A Democracy Napkin for All

Team Name

Spatial Snags

Team Members

Project Description

I've pulled from government data sources and information on Civics and how our government works and hacked this data to be more accessible and engaging to those voting by adapting it to the napkins used on our democracy sausage. Mock layouts have been designed and a set of guidelines for adapting this key information into the format of the napkin.

The DEMOCRACY SAUSAGE, a cornerstone of Australian politics, voted in 2016's word of the year. Unfortunately, not made for all Australian Citizens and our needs. We're seeing the average Australians dietary needs changing, more awareness of the impact of foods and the. This project How can we improve access and encode information on the sausage delivery mechanism (the napkin) to help inform people about their civic rights and responsibilities.

I recently moved to Australia from New Zealand, I remember waiting in line with grandma to vote on a cold Saturday morning with the promise of a snag. 'Voting is compulsory in 19 of the world's 166 electoral democracies but only nine [including Australia] strictly enforce. Yet, there were none - we had to supply our own from the local Coles. Conversations with collogues prior had made me excited for this core experience of Australian democracy. Unfortunately, both myself and many other Australian citizens engaging with democratic services for the first time have similar experiences.

Australians are increasingly consuming news on social media and other online platforms, where false narratives and misinformation can proliferate. We're also in an age of AI hype, where its accelerated proliferation is eroding our trust and ability to pay attention to data dense information. Encoding this information on a napkin can help to protect its corruption via printing on physical media and narrow down key information into 'bite-sized' chunks

This project also involved understanding the current accessibility and inclusion of the democracy sausage from data at___ and . Quantifying its importance through information found at _ .

Data Story

There are two core aspects to this project accessibility and dissemination. They were approached in quite different ways

Accessibility:
Democracysausage.org collates data on sausage availability per election, also indicating the proportion of foods offered. Consistently halal foods are ranked lowest. Yet, citizenship statistics provided by home affairs showcase the face that we're seeing our largest number from India (2023-2034).

Beef sausages are the standard base for Australia, while only about 10% of India eats meat due to different cultural norms. For democracy to be inclusive for new citizens, we should have democracy sausage options that reflect the dietary needs of our citizens.

Dissemination:

While offering more options for sausages, whether its cake, pizza, vegetarian or chicken. All of these foods are delivered with a napkin - its a cultural norm. I think the government should provide free napkins to any and all community organizations looking to run a sausage sizzle or after election day. With a range of key information on the civic rights of Australian citizens printed on the front and back. I've adapted information provided by the Parliament of education that has distilied key information on civic knowlege. The design is informed by ___