Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to announce DeSForM 2012:MEANING.MATTER.MAKING, the 7th International Workshop on Design & Semantics of Form & Movement, to be held 18-20 April, 2012, at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. http://desform2012.schoolofdesign.ac.nz/ DeSForM was conceived as “the first international conference seeking to present current research into the nature, character and behaviour of emerging new typologies of co-designed, content rich, connected and intelligent objects within adaptive systems.” (http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/scd/research/desformhome/desformwha...) It is a global conference with truly international participation, as witnessed in the recent success of the 2009 DeSForM conference in Taipei, Taiwan and in 2010 in Lucerne, Switzerland. DeSForM 2012:MEANING.MATTER.MAKING will continue this tradition of diversity and exchange, bringing its sphere of influence for the first time to the Southern Hemisphere. DeSForM 2012 workshop and conference will be hosted by Victoria University School of Design in Wellington, New Zealand from 18th–20th April 2012. In reaching out to the many innovative schools, businesses, designers, researchers and cultural organizations in the Southern Hemisphere and beyond, DeSForM 2012:MEANING.MATTER.MAKING will grow the organisation’s community, offering new horizons, insights and audiences. The School and its location in New Zealand’s ‘Creative Capital’ embodies many of the ideals behind DeSForM as a pioneering forum for exchanging knowledge and ideas, unburdened by tradition and accepted ways of doing things. Our South Pacific location has inspired a commitment to digital technologies, which offer real opportunities to overcome distance with new forms of communication, interaction and enhanced experiences. As a result the city has a colourful and growing community of pioneers in digital design, fabrication and distribution, game and interface designers, software specialists, technology developers, usability experts, social networking service providers, film makers and special effects researchers, as exemplified by the internationally recognized leader, Weta Digital. Against this backdrop, DeSForM 2012:MEANING.MATTER.MAKING invites participation from practice-led researchers and research-led practitioners from academia and industry, as well as representatives from the many disciplines, perspectives and interpretations integral to the design and semantics of form and movement. Extended abstracts for proposed research papers, performances and demonstrations are due 19 August, 2011. More information and submission details are available on the conference website. http://desform2012.schoolofdesign.ac.nz/call-for-works/ We look forward to receiving your submissions and to seeing you in Wellington in 2012! Kind regards, DeSForM 2012 Committee -- Dr Anne Galloway Deputy Head, School of Architecture Senior Lecturer, School of Design Victoria University of Wellington Wellington, New Zealand office +64 04 463 6230 mobile +64 027 263 6393 www.designculturelab.org