Serendipity in the 21st century

• Main Author: Ng, Desiree Sok Woon
• Other Authors: Nanci Takeyama
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Visual arts and music::General
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/78019
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Moving into the 21st century, we are faced with a future that is increasingly unpredictable. Factors like the rapid advancement of technology, new players in politics and the changing landscape of the economy have complicated global issues and our socio-political environment. On top of that, being end-users of social media and the likes have put us in filter bubbles, exposing us to what we already agree with, and made us less resilient to handle the ambiguous and unpredictable. Therefore, this project aims to design a system targeted at millennials to cultivate the right skills and mindsets to handle unpredictability in the 21st century, by using the concept of serendipity — defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident”. How can we embrace unpredictability in the spirit of being open to serendipitous experiences? How can we make meaning out of anomalies? How can we apply these mindsets when moving into the future? Serendipity is designed to be a system that encourages serendipity as a frame-of-mind among millennials. The project shares stories of serendipity to get the audience to be acquainted with the idea of serendipity, as well as provide frameworks for thinking, through a serendipity journal — reframing the way that we engage with and process information from the environment. Through these, I hope that I can propel millennials to develop habits that cultivate serendipity in the everyday, so as to build emotional resilience to handle the challenges of the 21st century.