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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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Where can poetry be found? Inspired by the artist Natalie Czech, our fellow students transform complex texts into poetry. They choose between excerpts from two different works: Critique of Judgment (1793) by Immanuel Kant and Gaming Instinct (2004) by Juli Zeh. How does the language of the texts influence the resulting poems? What new treasures are discovered?


→ Select (no more than 20) words and mark them based on:
a) Their meaning
b) Their sound
c) Just because


→ Select (no more than 20) words and mark them based on:
a) A theme of your choice, such as love, system, repetition and
b) Visual and/or contextual meaning


→ Read the words one after the other
a) In normal reading direction (top to bottom, left to right) or
b) In a random order

To do the latter, rearrange the selected words and use punctuation marks to give them meaning.