Architecture and Magic - How are they related?

Luis Vega

Elite Member
Mar 19, 2008
1,838
278
38
Leon, Guanajuato Mexico
luisvega.com.mx
Hey buddies how are you? So this thing has been around my head in the last months and It started when somebody asked me in a performance what I did for living, so I told him that I loved doing magic,but my true passion is architecture, and he asked me "How does architecture and Magic relate?"

So I have been a magician for some time now, but only an Architect for 2 years (without counting the 5 years of college) and still I think is a great question but the answer is more difficult than I thought, aparently there is not way this are related, besides the obvious thing that Architecture is also an art form, there´s is not a simple way these are related...at first. After some time thinking I have my answer, but this guy has dissapeared so I wanna to share this with the community

Architecture relates to magic in these points

SELF CRITICISM: when doing an architectural project, usually starts with a concept, what you wanna transmit with your building/Plaza/remodelation etc...
then you start doing some sketches, and then you create and proto-project to show the client...

up to this step everything seems fine until showing the project to a client, they could be excited or they could reject it

and the reason they could reject it is because they don´t like it or maybe is baddly solved.

the same way applies to magic, of course the clients are the spectators and the people that hires you,so how can you prevent the rejection?...the answer is being self-critic with you work..

I know what your thinking, I´m self-critic with myself, but most magicians are not, they create a trick and even if the trick sucks they keep telling themselves that is a great trick just because he created it, what you have to do is look at the trick as somebody else work and ask...is this trick good? would I buy this? would I perform this? I know is difficult, but once yo do it you will improve your magic and everything else

I know is hard to take away your trick because after all is like your baby, you created, you raised it and you feed it...well not exactly, but you get the idea. but sometimes you have to re-think it and maybe sometimes forget about it.

same thing applies with your performance and persona, film yourself and ask yourself "is this guy any good?" or "man, this guy sucks!!!" is hard to say that to yourself and knowing that you are doing something wrong and most important: changing

is not the same asking somebody to tell you how did you look, most of the time people just tell you that you are good and maybe is because they don´t wanna hurt you feelings or maybe they haven´t seen another magician before.
the best critic is yourself, don´t be so egotistical you cannot lie to yourself when you know something is going wrong then change it. which leads to my next point.

FEAR: We all have fear, is the thing that sometimes help us to improve and be different to other people, but you have to overcome it in order to improve
In architecture you have to keep up with the modern styles and fashion things what is great and "in" now, it wont be tomorrow.

I have met a lot of architects in my short career and one of them was one of the greatest architects here in my hometown, unfortunately he was overcome with the new style and he wasn´t as succesful as before when I met him

and the reason is that he sticked with the style that give him his former success. he stick with the safe and sure style and he never tried to learn new things or try new styles, no sir! he thought that he will never be out-date and that he was the best bla bla bla.

same way applies to magic, but in a different way.
I´m mostly a card magician so I know the basics tricks:ACR,TWO CARD MONTE,SIMPLE TRANSPOSITION, THIUMPH, bla bla, but eventually I created some new tricks, they are great tricks but they remain in the shadow for a long time.

Why? because of Fear, Fear of not being good enough with my own work, Fear of failure, Fear of getting caught, Fear of gaining no reactions with my work so I sticked with the same old tricks that everyone knows or seen before because I thought those tricks will assure me to get reactions no matter what and my own tricks remain in shadow for a long time.

eventually I realize that I wanted to be different and that fear is a good thing when used wisely. so I tried some of my tricks in some performances, like of 10 tricks, 3 were my creations. Some of them got great reactions, some of them nedeed work, some of them were impractical, but that I would have not learned it if it wasn´t because trying....

My point is that you should always try your own work in your performances, I understand that in architecture is more difficult, because a lot more money is in the middle and that could affect your career if not done well, but in magic is different,there´s not a lot in the middle and I know sometimes is difficult to try a new trick when you have the tarantula in your pocket or something like that and fear that your trick won´t be as great as a "70 buck trick" but you will only know by trying.

