Coincidence? Zufall?

Dylan Hollingsworth Photography dylanhollingsworthphotography.com

The day before I departed the States for my European adventure, a friend and amazing artist, Dylan Hollingsworth came to photograph me in my studio. Dylan did not know the back story regarding my upcoming project. As the story goes, I was moving to Berlin to open a Pop-up retail and gallery space inspired by the Tom Petty song, American Girl. Dylan arrived at my door step wearing a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers band T-shit.

So I arrive in Ireland to stay at the wonderful Marina Guinness's home at Pickering Forest. The kitchen is a common ground in the house, its a warm and socially inviting space in the home with a large selection of music stashed in the cupboard. Sitting on top was the best of Tom Petty and the Hearbreakers, so I put the CD on and began to cook breakfast. Marina entered the kitchen and commented on how surprised she was that I not only knew the words to all the songs, but that I was also a fan of the band. She then told me the story of how her Husband helped found the band and how she knew Tom Petty when he was just coming up and breaking into the rock n' roll scene.

Coincidence? Zufall?

A coincidence is the occurring of an event in conjunction with any some conditions, e.g. another event. As such, a coincidence occurs when something uncanny, accidental and unexpected happens under conditions named, but not under a defined relationship. When there are no conditions named, the event is just that single entity. The word is derived from the Latin cum- ("with", "together") and incidere (a composed verb from "in" and "cadere": "to fall on", "to happen"). In science, the term is generally used in a more literal translation, e.g., referring to when two rays of light strike a surface at the same point at the same time. In this usage of coincidence, there is no implication that the alignment of events is surprising, noteworthy or non-causal.

A coincidence does not prove a causal or any other modal relationship nor require any such. In the field of mathematics, the index of coincidence can be used to analyze whether two events are related. Such index does not define any relationship, but just describes some possibility of such. Physically related events may be expected to have a higher probability to occur, probability is the basic metrics, or method, to rationally evaluate physical coincidences.