Play the System
Information Close

/

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.

DE
EN

Press F to search

Play the System Projects /

p236 Miscellaneous Matter

DE
EN

Categorization is omnipresent in our thinking and being, and helps us navigate the complexity of human experience. This suggests a collective, universal matrix that determines our relationships with each other and our environment by sorting knowledge, and influencing design. But who or what decides on this supposedly objective structure? Can such a matrix be universal? Or is it informed by patriarchal, colonial, capitalist, and ableist legacies?  This work examines the epistemic and social dimensions of categorization and the power structures on which it is based. An examination of design history reveals the close entanglement of design and categorical thinking. An experimental design work emerges from the system-theoretical speculation, which translates values such as diversity, non-linearity, simultaneity, and ambiguity into a design language. A mixed-media poster series challenges design conventions and uncovers the fertile potential offered by Miscellaneous Matter.