Annual NSO Conference’ Nonlinear Fabrication: Strange Loops in the Product’s Lifecycle :: April 3-4, 2008 :: University of Pennsylvania. Program.

Though matter itself has always found its expressions through nonlinear organizations, architecture’s modes of intervention in the life of matter have been linear and willful. As architecture continues its age-old struggles against material realities, the future holds astonishing possibilities as we slowly discern the nuances of complex material organizations and cultivate new regimes of expression. Rather than superimposing design on the inscrutable patterns of a complex material history, the most optimistic cases in material practices today are characterized by a shift towards a collaboration with the material world.

Though digital fabrication technologies have been celebrated as ever more efficient ways to conduct business as usual, the convergence of computation, life sciences, and radical new experiments in material research points to a far less predictable future for design culture. 3d printing a building, manufacturing without tooling, weaving and braiding composite materials to form a structural system, designing building components with intelligent agents, are some of the astonishing projects being investigated today. This year’s conference evaluates the NSO’s ongoing research into Nonlinear Fabrication and opens the discussion to the frontiers of material practice.

Nonlinear Fabrication begins 6:30pm, April 3 with Manuel DeLanda’s keynote lecture at the Wu & Chen auditorium (Levine Hall, UPenn). Panel discussions begin Friday morning at 9am in the Upper Gallery (Meyerson Hall, UPenn).

In addition to the NSO team (Cecil Balmond, David Ruy, Detlef Mertins, Ferda Kolatan, Jenny Sabin, and Peter Jones) visiting participants include: William Braham, Winka Dubbeldam, Behrokh Khoshnevis, Anne Plant, Roland Snooks, Andrew Snow, Marcelo Spina, Theo Spyropoulos, Peter Testa, Chris Tuck, and Tom Wiscombe.