Cynthia is a fictitiously created character, a persona. Marketing departments and product developers design personae in order to create a customized product for an imagined target group. In this way, they personify stereotypical attributions and role models. The term persona, however, is also associated with different meanings; It stands for the publicly expressed, self-staged image of one’s own personality. As the mask or appearance one presents to the world, the persona is subject to mechanisms of social adaptation. Contrarily to this, the persona as a fictional character, for example, in the form of an alter ego, draws from the potential of infinite possibilities. The exhibition “What would Cynthia do?” opens the spring 2023 semester and presents works by ZHdK lecturers and alumnae. In the works on display, personae are present in various semantic contexts.

curated by Johanna Vieli & Gabrielle Schaad