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 /

p350 Synesthesia

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The starting point for the project was an examination of different systematic approaches to text generation. Inspired, among others, by the French artists' group Oulipo, Synesthesia is based on everyday fragments which, according to fixed rules, are used to create new texts that are gradually transformed into music and images. Inspired by John Cage's theory that everything is music and beauty is everywhere, the students tried to extend this idea: everything is music, everything is text, and everything is form. The texts they created are the starting point and the basis for the whole album. The formal aesthetics of the three components initially played a subordinate role. It is more about synthesising them and creating a coherent system capable of producing interesting and surprising results. The following questions guided the development: Can text be logically translated into sound, and if so, how? What can sound look like? Is it possible to use a design system intermedially? Are the characteristics of the source texts reflected in the final product, and are there differences or similarities between the individual audio-visual pieces?