“Cable Tangle: Energy
Consumption in the Household”
[German title: Kabelsalat – Energiekonsum
im Haushalt]
Artemis Yagou

Figure 1
Technological products used for household purposes constitute the
General view of the exhibition Cable
focus of the exhibition “Cable Tangle,” presented in the library
Tangle in the library foyer of the Deutsches
foyer of the Deutsches Museum, Munich—the leading German
Museum, Munich. Photo by author.
museum of science and technology. The exhibition was curated by
Nina Möllers, Sophie Gerber, and Nina Lorkowski; its opening was
on January 12, 2012, and it is expected to remain on display until
July 15, 2012. The title of the exhibition, “Kabelsalat”—literally
meaning “cable salad”—is a term used to describe an unwanted
clutter of cables that is difficult to untangle; it is an allusion to the
proliferation of electrical appliances and gadgets in the domestic
context. The subject of the exhibition is the study of such appliances
from the perspective of energy consumption.

The exhibition offers a timely and refreshing look into the
domestic landscape, covering the spectrum of attitudes toward
energy consumption since the end of the nineteenth century. On
entering the exhibition space, incandescent and energy-efficient
bulbs, positioned on the opposite sides of a glass display case,
© 2012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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exemplify the two extremes of this spectrum. On the one hand, the
fascination and wonder in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries engendered by the new, liberating force of electricity as
expressed by the words from the engineer, Oskar von Miller, the
museum’s founder and enduring father-figure but also a pioneer of
the energy industry. On the other hand, the fact that, in the second
half of the twentieth century and in the beginning of the twenty-
first, the environmental crisis has shaken people’s beliefs in prog-
ress, as suggested by sociologist’s Ulrich Beck’s view included in
the exhibition catalogue; there is now deep concern over energy
consumption and an urgent need to preserve resources through the
use of efficient technologies.

The three main parts of the exhibition correspond to the
chronological periods 1900–1945, 1945–1972, and 1973–present. For
each period, four display cases are presented, for a total of 12. Cap-
tions are in German, and an English translation is provided of the
main texts for each period.

The first period (1900–1945), titled “The household—
Between Tradition and Modernity,” consists of exhibit cases on
electricity as luxury, standardization of electrical equipment, the
simplification of household tasks, and different uses of electricity
in war and peace.

The second period (1945–1972), “The Household in the
Affluent Society,” has sections on the household as a battlefield
during the Cold War, on cosmetic uses of technology at home, on
the design and symbolic forms of home appliances, and on the
influence of technology on the division of labor and on gendering
and role-building.

The third period (1973–present), “The Household After the
Oil Crises,” comprises exhibits on comfort and hygiene, on new
developments during the 1980s and 1990s, on the necessity of
change in the global energy regime, and finally on the problems and
contradictions of energy consumption in the twenty-first century.

As this description indicates, the exhibition follows an
elaborate structure, unfolding both chronological y (through the
three periods) and thematical y (through the 12 display cases)—a
structure that allows the curators to cover the complexity of the
subject in a very satisfactory and thought-provoking manner. The
display cases present a range of household electrical appliances
from the Museum’s collections and from various company archives:
electric frying pans, irons, lamps, tanning devices, shavers, cof ee
machines, game consoles, and mobile phones. These items are
accompanied by relevant documentation, including photographs,
posters, books, magazines, and other archival items. The emphasis
is not placed on the objects themselves as items of consumption,
but on the consumption of energy resulting from their use. Thus,
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design for household technical objects is situated in a discourse of
energy resources and sustainability, rather than on the well-trodden
path of taste, personal gratification, and identity-building through
consumption. The latter aspects are not absent from the analysis
presented by the exhibition and the accompanying catalogue, but
they are treated under the umbrella of energy issues. This perspec-
tive is, I believe, the major contribution of “Cable Tangle,” which,
without compromising aesthetic and other considerations of prod-
ucts, foregrounds the issues of energy availability, use, and abuse
in domestic settings.

The layout and design of the exhibition is rather conven-
tional and partly undermines the depth and quality of its content.
The exhibits are arranged in the wood and glass cases that consti-
tute the standard equipment of this room (the museum’s library
entrance hall) and are regularly used for different exhibitions. The
outdated presentation style of the main exhibits is counterbalanced
to some extent by a number of other devices that the curators have
used to infuse variety and interactivity: Near the entrance, a white-
board stands as invitation for visitors to write down their thoughts;
these texts are then recorded as polaroid images and exhibited on a
panel, next to a table where visitors can browse the exhibition cata-
logue and write further comments in a notebook. Presumably, this
process of interactivity might eventually result in a collection of
user feedback that could serve as the basis for another exhibit or
publication. In addition, two screens have been hung to show TV
advertisements and documentary films from past decades. The
curators clearly tried to make the best use of their available space
and time resources and to minimize costs. Furthermore, “Cable
Tangle” was not meant to be a major exhibition nor an end in itself;
instead, it is the partial outcome of much broader research activities
run jointly by the Deutsches Museum and the Technical University
of Munich. The event is complemented by a richly il ustrated cata-
logue (in German), including introductory texts and all the exhibi-
tion captions, as well as an extended essay by Möl ers.

In conclusion, although “Cable Tangle” might be perceived
as a missed opportunity in terms of exhibition design, it neverthe-
less is very informative and presents a rigorous, in-depth treatment
of its subject matter. Visitors can leave the exhibition with the
satisfactory feeling of having learned a lot and with the impression
of having encountered a serious approach to the significance and
centrality of energy consumption in the household. Possible reper-
cussions of this approach to design practice and scholarship remain
to be seen. A possible next step would be to examine the consump-
tion of energy throughout the production, distribution, and recy-
cling of the electrical appliances and gadgets that flood the modern
home and occupy such a central role in contemporary lifestyles.
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