Monday :: 26 April 2021

  • multiple.perspectives

    Seattle, WA 25 April 2021 :: iPhone 12 Pro Max :: f/1.6 1/38s :: ISO-640

    Seattle, WA
    25 April 2021 :: iPhone 12 Pro Max :: f/1.6 1/38s :: ISO-640

    Dear Stranger;

    Today I was thinking about the fact that a magic trick is a great example of people seeing the same thing but coming up with very, very different experiences from the event. Sure it's entertaining when it's successful, but it's also a mixture of deception, perception, and misunderstanding–things we normally associate with negative connotations only in this case, something positive. That contradiction alone was enough to keep me thinking about it for a good two weeks because, for a bit of a sober return to reality, it's representative of a lot of what we see in today's political discourse.

    But keeping with the context of magic, it's been interesting to go one route and break it down into a perspective that sees the trick as something that invokes real emotions through a fabricated reality. It's been a source of excitement and also a source of caution because as I think of it, it seems to be a rather fragile situation and probably should be handled with care–and it also seems like it's one of those risks that are worth the reward.

    Because, what if you could get someone to believe in themselves using a magic trick? How would you do that? Now I know a lot of magician friends would just use the easy answer of, "well, just have the magic happen in the spectator's hands" but that only goes so far, and the average effect that "happens" in the spectator's hand (or "in the spectator's mind") doesn't really get past the fact that it still has the residue of it being a novelty magic trick.

    What if a magician really made an honest attempt to take care with the presentation and scripting of an effect and got someone to really dig deep inside and feel an emotion? What if a magician could leave someone empowered, or thinking more openly about the world and their place in it. What if a magician could get someone to find a better balance of fear and hope when it comes to the unknown–to better know when to be skeptical and when to be more accepting that the unknown may actually be harmless or even helpful?

    What if a magician could get someone, whether consciously or not, to maybe better see a difference between keeping a secret from someone and keeping a secret for someone?

    That's what I'm exploring now.

    What's something you're exploring?

    Magically,
    -j