State of Syn is a

motion comic A motion comic (or animated comic) is a form of animation combining elements of print comic books and animation. Individual panels are expanded into a full shot while sound effects, voice acting, music, and animation are added to the original artwo ...

webseries A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short screenplay, scripted or Improvisation, non-scripted online videos, generally in Episode, episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), w ...

created by

Smokebomb Entertainment Shaftesbury Films is a film, television and digital media production company founded by Christina Jennings in 1987. It is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Background Shaftesbury is a creator and producer of original content for television and ...

, starring

Jewel Staite Jewel Belair Staite (born June 2, 1982) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her roles as Kaylee Frye in the series ''Firefly'' (2002–2003) and its follow-up movie '' Serenity'' (2005), and as Jennifer Keller on science fiction television ...

and

David Hewlett David Ian Hewlett (born 18 April 1968) is an English-Canadian actor, writer and director, known for his role as Dr. Rodney McKay in the ''Stargate'' science-fiction franchise. He first gained fame for his roles as Grant Jansky in the Canadian ...

. The series aired on

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

in 2013, with multiple episodes previewed on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. The series is supported by two

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

s: State of Syn: The Outside World, a

puzzle game A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to find the solution of the puzzle. There are different ...

with a story threaded through it, and State of Syn: Singularity, an app for

Google Glass Google Glass, or simply Glass, is a discontinued brand of smart glasses developed by Google's X Development (formerly Google X), with a mission of producing a ubiquitous computer. Google Glass displays information to the wearer using a head-u ...

. ''State of Syn'' won an IAWTV award in January 2014 for Best Interactive Experience. It was also nominated for a 2014 Rocky Award for Best Cross-Platform, Fiction.

Synopsis

The show follows Annika Drake (Staite) and her friends who, following the unexplained death of her father, are pulled into a twisted mystery surrounding his former company, emerging tech giant Psylo5ense. Now run by her father's former business partner Aslin Kane (Hewlett), Psylo5ense is manufacturing a highly addictive new sensory experience called Vibe—a digital technology simulating a neurological condition called synesthesia—which is poised to become the new opiate of the masses. Annika digs deeper to uncover the truth but finds herself learning some very disturbing secrets.

References

{{Reflist 2014 web series debuts Canadian animated web series Canadian science fiction web series