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 /

p158 Graphic Film Transcription

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Graphic Film Transcription is a display system that visualizes a film based on its parameters. Plot, dialogue, scene changes, camera work, and more are displayed to scale along a time axis: minutes of the film become centimeters, and all features and information become graphic elements and texts. The result is an infographic that opens up a new perspective on the respective film. During the ‘film viewing,’ the focus shifts, with aspects of the film coming to the fore that are often subconsciously perceived during a one-off reception. Similar to the notation of music or individual pictograms on a map, the system of representation can be learned and read with the help of a legend. As an example, graphic transcriptions of the two feature films Men in Black (1997) and Chungking Express (1994) are presented as a poster and a book.