There’s a name for chance discoveries during medical exams: incidentalomas. For example, an asymptomatic adrenal tumor might be found during a CT scan performed for abdominal discomfort. Or gallstones are found during an MRI for back pain.

In creative practices, incidental discoveries aren’t cause for concern. Indeed, they’re welcome. They’re surprises. Happy accidents. Epiphanies.

We’re designing a chair and we learn something about light. We’re writing lyrics and we discover something about our personal convictions. We’re making a photograph and we observe an unexpected mode of human interaction.

It’s a kind of creative peripheral vision. Working here, discovering there. Focused on the stage, welcoming surprises from the wings.

We don’t know where and when we will find incidentalomas — we just know that every creative practice is brimming with potential revelation. So we stay open to discovery.