Augmented Reality Magic

[parsons18]

Hey guys,

Next year i will be writing my dissertation for my Uni course, it will be based on augmented reality and how it helps/improves performers on stage e.g magicians (Marco Tempest). I'm just wandering and it will be much appreciated if anyone here knows much about this topic and knows where to go searching for research, like books or articles. I will need to describe what magic is but not as my own opinion but referencing others, i will also need to do the same for augmented reality.

Cheers guys,

Dan

 

[Craig Browning]

BUT and I'm asking this in all seriousness, is the definition of "Magic" as you envision it, what you're looking for OR, are you willing to include contrast by showing the original side of said coin -- the esoteric side?

I believe any treatise on Magic and more so when you are looking at the "reality" tied to it, must have at least a prelude of some form in which the primitive is discussed; the shamanic, Wiccan, and Ritual Magician (Like Dee, Magnus, Levy, Crowley, etc.) needs to be included when it comes to what "Magic" is. . . physical manifestation brought about by will and intent.

Technically the stage magician is echoing this same truth in that it is our will that allowed us to learn and develop the skills required to make certain phenomena "real" in the minds of our patrons, but if we are looking at an "augmented" reality . . . we need to consider the catalyst as well; what influences reality and how in order to deliver this "augmented" sense of perspective? What skews the score?

While I'm deliberately playing Devil's Advocate here (hopefully lending you some food for thought in the process) I can see where this would be a very fun as well as meandering project that gives you the ability to take one idea "What is Magic?" and show how it connects on so many different plans as a reality -- a genuine truth based on perspective; one's life, environment, culture, education and religious influences, etc. Each and every one of these factors "augment" our perception and thus, the witness's reality.

I wish I could point you in the "right" direction but I can't think of any one thing that will fulfill said niche.

 

[AndrewJ]

I don't see it.

I wrote my college paper on a thesis that technology is replacing, I guess, call it magick with a k to differentiate for the time being. In my case it was a manner of divining weather with satellites instead of intuition, reaching into CD-ROMs (it was 1997) for information rather than reaching out to the cosmos, and the like. I was also devouring what William Gibson had written to that point, including Virtual Light. Maybe the familiarity is why I can't really see AR and magic co-existing to any fruitful degree.

Yes, I have seen at least one video of a card trick that involved a great deal of augmented reality. I also read the performer's pleas to the audience: it really was done "live", it was done with minimal planning and what you saw recorded was the same as a live performance. Even if an audience believes that, they are still left with "the computer really is that great."

We see magic when we stare into screens all the time. More to the point, we see Industrial Light & Magic upon gazing into wondrous glowing box. We know it. The longer AR exists and the more prevalent it becomes (Nintendo 3DS, Sony Vita, Google's Project Glass), the less effective it will be to a magic audience.

Now, this is a case where I would love to be made a fool of. I would love to see the ingenuity invoked then applied to make me look like a naysayer. I also think that magic will cease to exist the moment you introduce a machine that can make anything appear within an existing scene.