11/12/2009
This lecture starts at 1 minute in.
Showing posts with label *Magic Psychology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label *Magic Psychology. Show all posts
Penn & Teller in Wired magazine
5/12/2009
The May "Mystery" issue of Wired magazine focuses on puzzles and perception. There are some excellent pieces including one by J.J. Abrams, the creator of the Lost television show (and previously featured here).
Just as J.J. Abrams is a genuine fan of mystery (albeit sometimes of the manipulative Pop culture variety), Penn & Teller are fans of atheism and are shown as artists collaborating with scientists in pursuit of the cutting edge of perception.
What's surprising is just how limited the repertoire of magical illusions actually is. The Nature Reviews Neuroscience paper lists nine fundamental "conjuring effects" of modern magic, from the vanish and the restoration to telekinesis and ESP. While these basic tricks have been varied endlessly—you can "restore" a cut rope, a sawed-in-half assistant, a shredded piece of paper—each of the effects relies on a specific perceptual phenomenon. This may be why exposing the "secret" of a magic trick is so often deflating. Most of the time, the secret is that we're gullible and our brains are riddled with blind spots.While I enjoy exploring the psychology of magic, the meme of magician as all knowing expert of perception gets tiring. Don't get me wrong, it's a compelling and natural narrative and has some truth (and marketing cache) but at a certain point magic simply becomes a science study and is no longer good emotionally compelling theater. But I guess, magic has always held a unique position somewhere between science, art and religion. Maybe the science storyline will give way to magic being treated as an art form and conjurers grouped with other professions exploring important questions of human life with humility.
This isn't just the stuff of magic shows; those perceptual phenomena also allow us to make sense of reality, as we translate the blur of photons hitting our retinas into a coherent world of three-dimensional forms.
For those interested in magic psychology, Jonah Lehrer, the author of the article, has an enjoyable blog called The Frontal Cortex.
Magic in The New Yorker
9/27/2008
"The Real Work" by Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker, Mar. 17, 2008
"On the plane, Swiss’s voice rises a touch: “You’ve got to—no, you’ve got to relax your wrist just then, you have to—you want it to look more casual. You’re making too much of the moment. The ace is no big deal. Don’t force it. Let it happen."
Read the article here.
Jeff McBride II
1/20/2008
Click here if you can't see the above video.
This is another interview with Jeff McBride by Richard Wiseman--from richardwiseman.com. Wiseman has done some interesting work on the psychology of magic. I'm looking forward to reading his new book, Quirkology.
You can read the other interview with Jeff McBride here.
"The Magic of the Human Mind" By Barry Gordemer
10/24/2006
“I did a trick for a little boy.... He looked up at me and said, 'I know how you did that.' I said, 'How?' He said, 'You used magic.'”Al Cohen
from NPR's website
Posts
