Critical Consumption: A Tangible Polling Interface to Trigger Discussion about our Consumer Behaviour

The installation “critical consumption – a form of political participation” was exhibited as part of the New Year’s reception of the Elite Network of Bavaria. It forces the visitors to reflect if and how much they take conscious choices of buying or not buying a specific product according to ethical and political beliefs.

The starting point of the installation was a youth study from late 2015 by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which shows that critical consumption is after elections the most preferred form of political participation. The aim of the installation is not to collect exact data about visitor’s consumer behaviour, instead the installation should trigger discussion and new thoughts about the topic of critical consumption as a form of political participation and motivate the participants to improve their consumer behaviour.