The term "Prosumption", meaning the merge of consumption and production, was first introduced in 1980 by Alvain Toffler in his book “The Third Wave”. Since then it has gone from a futurist fantasy to reality.

Ikea introduced their first line of self-assembly furniture in the 60s, since then consumption work - the outsourcing of production processes to the consumer - has largely increased. Self-checkout in supermarkets, e-commerce and ready-to-assemble furniture are sold as the liberation of the consumer. In reality though, it is used as a way to lower production cost and maximize consumption.

Based on Tofflers utopian ideas from his book, the platform “3waveservice” proposes a transparent way of prosumption. It offers a circular system that outsources most of the work to the prosumer, who in exchange gets rewarded with discount or free items. The project aims to create a fair and transparent prosumer network, where through their involvement, participants get a better understanding of production and the value of manual labour

Project by Anton Defant