The craft of stage magic is presented in this article as a site to study the interplay of people and technology. The focus is on conjuring in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a time when magicians eagerly appropriated new optical, mechanical and electrical technologies into their acts. Also at this time, a modern style of conjuring emerged, characterized by minimal apparatus and a natural manner of performance. Applying Lucy Suchman’s perspective of human-machine reconfigurations, conjuring in this modern style is interpreted as an early form of simulation, coupled with techniques of dissimulation. Magicians simulated the presence of supernational agency for public audiences, while dissimulating the underlying methods and mechanisms. Dissimulation implies that the secret inner workings of apparatus were not simply concealed but were rendered absent. This, in turn, obscured the production of supernatural effects in the translation of agencies within an assembly of performers, assistants, apparatus, apparatus-builders, and so on. How this was achieved is investigated through an analysis of key instructional texts written by and for magicians working in the modern style. Techniques of dissimulation are identified in the design of apparatus for three stage illusions, and in the new naturalness of the performer’s manner. To explore the significance of this picture of stage magic, and its reliance on techniques of dissimulation, a parallel is drawn between conjuring and recent performances of computerized life forms, especially those of social robotics. The paper concludes by considering what is revealed about the production of agency in stage magic’s peculiar human-machine assemblies.
...More
Thesis
Nadis, Fred Robert;
(2002)
Wonder Shows: Science, Religion, and Magic on the American stage, 1845--2001
(/isis/citation/CBB001562051/)
Book
Sofie Lachapelle;
(2015)
Conjuring Science: A History of Scientific Entertainment and Stage Magic in Modern France
(/isis/citation/CBB730677721/)
Article
Lachapelle, Sofie;
(2008)
From the Stage to the Laboratory: Magicians, Psychologists, and the Science of Illusion
(/isis/citation/CBB000930182/)
Article
Watt-Smith, Tiffany;
(2013)
Cardboard, Conjuring and “A Very Curious Experiment”
(/isis/citation/CBB001201229/)
Chapter
Adriana Di Leo;
(2014)
Meccanica e società
(/isis/citation/CBB010133090/)
Chapter
Gianfrancesco Biggioggero;
Edoardo Rovida;
(2014)
Scuole di meccanica
(/isis/citation/CBB862923043/)
Chapter
Edoardo Rovida;
(2014)
Ruote e motori
(/isis/citation/CBB795309358/)
Chapter
Umberto Cugini;
Giancarlo Genta;
(2014)
Progettazione di macchine
(/isis/citation/CBB607521051/)
Chapter
Roberto C. Garberi;
(2014)
L’evoluzione della tecnologia dell’ala rotante e il contributo di Agusta Westland
(/isis/citation/CBB484250053/)
Chapter
Emilio Chirone;
(2014)
Note sulla storia del disegno di macchine
(/isis/citation/CBB046114968/)
Chapter
Attilio Selvini;
Peter Dannecker;
(2014)
La meccanica delle armi da fuoco portatili
(/isis/citation/CBB976001827/)
Book
Virginio Cantoni;
Vittorio Marchis;
Edoardo Rovida;
(2014)
Storia della Meccanica
(/isis/citation/CBB405054620/)
Thesis
Dawson, Paul Louis;
(2005)
Luis de Florez and the Special Devices Division
(/isis/citation/CBB001560871/)
Article
Johnson, Ericka;
(2007)
Surgical Simulators and Simulated Surgeons: Reconstituting Medical Practice and Practitioners in Simulations
(/isis/citation/CBB000780239/)
Article
Fillerup, Jessie;
(2013)
Ravel and Robert-Houdin, Magicians
(/isis/citation/CBB001320651/)
Book
Peter Adey;
(2017)
Levitation: The Science, Myth and Magic of Suspension
(/isis/citation/CBB255782789/)
Article
Julie Jebeile;
(2018)
Explaining with Simulations: Why Visual Representations Matter
(/isis/citation/CBB882900028/)
Book
Turkle, Sherry;
(2009)
Simulation and Its Discontents
(/isis/citation/CBB000952779/)
Book
Andrea Bernardoni;
(2020)
Leonardo ingegnere
(/isis/citation/CBB332632638/)
Chapter
Oreskes, Naomi;
(2007)
From Scaling to Simulation: Changing Meanings and Ambitions of Models in Geology
(/isis/citation/CBB000900058/)
Be the first to comment!