Cabinet 54: The Accident

Though most often thought of in prosaic terms—a spilled drink, a fender bender, a slip on an icy street—the accident is a concept with a long and complex philosophical pedigree. From Aristotle to Paul Virilio, the accident—from the Latin, meaning to "fall out"—is something that comes as a surprise, yet must also be planned for and strategically avoided. And, of course, not all accidents are bad—think of the accidental encounter with a stranger that turns into friendship or love. Cabinet issue 54, with a special section on "The Accident," features Greg Siegel on the concept of the "decent interval," the amount of time a structure is expected to function before its "accidental" collapse or failure; Jeffrey Schnapp on a philosophy of motorcycle racing and accidents; Dorion Sagan on magic tricks and the production of apparently accidental miracles, and Andrea Reti on the slow-moving horror of the Boston Molasses Disaster.