A so-so trick cannot affect your whole performance if you have great showmanship, or try your new effect in a free performance and why not? tell your audience that you wanna try something new that might not work entirely great, but you still wanna try it out, of course preferably in a free performance were money is not in the middle, or friends or in a party, it could not only be a new trick, could be a new presentation for an old trick or a new persona that you can try...your choice

Trust yourself!!! is the other lesson I wanna tell you, If you are a self-critic with your work as I pointed before you can work an effect. c´mon every great magician started the same as us...

and finally..

3-DIMENSIONAL THINKING: this I´m afraid only people related to architecture or mechanical design can understand so I´ll keep it short
Is a capability of thinking in a way that resembles the real world, viewing it from a 3-dimensional view
I have applied this to my magic, while working a trick for 1-2 months in my head before actually taking the cards and try it
The mental work I do before taking the cards greatly reduces the amount of time of actually creating a trick.
Of course...the reactions cannot be foreseen in my head, no matter how crazy I am, I still have to go out and try it out....


Well, I think this would be all for now If I can think more ways to relate architecture and magic I´ll post it here
 
Ive always been facenated at all the many ways magic can be applied to more professions than just the obvious trappings of the performance arts. arcatecture has so many ancient mysteries associated to it from pryamids to cryptic and secretive societies. i think you have made some interesting points. thank you for posting this thread!
 
Hey buddies how are you? So this thing has been around my head in the last months and It started when somebody asked me in a performance what I did for living, so I told him that I loved doing magic,but my true passion is architecture, and he asked me "How does architecture and Magic relate?"

So I have been a magician for some time now, but only an Architect for 2 years (without counting the 5 years of college) and still I think is a great question but the answer is more difficult than I thought, aparently there is not way this are related, besides the obvious thing that Architecture is also an art form, there´s is not a simple way these are related...at first. After some time thinking I have my answer, but this guy has dissapeared so I wanna to share this with the community

Architecture relates to magic in these points

SELF CRITICISM: when doing an architectural project, usually starts with a concept, what you wanna transmit with your building/Plaza/remodelation etc...
then you start doing some sketches, and then you create and proto-project to show the client...

up to this step everything seems fine until showing the project to a client, they could be excited or they could reject it

and the reason they could reject it is because they don´t like it or maybe is baddly solved.

the same way applies to magic, of course the clients are the spectators and the people that hires you,so how can you prevent the rejection?...the answer is being self-critic with you work..

I know what your thinking, I´m self-critic with myself, but most magicians are not, they create a trick and even if the trick sucks they keep telling themselves that is a great trick just because he created it, what you have to do is look at the trick as somebody else work and ask...is this trick good? would I buy this? would I perform this? I know is difficult, but once yo do it you will improve your magic and everything else

I know is hard to take away your trick because after all is like your baby, you created, you raised it and you feed it...well not exactly, but you get the idea. but sometimes you have to re-think it and maybe sometimes forget about it.

same thing applies with your performance and persona, film yourself and ask yourself "is this guy any good?" or "man, this guy sucks!!!" is hard to say that to yourself and knowing that you are doing something wrong and most important: changing

is not the same asking somebody to tell you how did you look, most of the time people just tell you that you are good and maybe is because they don´t wanna hurt you feelings or maybe they haven´t seen another magician before.
the best critic is yourself, don´t be so egotistical you cannot lie to yourself when you know something is going wrong then change it. which leads to my next point.

FEAR: We all have fear, is the thing that sometimes help us to improve and be different to other people, but you have to overcome it in order to improve
In architecture you have to keep up with the modern styles and fashion things what is great and "in" now, it wont be tomorrow.

I have met a lot of architects in my short career and one of them was one of the greatest architects here in my hometown, unfortunately he was overcome with the new style and he wasn´t as succesful as before when I met him

and the reason is that he sticked with the style that give him his former success. he stick with the safe and sure style and he never tried to learn new things or try new styles, no sir! he thought that he will never be out-date and that he was the best bla bla bla.

same way applies to magic, but in a different way.
I´m mostly a card magician so I know the basics tricks:ACR,TWO CARD MONTE,SIMPLE TRANSPOSITION, THIUMPH, bla bla, but eventually I created some new tricks, they are great tricks but they remain in the shadow for a long time.

