#ScienceOfMagic

Anthony BarnhartMagicTony@mastodon.world
2025-04-29
Anthony BarnhartMagicTony@mastodon.world
2023-06-23

These words are 112 years old. Many magicians are still resistant to the notion that magic can be analyzed systematically. Perhaps they will be persuaded by the assessment of Nevil Maskelyne and David Devant (1911) in "Our Magic":

#magic #theory #science #ScienceOfMagic #magicians

To many people, indeed, it may come as a surprise to learn that any such thing as a theory of magic can possibly exist. The idea that magic is, necessarily, an exact science, capable of systematic treatment, seems lost to view, as a rule. The commonly accepted notion is that the technical side of magic consists in a heterogeneous conglomeration of odds and ends; of isolated facts and dodges which are beyond correlation. This unsatisfactory state of affairs, of course, is but an obvious consequence of the disorder in which magical science has become involved, throughout its entire constitution.

There is, as we propose to show, no reason why magic should be subjected to this exceptional disadvantage. Its technicalities are no more heterogeneous than are those of physical science in general. The facts and principles it embodies are no less amenable to order than are analogous details included in other subjects. In short, the technical side of magic is readily capable of being systematised and co-ordinated upon a scientific basis and, accordingly, reduced to the form of a complete and harmonious system, governed by rational theory.
Anthony BarnhartMagicTony@mastodon.world
2023-06-01

In just over a month, the Science of Magic Association (@SoMA) and British Society of Aesthetics will be hosting an exciting workshop on the Aesthetics of Illusion, held at the London Magic Circle. I'm working with a student on a qualitative study of expert magicians that we'll report at the conference.

tonybarnhart.weebly.com/news/a

#magic #science #ScienceOfMagic #MagicCircle

Anthony BarnhartMagicTony@mastodon.world
2022-11-06

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