Serendipity is an interactive audiovisual installation that invites viewers to uncover its layered content through collective participation. It is the first work in the series The Forgotten Tales, inspired by the storytelling traditions of West and Central Asia, particularly the Iranian practice of Naghali. In Naghali, a minstrel stands before a detailed painting and narrates an epic from beginning to end—a ceremonial heritage of oral lore that has largely faded from contemporary life. Reimagining this performative tradition in the absence of a storyteller, Serendipity transfers the act of narration to its viewers. Through their movements, participants reveal fragments of a concealed story, evoking the communal act of keeping stories alive through shared experience.

The visual component is a collage animation, composed of layered images from Persian miniature paintings depicting classical literary scenes from the 9th to 13th centuries. Structured as an endless loop—moving from myth to the rise of civilization to its eventual ruin—it reflects on the cyclical nature of memory and forgetting. Within the installation, a motion-tracking system detects viewers entering an illuminated rectangle on the floor. Their presence triggers circular openings on a dark projection surface, like peepholes into the hidden, living world of the story. Each opening corresponds to the viewer’s position in the gallery space and moves with them; as more participants enter, more openings appear, gradually revealing the imagery through collective presence. A spatialized soundscape of two sound channels and two channels of original music reinforces this rhythm of revelation and concealment. By merging ancient narrative forms with interactive technology, Serendipity reflects on how fragmented perspectives shape our understanding of history—and what is lost when stories are no longer retold.