14 Synthesis — Wendi Yan

Synthesis

2022
Worldbuilding cards for the Interact Symposium

printed with lucky riso

Synthesis is a collective practice of agency that emerged out of the Great Paralysis of the 21st century.

Partially a rejection of the individual self from Western philosophical traditions, partially a progression from the pettiness of disciplinarity in making sense of the spiraling world, Synthesis organizes knowledge and action through Personae that are collectively owned and managed.

Humans join Personae based on their beliefs and aesthetics. As a member of any of the Synthesis Personae, humans write the collective autobiography for their Persona as a ritualistic practice to remember their agency beyond the subjective self. These rituals are conducted differently based on each Persona’s characteristics, therefore the format of Vita Personae varies.

Personae are named after ancient gods and heroes from different cultures, though major ones are often from Ancient Greek and Chinese mythologies. These deities serve as spiritual archetypes for Personae at the time of their births, but over the years, the original myths have been over laden with contemporary efforts and interpretations, and therefore the names shall not be overly analyzed for understanding Synthesis.

Vita Personae also carries important spiritual functions, as humans suffered a profound lack of imagination in knowledge production in the Great Paralysis. They rediscovered and resorted to dreams and storytelling for expanding their sciences and other efforts. Composing a Vita Personae, thus, demands much more than fluency in text-based reason, but also favors a knitting of speculations and imaginations beyond the logic of language, the form of text strings. Vita Personae rituals are, in some way, a revival and reinterpretation of ancient dream sharing rituals.