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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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p140 Facebook & Me

Personal data is becoming increasingly valuable, but it is also being handled more and more carelessly. The student wanted to analyze what data is collected and how relevant or ‘dangerous’ it is. To do this, he read and visualized everything that Facebook knows and stores about him as JSON files. Even the things he had already deleted or forgotten. He worked with Sublime Text and mainly used the loop and random functions. The student would have preferred to make his tool publicly accessible, but unfortunately, the technical realization was not successful. The initial idea of evaluating all the data and creating an entire book or catalogue from it was also ultimately discarded, as the scope was simply too enormous and the implementation was not feasible.