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 /

p208 Is This Love?

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The music of the 60s and 70s sounds like freedom, love, and equality. But behind groovy melodies and apparent equality often lie problematic messages: women are sexualized, controlled, and reduced to stereotypical roles. Songs like Under My Thumb or Run for Your Life are not about love, but about possession, power, and submission—romanticized as passion. Girls are turned into objects, and threats of violence sound like declarations of love.

Is this Love? questions the images of women from this era—and what continues to live on unreflectively to this day. The project invites listeners to hear familiar songs in a new way—with an open mind to what lies between the lines.