For those of you who don’t know, Semi-Permanent is an art and design conference which was started in Sydney in 2003, and was brought to New York this year by The Happy Corp and Design is Kinky. This year marks the first time the conference was held in Manhattan, and it was an overwhelming success. The conference is focused around graphic and interactive design ? not really Inhabitat’s realm per se ? but since there were some spatial designers on the bill, I thought I’d check it out. To be honest, the main reason I went to this conference was to see the Diller, Scofido + Renfro presentation.

While my high expectations for Elizabeth Diller’s presentation were completely met, I was also pleasantly surprised by a number of the other speakers as well. The conference focused on “the creative side” of design – the passion that designers have for their work and where they get inspiration. In that sense it was a refreshing change of pace from typical design conferences which tend to focus on technology, process, and finished pieces.

Elizabeth Diller gave a fascinating overview of some of her firm’s recent high-profile projects: the Swiss Expo Blur Building, the new Boston ICA, the currently nascent Eyebeam Museum, the Facsimile Installation at the San Franciscop Moscone Center and plans for the Lincoln Center. Diller ran out of time at the end and didn’t have a chance to talk about the High Line project, another high profile design renovation that New Yorkers have been hearing a lot about recently. For more information about the High Line renovation, check out the Friends of the High Line >

On a related note (for New Yorkers) there is a High Line Block party this weekend. I can’t quite verify this from the flyers I’ve seen, but i think some of it is actually taking place on top of the usually inaccessible Highline. If you live in New York, its worth coming down to Chelsea to check it out >

For more information about Diller, Scofidio + Renfro’s work, check out Scofidio’s biography on the Cooper Union website >

In case you missed this years Semi-Permanent event, there is an ongoing exhibit of Paul Pope (one of the speakers) at the Diesel Denim Gallery in Soho, New York. This exhibition of the “Jim Morrison of Comics” will run till the end of October, so check it out. Otherwise, there is always next year….