Multispeciesisms

Snapshots from human-decentered everydays

[multispeciesisms]

In Lovere (North-Italy) both people and other animals commonly drink fresh water from the fountain on the town’s main square. On this particular day, a pigeon was peacefully sleeping on one of the water outlets as we approached.  “Let’s drink some water at the other corner so that we don’t disturb or wake up the pigeon”, my friend said. And so we did. It is interesting to observe that some of the most compassionate and respectful encounters with other animals rely on the idea of deliberately avoiding interaction to leave one another in peace. I think urban animals avoid encounters with humans very often, perhaps without us even noticing.

[multispeciesisms]

Vegan Fishing and Lesser Crimes of the Bully

This may very well be a prank, but there is something interesting in placebo or surrogate activities that omits killing while maintain essential qualities of the original activity (being outdoors with friends). If this is to be the seitan of angling I think we need something more juicy.

I am personally curious of a (less angelic) position - let’s call it Bully. Bully maintains species hierarchies while substituting Murder for Violation of domicile when he tries to trick fish to take the bait to get caught - on film. Here’s a section from an upcoming story where Designer meets Bully:

At the end of short wooden pier sits a man, legs in the air, fishing rod in hand. Bully is excited, pointing and talking to a small screen attached to the rod: Haha! Stupid, stupid Fish! Fooled you again. Who’s got a fully developed cerebral cortex now!

What did you catch? asked Designer.

Catch? With a hook, you mean? Bully sounded irritated. Are you crazy? That could kill the fish!

Designer didn’t know what to say.

Look. I don’t catch the fish. I trick them and film them.

Bully wound up his line. Instead of a hook it ended in a blunt metal stud. Above it Designer saw a black tube.

That’s the camera. I can see everything the little buggers are up to down there on this screen. Bully put a piece of corn on the stud and cast back into the river.

Perhaps I shouldn’t worry so much about being polite? thought Designer.

[multispeciesisms]

Zelda’s - Breath of the Wild: Vegan Run

In some cases, video games allow players to experiment with alternative playing styles that are not considered the most efficient in completing the game, but they offer the opportunity to come up with your own self-imposed constraints. For example, players could try to do a speed-run (completing the game as fast as possible), a pacifist-run (completing the game without killing anyone). Some games even make it possible for players to experiment with playing styles based on their values in real life, such as doing a vegan-run.

A game called Zelda - Breath of the Wild (Nintendo, 2017) makes it possible for players to adopt a vegan diet, avoid practices like hunting or wearing leather clothing, and refrain from bullying other creatures in the game. I think this allows for meaningful exploration of what it could mean to live in a less-speciesist world. 

I wrote a bit more about my experience of doing a Breath of the Wild Vegan Run here. And this Reddit post includes the experiences and thoughts of other players using this playing style.

[multispeciesisms]

Take care, you Adobe people, you Obsidian people, and come over onto the wild side, don’t stay all the time on the farming side; it’s dangerous to live there. Come among the unsown grasses bearing richly, the oaks heavy with acorns, the sweet roots in unplowed earth. Come among the deer on the hill, the fish in the river, the quail in the meadows. You can take them, you can eat them, like you they are food. They are with you, not for you. Who are their owners? This is the puma’s range, this hill is the vixen’s, this is the owl’s tree, this isn the mouse’s run, this is the  minnow’s pool: it is all one place. Come take your place. No fences here, but sanctions. No war here but dying; there is dying here. Come hunt, it is yourself you hunt. Come gather yourself from the grass, the branch, the earth. Walk here, sleep well, on the ground that is not yours, but is yourself.

Second half of a poem in Ursula Le Guin’s Always Coming Home (pp. 76-77). An Exhortation from the Second and Third Houses of the Earth.

[multispeciesisms]

AnonyMouse - Playgrounds for Mice?

In the city of Malmö (Sweden), several leisure activities have appeared that were seemingly specifically targeted at mice. It started with restaurant ‘Il Topolino’ and nutshop ‘Noix de Vie’ on Bergsgatan. Later, a fun fair opened at Södra Förstadsgatan, where mice could supposedly enjoy the spinning teacups, a ferris wheel, and a cat-house of terror, and more.

