Syncretica (www.syncretica.net) is an online semantic interpretation of ‘The Syncretic Sense’ Roy Ascott Exhibition taking place at Plymouth Art Centre from the 4 April to the 24 May 2009. Syncretica.net aggregates archived content related to Ascott’s work allowing viewers to collaboratively create and manage tags that annotate and categorise this content. Feeding of web 2.0 sites such as Flickr and YouTube Syncretica.net creates a dynamic evolving folksonomy* of Ascott’s work.

*(also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing, and social tagging).

As the folksonomy develops in its Internet-mediated environment, the semantic interpretation will grow and create links between content, people and tags. Part of the appeal of using a folksonomy is its inherent subversiveness that generates collective meanings and conceptual relationships. By following the trails and shadows of these links it is possible to move from one manifestation of an idea to another, ultimately providing the means for discovery, recombination, and creation of new ideas through a syncretic reconciliation or fusion of differing semantic systems of beliefs.