Aesthetic positions and parametric design: Creative minds have always been inspired by technological inventions and the desire to make the world a little better and more understandable. Artists and designers have always used systematic design rules to develop new ideas. But how do automated design processes affect the ideas that provide the inspiration? The philosophical and design-theoretical perspectives of John Cage, Buckminster Fuller, Oulipo, Karl Gerstner, Studio Moniker, Benjamin Bratton, and others are discussed and translated into free design experiments–accompanied by a laboratory course.