This topic a muti-post one. Numerous inspirations and influences have been percolating in my mind relative to this topic. This week I discovered two new cities that were an inspiration for discovery. Lawrence and Holyoke Massachusetts! If it wasn’t for work-related visits, and without other references, I may have never gotten there. The image above is my ‘tracking’ in the last week, courtesy of Google who follows my every route….
Cities make it easier to come across something new–a new environment, an interesting building with an interesting history, new restaurant or friend…. There is nothing I love more than wandering in a new place, as well as a City/neighborhood well known to me, and finding a new view, new activity, new environment. The act of discovering is almost as inspiring as the discovery itself.
However, the nature of ‘search’ these days, through digital technology, changes the way we discover. If I was to ‘search’ I may not have come across these cities–unless I specifically entered information that related specifically to those places. If I searched for ‘cool old mill river cities in Massachusetts’ – I would not find them (well I find Fall River, which certainly is in the same category!) .
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Discovering and seeing new places goes along way to provide additional serendipitous options. Given the role of GPS and other technological means to make us more efficient, we are discovering new routes…and as ‘collateral’ experiences, we are increasing the scale of serendipity with more intra city networks. Visually observing places that are unfamiliar to us is the first step to being comfortable going to a new place. In following GPS to Holyoke, I found Chicopee, and in arriving in Lawrence, I was directed through a neighborhood that was not on my initial tour–and I saw some interesting 20’s and 30’s car dealer buildings and a few diners that I will definitely return to.
New apps and digital ‘curators’ have found other ways to re-supplement our city discoveries in the form of new information streams. Twitter and the blogosphere, even Google+, allows people to follow a shared joy for the urban discovery. One such favorite of mine is Untapped Cities, founded by Jennifer Yu, and proudly posts information on some of the ‘hidden’ but discoverable built environment secrets of NYC (and related places). There have been many ‘videocast’ curated tours made as a labor of love, such as ‘tour lawrence.org’, and other apps, like flipbook, are making ‘windows’ into new places more accessible.
Are three other technological enhancements that can create more opportunities for serendipity? Can we ‘disable’ our preconceived mental models, and allow ourselves to go ‘off route’ and discover? I would hope that digital serendipity will actually enhance serendipity in person, leading to even more discovery of places that you might not otherwise explore.