Synthetic Becoming

p { text-align: justify; } Synthetic Becoming explores coexistence with hormonally active chemicals through fourteen research interventions, supplemented by an interdisciplinary glossary of terms. It critically highlights the harm caused by irresponsible, profit-driven industrial chemical production causes; yet, above all, recognising the necessity of sharing the world with these substances—which have the potential to harm us, even to kill us—it explores the possibilities of a life capable of resisting, surviving and carrying on—thanks to openness to experimentation, strategic, more-than-human alliances and networks of solidarity and care. Industrial chemicals capable of disrupting hormonal systems have become an omnipresent part of life: from microplastics in the depths of the oceans, through degradation-resistant PFAS in polar ice caps, to BPA and other synthetic chemicals in the placenta and breast milk—there is probably no corner of the Earth today that chemicals resulting from human activity have not managed to penetrate. The narratives woven by the individual projects reject the politics of purity and affirm the ‘contaminated’, wounded and vulnerable forms of life in the Anthropocene and their capacity to continue to change and rearrange themselves—to become something else—together with these substances and in spite of them. Building on the ideas of posthumanism and new materialism, and with the sensibility of queer ecologies, the book, rather than expressing concerns about pollution and toxicity, engages with the presence of chemical substances in the environment through the concepts of becoming, imagination and care. It thus offers a critical yet hopeful vision of life with synthetic chemicals, providing an alternative both to normative notions of ‘healthy’ and ‘clean’ bodies and environments free of ‘toxic’ chemicals, and to nihilistic images of an Anthropocene apocalypse. Reflections on synthetic coexistence are also reflected in the physical form of the book, printed on uncoated paper made from 100% recycled fibres. Through recycling, paper fibres lose their strength and elasticity and, despite a multi-stage decontamination process, contain residual amounts of ink, adhesives and other foreign substances, and thus also increased levels of potentially harmful chemicals such as endocrine disruptors, on which the book focuses. Solidarity with the ‘contaminated’, wounded and vulnerable forms of existence in the world is thus reflected not only in the book’s content, but also in the very act of reading. The fragile body of the book and the tiny microparticles of residual printing inks, dyes and other undesirable substances permeating its pages serve as a reminder of the complex material relationships in which we are entangled in the era known as the Anthropocene, whilst also challenging us to reflect sensitively on these relationships in our daily lives.