It is within this context, already extensively explored by historians, philosophers, sociologists and literary critics, that Synapsis 2010 will consider those aspects bearing witness to the “utopian impulse”, an impulse which although it does not always translate into the construction of organic, imaginary worlds, incorporates a capacity of transfiguration that enlivens the stories that literature, cinema and the other arts tell us. In doing so, these stories often resort to the universe of romance, which opens new perspectives in the scope of modernism and post-modernism thanks to its propulsive and cognitive force. Specific places which the utopian imagination uses as its settings can be identified and contrasted, if only implicitly, with those  inhabited by the artists and their public : real or invented countryside and suburbia versus modern cities, and thus community and its stable temporality against atomization and urban frenzy; or, alternatively, islands and faraway lands, either imaginary or real; furthermore certain cities, regions and nations of a specific moment in time where retrieving the utopian rush seems somehow easier (be it the England of the Beatles, the various protest flashpoints of 1968 or the city of Berlin for today’s young people); ultimately, the Web, which in principle at least should allow everyone to live in an egalitarian and unbound space onto  which individual expectations and wishes are to be projected. Other than places, historical moments can also be contemplated, such as the great revolutions that unleashed throughout the Modern era like the French Revolution, and stimulated new ideals, shattering the ancien régime or Colonialism. In these moments the romance becomes collective, a development that is equally true in times of reconstruction such as the aftermath of World War II, with its attempt at recovering a common ethos able to heal the wounds of a tragedy that had witnessed dystopia come true under the guise of Nazi concentration camps. But there are times when the private dimension prevails over the public one and the utopian impulse invests in sentiments and relationships, sheltered from the outside world. Finally, there is the utopia of utopias, the one conjuring up a world where private and public spheres perfectly harmonize: a true paradise.