Serendipity Searcher [BIO 26

BIO 26 Thomas Hügin, Maja Kolar, Yuxi Liu, Boris Smeenk, Špela Pavli Perko (project manager), Commonplace Studio (design menthors), Žiga Cerkvenik, Irena Eiselt and Janko Klasinc (knowledge menthors)

Serendipity Searcher

This project was produced within BIO 26 production platform - the 26th Biennial of Design- Common Knowledge curated by Thomas Geisler together with assistant curator Aline Lara Rezende. BIO – The Biennial of Design in Ljubljana is organised by the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO), and is an international platform for new approaches in design. Under the motto Common Knowledge, 26th Biennial of Design tackled the information crisis. BIO 26 addressed the pressing issues of our society’s primary institutions of knowledge production and transmission, namely a library, a museum, a university and a news media organization. Most libraries are designed according to stand-ards from the time when computers and Inter-net access were not yet widely available. Since then, they have experienced numerous trans-formations in their functional concept and common perception as institutions and public spaces as well. The National and University Library (NUK) challenged the participants to redesign the old structures and propose new spatial solutions, organizational forms and services that will facilitate the transmission of infor-mation to the modern library user.

Serendipity Searcher is a visual atlas and a physical search engine that generates unexpected pathways to the valuable archive of the National and University Library (NUK). It brings together a spatial installation, machine learning, and human agency to physically reveal, select, and search for visual relations among the library’s holdings. The result is an ever-changing atlas of items that might otherwise never meet. The installation consists of a large light panel and transparent filters that can magically reveal images when placed within its frame. Visitors are invited to interact and physically move the filters to explore visual connections or generate new ones by highlighting any two images of interest. Inspired by the architectural ideals of Jože Plečnik, the project seeks to present an array of stories to a public curious enough to search for them.

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