Play the System

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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This spatial installation consists of video screenings and large-format prints. A multitude of openings and covered manholes provide visible references to the underground (and therefore invisible) system of sewers in the urban landscape. The manhole cover therefore represents an interface between two worlds: between above and below; between the everyday and its basic infrastructure. It marks the moment of transition, the possibility of a change of side, and thus perhaps also a change of perspective. Investigations in the Underground explores the parallels and intersections between the two systems in an associative way. It also raises the question of the relevance of seemingly incidental objects. Due to the invisibility of the system, there are few points of contact in everyday life. It primarily becomes visible when problems arise and a confrontation takes place. Which topics get our attention, and why do we not want (to see) certain things?