Acta Deceptio: What is the Future of Magic?

[Lyle Borders]

The most simple, and yet most open ended Acta Deceptio topic I have yet posted. 4.5 hours before we begin to show you your first hints of something spectacular, we want to know this - What is the future of magic? Where is it going? How is it going to change?

The floor is yours. All we ask is that you give evidence or well thought through reasoning to your answers.

We want to know what you think.

L

 

[TaB]

Magic has profoundly changed throughout history because of the apparition of what we could call "the new toys of humanity" (oh yeah).

Here is a little list out of my head, chronologically.

Books, scientific discoveries of the past centuries, electronics, television, computers, internet.

I don't know what will be next but each and every element of this list has provoked many changes in many domains. Anyway, we can also see that the more we can do with technology, the less space is left to the diversity of our magic. Here is a dumb example : in chemistry we all know that is is easy to change the colour of a liquid. Well, there was a time it was not known by many people. SO it was a magic effect. And this tendancy of moving the boundaries of what magic is will continue.

Conclusion : if you give birth to a groundbreaking new technology, don't release it. Make a magic trick with it, sell it for a couple of years and then release the technology with another name. Lucky you !

That's all for my little contribution !

 

[AsherF]

I think magic will gain more respect as an art over time than a novelty. the more I hear feedback from my audience, the more evident it is that they can see the beauty of the illusion rather than the trick.

 

[Jay Adra]

Technology is the future. It always has been and always will be.

We are already seeing these new technologies impacting Magic with the introduction of DVDs, websites etc (such as this one) which provide education and assistance to magicians all around the world.

I think this trend will continue, with Magic becoming more accessible with higher quality teachings through the various new technologies becoming available. Now whether this new-found source of distribution and education will impact negatively (such issues as exposure come to mind) is not for me to say. I think however we will see an improvement in this area as time goes on, though I feel it shall never fully be expunged.

Having said that, I can also see Magic dying if innovation/creation stops. If Magicians stop developing effects, thinking in different ways and innovating/improving existing effects, I can see Magic weakening and ultimately dying.

Luckily, we have thousands of brilliant minds out there working to perpetuate this wonderful art

 

[ChrisWiens]

Conclusion : if you give birth to a groundbreaking new technology, don't release it. Make a magic trick with it, sell it for a couple of years and then release the technology with another name. Lucky you !

Let`s say you have found a way to beam matter, it would be far more profitable for you to apply for a patent and sell the rights to companies that use that technology for medical or other purposes. The same goes for nearly all other inventions.
If it`s really groundbreaking, it wouldn`t be a secret for a long time and people would try hard to reengineer it.
You can`t copyright a magic method, but you can patent an invention of your own.

It doesn`t bother me very much, to be honest. We`re already very advanced in technology and people still enjoy sleight-of-hand and they still will be in hundred years and more, I guess.

 

[icannotmakeapassword]

Cards will be allowed in schools.

 

[Aaron.Williams]

Cards will be allowed in schools.

haha right

 

[Craig Browning]

I'm quite doubtful "Magic" as a whole, will ever gain its former level of glorified status unless we loose technology and end up repeating a kind of medieval life-style in which what we do becomes what it once was; the era's equivalent to motion picture special effects -- that's the whole key after all; wonder & spectacle!

As I've pointed out elsewhere, technology within magic has allowed prop makers and developers to improve upon the deceptiveness of design in effect systems and in some cases, made it easier and more practical to create specific types of effects. . . so much so that some of us elect to use yesteryear technology just to throw the curious and assumptive mind off our trail. Let's face it, if you were to see a Statute of Buddha that speaks in today's world, you will instantly conclude some form of speaker system and yet, you cannot, based on the old principles used, find such a device. . . same goes for Talking tea Kettles, Flowers and a myriad of other such odds & ends (no ventriloquism ain't the answer). In other words, the onus is on us to see when to use or not use such conveniences; when the older mode of getting a job done can prove superior to 21st century technology.

I've assisted Kirkham in several shows where we performed the Sawing in Half using Thurston's actual cabinet; a wonderfully huge clunky thing by today's standards and yet, it allows the performer a stronger response and public disbelief than the trust Thin Model Sawing I grew up with. In fact, there are two or three older versions of this one effect that seem to be superior when it comes to the public reaction, than something as grand and visual as the Copperfield Death Saw.

Technology can and in many ways has, become our foe. Since the late 19th century the publics awareness of two-way communications by wire hasn't just been a theory, it has been proven and exposed more than a few times let alone the up-graded variants as wireless transmission came into play and today, with the use of induction transmission, which can be used in a number of very spooky forms, not just the classic Telepathy/ Clairvoyant acts.

Will it kill out magic?

NO!

It will force magic lovers to change their thinking, it will (is) bringing about a higher appreciation for actual talent (for manipulators) that are not tech-dependent because they are giving us TALENT -- demonstration of skill and not just random trickery anyone can purchase.

Magic will always have a place in show biz and if Armageddon does come, we can always start a new series of dogmatic cults and control all of society for a few millennia, until they start waking up and asking questions at least. . .