Zufall, zufällig, Zufallsgenerator, zufallen, to fall, accidens, accidere – from latin: ad ‘to’ and cadere ‘to fall’ – in german a calque, in english taken directly from the latin word and therefore accidentially.

To form a radioshow around the topic needed more than an accidentially arranging of accidentially recorded files.

Serendipity revolves around the “glückliche Zufall”. With a little help from the word “Zufall” the German languages is providing a whole space with a single incident. The differentiation is neither precise nor clear. Our world in patterns and algorithms produces a fear of randomness and uncertainty. Hence the “Zufall”-itself suddenly turns into a protected species. This poetic road-feature is an attempt to search for the “Zufall” and find:

accident der Zufall Pl.: die Zufälle
chance der Zufall Pl.: die Zufälle
hazard der Zufall Pl.: die Zufälle
luck der Zufall Pl.: die Zufälle
coincidence der Zufall Pl.: die Zufälle
happenstance der Zufall Pl.: die Zufälle
fortuitousness der Zufall Pl.: die Zufälle
fortuity der Zufall Pl.: die Zufälle
fortune der Zufall Pl.: die Zufälle
concurrence der Zufall Pl.: die Zufälle
hap der Zufall Pl.: die Zufälle
contingency der Zufall Pl.: die Zufälle
fluke [ugs.] der Zufall Pl.: die Zufälle

lucky break glücklicher Zufall
serendipity glücklicher Zufall
contretemps unglücklicher Zufall
fluke [ugs.] glücklicher Zufall
fortunate coincidence glücklicher Zufall

We didn’t only acoustically look for it but constructed frameworks around our “Zufall”. Created beds for it, went on a journey, set up surveillance micros for ourselves and started with a meeting without a meeting-point. We welcomed the “Zufall” back to our hyper-controlled lives, created to protect us from disappointment and frustration but creating a series of frustrating reciprocal effects.

Contributors:

Maria Herold

b#

Barbara Kaiser

Lale Rodgarkia-Dara

Karl H. Schönswetter

Peter Wetzelsberger

Thanks to:

Maria Sulzer & Family

Majo

Nikola

Manuel Waldner

You will find this radia-transmission also on the CBA Archive.