Why? because of Fear, Fear of not being good enough with my own work, Fear of failure, Fear of getting caught, Fear of gaining no reactions with my work so I sticked with the same old tricks that everyone knows or seen before because I thought those tricks will assure me to get reactions no matter what and my own tricks remain in shadow for a long time.

eventually I realize that I wanted to be different and that fear is a good thing when used wisely. so I tried some of my tricks in some performances, like of 10 tricks, 3 were my creations. Some of them got great reactions, some of them nedeed work, some of them were impractical, but that I would have not learned it if it wasn´t because trying....

My point is that you should always try your own work in your performances, I understand that in architecture is more difficult, because a lot more money is in the middle and that could affect your career if not done well, but in magic is different,there´s not a lot in the middle and I know sometimes is difficult to try a new trick when you have the tarantula in your pocket or something like that and fear that your trick won´t be as great as a "70 buck trick" but you will only know by trying.

A so-so trick cannot affect your whole performance if you have great showmanship, or try your new effect in a free performance and why not? tell your audience that you wanna try something new that might not work entirely great, but you still wanna try it out, of course preferably in a free performance were money is not in the middle, or friends or in a party, it could not only be a new trick, could be a new presentation for an old trick or a new persona that you can try...your choice

Trust yourself!!! is the other lesson I wanna tell you, If you are a self-critic with your work as I pointed before you can work an effect. c´mon every great magician started the same as us...

and finally..

3-DIMENSIONAL THINKING: this I´m afraid only people related to architecture or mechanical design can understand so I´ll keep it short
Is a capability of thinking in a way that resembles the real world, viewing it from a 3-dimensional view
I have applied this to my magic, while working a trick for 1-2 months in my head before actually taking the cards and try it
The mental work I do before taking the cards greatly reduces the amount of time of actually creating a trick.
Of course...the reactions cannot be foreseen in my head, no matter how crazy I am, I still have to go out and try it out....


Well, I think this would be all for now If I can think more ways to relate architecture and magic I´ll post it here
first off thanks Luis, for inviting me onto this topic. i think i needed it after just breakin up with my longtime girlfriend...

anways, about the topic....i agree with you, i'm going to school to be a writer, but i use a lotta things in magic in my life...magic helps me with talkint with people....it helps me more creative in my work and stuff around the house....it helps me put a lot of things into perspective.....

the principles used in magic helps me as a overall person...if i never do another magic trick in my life...the whole make up of principles used in magic, makes me a better man....i personally think through my experience used in magic is really uplifting and makes me feel smarter....

by dealing with people through magic, i've gain a ton of patience and controlled anger issues...its nto just the experience, the great people i've surrounded myself around....

this has taken a toll on me for the better.....
 
Jan 26, 2008
71
0
Fort Worth, TX
This has been an interesting article, there is one other connection that can be between architecture and magic. The Architecture background could be applied to creating stage illusions, and vice versa, the magic background can allow for some creative interior work for hidden rooms, etc. Perhaps a bit obvious, but I thought I'd mention it.

Cheers!
 
Mar 26, 2009
8
0
very interesting! Im also a student of architecture, and I also felt a strong relationship between magic and architecture. Well, I actually believe that since architecture is the most universal and comphrehensive form of art, it can basically relate to anything, such as magic. I see the relationship of these two artforms clearly when it comes down to composition.
for example, in architecture, we use many different ideas, such as vertical and horizontal elements, cantilevers, restricting the view, open plan and etc to create spacial composition.
in magic, we use the combination of general ideas and techniques such as switches, steals, loads, concealment, false transfers, misdirections and etc to come up with our routines.
Its quite awesome to have a hobby that I can strongly relate to my passion.
 
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