-day
professional programme.
Following an opening from the Mayor, Celia Wade-Brown, the first keynote address, given by Philip Beesley, will
introduce the world-premiere of his work ‘Hylozoic Series: Vesica’, incorporating interactive kinetic systems. Following
Beesley, Ross Stevens from the School of Design will present the outcomes of the Wellington 2040/Design Led Futures
project at the City Gallery, Wellington.
Philip Beesley is an associate professor in the School of Architecture, University of Waterloo and is principal of the
Toronto design collective PBAI. His work is widely considered pioneering in the rapidly expanding technology of
responsive architecture and spans a diverse range of expressive media, from that of architecture to sculpture and
installation. The exhibition also aligns strongly with the City of Wellington's 2040 initiative, which addresses
fundamental questions of future living and city making in the 21st century.
The keynote speaker for the second day is architect and theorist Neil Leach, Professor at the University of Southern
California, School of Architecture. Since 2004 Leach has cocurated exhibitions at the Architecture Biennial Beijing with
Xu Wei-Guo, and has recently won a prestigious NASA grant to explore the potential use of the robotic fabrication
technology, Contour Crafting, for building structures on the Moon.
Calling attention to Wellington’s uniquely diverse digital design community, the School of Design is running a one-day
professional programme on Friday 20th April, for design and digital practitioners. The day will featured a wide
selection of cutting edge projects and research from industry, academic staff, and students.
Local and international digital innovators such as Weta Digital, Ponoko and SWAMP (USA) will take part in an inspiring
series of twenty minute presentations on themes such as Interaction Design, Transmedia, Technology and Entertainment,
Immersive Environments, Culture Jamming and Fabricating Futures.
To close the Professional programme, the topics of ‘Blurring the physical and digital’ and ‘Designing true interactions’
will be explored in two panel discussions with digital industry leaders, chaired by Steven Kyffin, Dean of the School of
Design at Northumbria University, and Helen Baxter of Mohawk Media. The professional day will also contain live
demonstrations of technologies such as 3D printing, marker-less motion capture and augmented reality.
The Professional programme will be followed by a conference dinner at Te Raukura Te Wharewaka o Poneke, and a three week
exhibition at the School of Design, featuring recent industry projects, faculty research and student work. The
exhibition is free to the general public.
The principle sponsor of DesForM 2012: Meaning Matter Making is the Ministry of Science and Innovation, with further
sponsorship support from Wellington City Council, Philips, and NZTE among others.
A conference programme and tickets for the full event, or the one-day professional programme (including conference
dinner) can be found at: http://desform2012.schoolofdesign.ac.nz Members of the media are invited to attend the Professional Programme day on Friday 20th April, and interviews can be
arranged with keynote speakers and industry partners.
Follow on Twitter: @desform Hashtag: #desform
ENDS