International Design Liaison Center

-Speaker-

Kunihiro Maeda (Director, Kanshin Inc.)

Serkan Anilir (Assistant Professor, Dept. of Architecture, School of Engineering, University of Tokyo and NASA's first Turkish astronaut candidate)

-Time and Date-

20th.May.2007(Sun)15:00 - 16:30

-Location-

International Design Liaison Center, 5th floor, Tokyo Midtown

-Organizer-

Gijutsu-Hyohron Co., Ltd.

-Participant-

About 80 people

-Summary-

"Hasn't the Internet always been here, since the dawn of the universe? It's just that now, we've finally reached the point we can use it."

Silence followed the speaker's remark. Everyone froze. Perhaps he was a step ahead of all the people in attendance with puzzled expressions. But the statement was obvious to the speaker, and indeed, the silence even seemed to confuse him. For the participants, this moment also gave the strongest impression of what makes this speaker, Serkan Anilir, unique.

The talk was held as a special program at the Center on May 20, 2007, titled after a Japanese journal for website designers and webmasters, Web Site Expert. ("Academia" is an eclectic column, and Serkan spoke with the author.) Here, the discussion focused on serendipity, meaning "making fortunate discoveries by chance." Moving from topic to topic, from space development to classic literature to the Internet, the speakers offered insight on ways to find and act on serendipity.

According to Serkan, serendipity arises from one's perspective and a bit of imagination. Clarifying what he meant by the preceding comment, he says that what we call the Internet can be described by the science of today, and there's nothing about it that violates any universal laws. In this way, it might just as well have existed a thousand years ago. It's only "by chance" that now, at this moment, it has become a reality. His remark therefore comes from a reinterpretation of the Internet from a completely different perspective.

By switching perspectives and stretching our imagination a bit, we can understand the Internet as the product of unexpected scientific discoveries. Thinking along these lines, says Serkan, gives rise to serendipity in many forms, which comes in handy when pondering time machines, space elevators, and a range of other things. Why he left the audience behind momentarily is probably less because people are unfamiliar with this kind of thinking than because it was a radical shift in perspectives.

In fact, designers switch perspectives and amplify their imagination every day, again and again. It might be considered their most vital skill. Although this event may seem totally unrelated to design, it actually explains a critical way to consider things in the context of design, and Serkan and Maeda are both excellent designers. This insight, expressed in fresh ways through the speakers' comments, stimulated the designers in attendance, and was very interesting for nonspecialists as well.

In this sense, the discussion fulfilled a key role in HR training in the field of design, and the Center looks forward to supporting similar opportunities. Details from this discussion appear in issue 13 of Web Site Expert (in Japanese).

-Time and Date-

8th.March.2007(Wed)13:00 - 21:00

-Location-

International Design Liaison Center, 5th floor, Tokyo Midtown

-Organizer-

Evaluation and Management Department, Kyushu University User Science Institute

-Participant-

Industrial Designer about 10 - 15 people

-Summary-

A workshop was held to analyze the results of an evaluative survey given at the exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Good Design Award in 2006. Participants investigated discrepancies among visitors' design evaluations in the survey, accounting for pertinent considerations regarding the data. Factors for the discrepancies were explored, as well as whether any discrepancies warranted a different approach to product development.