The Truth, The Whole Truthiness and Nothing But Alternative Facts

The concept of post-truth in itself is not new. During an TV episode of The Colbert Report in 2005, host Stephen Colbert introduced the same concept as “truthiness” describing it as the belief in what you feel to be true rather than what the facts will support. Warning the viewer about the risks of accepting arguments and information, simply because they appeal to their emotions instead of their rationale. The expression ‘alternative fact’ took the world by storm after the U.S. presidential elections at the beginning of 2017. During the elections, wild post-truth claims were being supported by alternative facts. These ‘alternative facts’, that play into the belief of the audience are exactly the ‘facts’ that Colbert warned us for. With this research I hope to gain a more in-depth understanding of the alternative fact. Together with the initial research on the phenomenon, I created a work to visually represent the alternative fact. The goal of the work is for the audience to experience alternative truths. By doing so I hope the viewer questions their own truth, if even for a moment.