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 /

p367 The Message

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A message to outer space. In 2012, the space probe Voyager 1, launched in 1977, left our solar system and entered interstellar space. On board was a golden disc with images and sound recordings that were to serve as a definition of humanity. From today's perspective, the compilation of the material seems strangely selective and disconcerting. But the question ‘Who are we actually?’ continues to preoccupy people. ‘The Message’ searches for answers in fragments. The animated collage of countless visual and acoustic set pieces creates a psychedelic ‘stream of consciousness’ that meanders between truth, irony, and criticism without a fixed narrative. The ongoing transformation of the human busts also ironically refers to the current perception of self and others in the Zoom calls of the pandemic.