I think this anonymous artwork brings up some thought provoking questions in relation to human-animal relationships in cities: is this artwork designed for humans, animals, or both? What do city-mice prefer to do in their leisure time? What should a mice-friendly urban environment look like? Do we actually want mice friendly cities?

The artworks seems to be related to the AnonyMouse Instragram account. The pictures in this post were taken by Micaela Landelius and Peter Frennesson.

[multispeciesisms]

We were not supposed to meet this way, but we did and it was beautiful

I think this tweet carefully captures the beauty of those unexpected moments of shared affection with another species, while at the same time hinting towards some of the complexity that arises when we feel empathy for a farmed animal.

[multispeciesisms]

Vegan Terrorists Make Meat Allergy Bomb

Malmö, 10 July 2020

Three suspects were arrested last night in a biohacker laboratory in Malmö, Sweden and will be facing charges on preparing for act of terrorism.

The police are quiet so far, but reliable sources have shared that the three were working on a “meat allergy bomb”. The suspects had, allegedly, succeeded in isolating an active substance from the common castor bean tick that is infamous for causing allergy to red meat.

“Research has shown that people who were bitten by the castor been tick may develop a severe allergy to mammalian meat products”, says immunologist Dr. John Who at Karolinska Institutet. “After consuming red meat the afflicted show delayed symptoms of hives, itching, stomach pains and sometimes life-threatening anaphylactic shock.”

Our sources also mentioned that leaflets from an organisation called “Abolition Now!” was found on the premises indicating that the group had intended to infect large number of people in Sweden with the pathogen.

Social media is rife with speculation, ranging from praise for the suspects’ “heroic and life-saving” initiative to conspiracy theories that the poultry industry was behind the failed attempt, as consuming chicken will not trigger an allergic reaction.

More to follow.

[multispeciesisms]

Cows with Guns

Dana Carvey released his masterpiece already in 1996 but it didn't come to my attention until last month watching Storytelling for Earthly Survival, the new documentary on and with Donna Haraway, where this clip suddenly appeared among psychedelic jellyfish and grainy agility videos.

If you still aren't scared of an upcoming premeditated bovine revolution I would recommend reading Jason Hribal's Fear of the Animal Planet and, of course, Apocalypse Cow by Michael Logan.

[multispeciesisms]

Never Alone

The 2014 videogame Kisima Inŋitchuŋa (also know in English as Never Alone), was developed by E-Line Media and Upper One Game and is available on a variety of platforms.

The game invites the player to swap character between an Iñupiaq girl named Nuna and her Arctic fox companion to solve puzzles and progress in the storyline based on the traditional Iñupiaq tale: “Kunuuksaayuka”.

Developed together with Alaska indigenous people this game does not only share, expand, and celebrate elements from different cultures, it also allows for particularly inclusive new forms of multispecies interactive storytelling.

[multispeciesisms]

Hartmut Kievert’s Utopia

A revolution has just taken place in this painted urban landscape. Animals that used to be called livestock roam the streets. Healthy cows graze in the concrete cracks of the ruins of meat processing plants. Convivial city dwellers share their picnic blankets with friendly sheep.

It seems to have been a non-violent revolution. We don’t see any signs of fighting. Nor do we see any cow dung or sheep poo on the lawns or pavements. There are a few cracks in the roads but that is probably due to them not being used as heavily anymore. There are less cars now. It’s a mild post-apocalypse.

The revolution must have been recent. The cows and and pigs are still clean. Spick and span. As if they were just cleaned for slaughter when the new times swept over the city.

Otherwise the existing city infrastructure must cater well to its new inhabitants. I don’t see any physical changes, no custom cow-crossings or sheep lanes. Is it business as usual... with sheep? (It reminds me of the book Zoopolis which, if I am to be crude and polemic, tries to squeeze more species into existing liberal democratic concepts without messing to much with the concepts themselves.) I would love to see Kievert elaborate on the multispecies urban living-together in his Utopia a few years into the future.

Thanks to Erika Cudworth for introducing me to Kievert’s work.