Play the System
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is a platform for parametric design in graphic design. It documents the work of students and teachers at the Department of Design at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW), who are investigating the significance of the system as a conceptual model and design method under the title “Parametric Design in Graphic Design.”

Design is less about intuitive, even ingenious “strokes of genius” and more about a holistic and rule-based (systemic and systematic) process of gaining knowledge and shaping form. It is becoming increasingly important to be able to design dynamic systems that both guide and inspire the design process.

Parametric design refers to this design in and of systems—with rules, their modes of operation, and systematic manipulability. The research project, led by Prof. Heike Grebin, is an integral part of teaching and aims to raise awareness of design as a performative process.

Play the System brings together selected study projects in which the system plays an important role as a design method – whether analog or digital. The works are created in a fruitful symbiosis of theory, design, and technology. Socially relevant issues and positions from philosophy, art, and avant-garde design from around 1900 to the present day are repeatedly discussed.

Play the System is an invitation to become aware of the systemic competence of graphic design and to gain the maturity to use the tools of digital design critically.

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Play the System Projects /

p38 A Theory of Justice

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Imagine you knew nothing about your physical and mental attributes, your social status, and your material possessions. All the characteristics that distinguish you from other people would be hidden. From this perspective, what would a just society look like in today's world? In his most famous work, A theory of justice, the American philosopher John Rawls uses this thought experiment to illustrate his theory of justice. In a state of perfect equality, free and rational people agree on a social contract on the principles of coexistence. This social contract is made behind a 'veil of ignorance' in which no one knows their position in society, their class, or their status. Privileges such as money, power, intelligence, personality, moral standards, etc. are supposed to be completely hidden behind the veil of ignorance. This is a purely theoretical construct designed to prevent people from being disadvantaged by chance. In this state of complete equality, no one would be able to propose laws that would favour them as individuals. Rawls sees this original state behind the veil of ignorance as the necessary starting point for establishing principles of justice.