Content warning (CW): Speciesist Violence, Graphic Imagery

One of the problems activists face in any struggle is the proliferation and accessibility of factually correct information. Those in positions of power who are complicit in wrongdoings would rather hide, obscure or deny the information of their actions. Information is often obscured in marketing which attempts to twist the truth by using coercive messaging. Government agencies selectively report their data, relying on skeptical members of the public to request freedom of information reports to access the full picture. The majority of the information is buried in hard to access government websites, industry reports, academic papers or obscured in statistical or technical jargon. These tools help uphold the status quo and deny people access to the full picture, from which they might come to an opposing conclusion of that being sold to them.

As activists, we want to have an accurate and full conception of the problems we oppose. One way we try to achieve this is by challenging the structural endorsement of, in our case speciesism, through research and knowledge building.

Anti-speciesist activists often have trouble finding cogent information to back up their arguments. This mostly occurs when talking about the specific horrors non-human animals face in their exploitation, things that the industry obscures from the public. If they do find this information, it tends to be haphazardly sourced, piecemeal, obscurely worded and hard to easily access when needed.

And so Factivism was born. Our idea was to collate succinct and factual anti-speciesist information on behalf of nonhuman-animals affected by human action. We would then use Anti-Speciesist Activist Collective website and social media to provide this information to activists as visual assets that can be easily shared.

This project is also about trying to use graphic design and research to subvert, rather than reinforce the status quo. We can strive to make visible the realities that are generally overlooked, taken for granted, excluded or concealed. This breaks down how normative design systems have been used and how these systems can be skewed or subverted.

After all, this is a project of communication using media to try and re-educate cultural stereotypes and social myths. The internet has provided a space where views that are not well represented in traditional media can be expressed in a cost-effective way. These strategies are about re-appropriating our creativity for good, rather than as a tool of capitalism. Hopefully we can reclaim a bit of autonomy from the mass-mediated hall of mirrors that we live in, and find artful ways to talk back to the spectacle and use its artifacts to amplify the voices of non-humans.

Some of our considerations in making these resources are;

Centre non-humans in their own struggle

Information would centre the non-humans affected and speak about their suffering directly, rather than any benefits humans would gain by adopting a diet for example. When we use human health, appearance, taste preference and lifestyle in our advocacy we centre our own experience. As their allies, we have a responsibility to tell their stories, not ours.