#17 Serendipity

What does “serendipity” mean to you? It’s connected with Charles Sanders Peirce’s idea of what constitutes an invention. He introduces the concept of “abduction”. Two Peircian scholars, Bonfantini and Proni, have identified three types of abduction which I feel are closely related to the concept of “serendipity”. The first type ...

Serendipity isn’t yet a very familiar concept in the cultural sphere, is it? It mightn’t be, but what it refers to is very relevant to design and innovation in any sphere of activity, not only that of culture. How do you go about trying to be innovative? And can serendipity help? The best way to go about it is to look elsewhere. The beaten t...

The word “serendipity” was introduced in 1700 by Horace Walpole. In a letter to an acquaintance, he commented on a Persian legend in which the travellers “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of”. After that, the word “serendipity” was used in many fields, often with a wide ...

“The world is ruled by chaos. The unforeseeable lies forever in ambush” (publisher’s note). It is only after suffering great pain and distress following on an unexpected discovery beneath the blue cover of a notebook or experiencing great fear after a hearty laugh elicited by a scene in a silent movie has faded away that the lives of the lead...

Ana Mendieta bends backwards over a table, naked, covered in blood and mute. She’s enacting the rape suffered by a friend the setting: a –  student’s room in an American college; the time: the early stages of the feminist movement. The artist was searching for a powerful way of exposing the violence endured by women. As it turned out, that p...

ENSAD - 31, rue d’Ulm 75240 Paris Cedex 06 France - tel: 01 42 34 97 00 - www.ensad.fr communication: Nathalie Battais Ensad traces its history back to the Royal School of Design established in 1766. The School, which was free, afforded crafts people the opportunity of becoming creative artists. Emphasis was placed on draughtsmanship, and s...

“Here are the keys”. My grimace of relief as I handed them over betrayed to the landlord the profound implications the gesture had for me. It was the month of September 2003 and I was about to depart. I was leaving the small flat in gloomy Bergamo where I’d lived for the past four years and heading for a hotel in Germany, the starting poin...

For me design is not just about how something looks, but how it works. I don’t see a difference between a designer and an engineer, and I don’t want to see a difference. A designer should be both. My route into design was an unconventional one; I came from a background of academics and clergy and had never considered a career in engineering....

Make mistakes and learn from them; I am a strong believer in making mistakes. You learn from them and you become stronger. I even think schools should give out extra marks to pupils who make mistakes. If you can, do it yourself; I wish I'd had the convinction to go it alone right from the start. I spent too long time trying to find a backer or s...

I’ve always thought of “local cuisine” as a kind of gastronomic form of serendipity. Why insist on finding fresh galangal in Sweden and smoked venison in Thailand? There’s an element of wisdom in the approach of a generation of chefs who are rediscovering maple syrup in Vermont, in Trapani, reinventing the historic custom of drying octopus,...

Serendipity’s an attitude of mind that’s more than ever a must in today’s world. Be it in our everyday lives or in our professional capacity, an open mind quick to catch on to whatever’s innovative and foresightful enough to perceive its potential means, being able to exploit opportunities that would otherwise slip us by. We’re caught up ...