The Future of Magic

New Media Design

Magic is the art of performing unrealistic and supernatural tasks using tricks and illusions. The basic idea of an illusion is to present something that seems real according to previous perception and create a distraction while tricking the observer into believing the unnatural behavior and occurrence of the event.

Area of Interest :Magic

“Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".” -Christopher Priest

Three Acts of a Magic Trick

A Scenario-Many popular mind reading tricks are based on simple mathematic calculations, some even on basic addition and subtraction. Here’s an example- (-3) + (x) + 5 - (-3) + (-x) – 7 = -2A simple mathematical equation like so gives the result -2 for every ‘x’. The magician asks his audience to think of any number ‘x’, and then asks to perform some addition subtraction to that, which is a part of the equation. In the end he claims to predict the answer (-2) by reading the mind, which would be the same for any x. What makes it believable is the distraction that is created to make the audience forget that it’s just simple math.There are many written texts with such tricks, and reader is the audience here, who follows the instruction and performs the illusion on self.

Magic In Cultural Media

A Scenario-Same secret can be used to perform the trick in a video format, by giving the user visual and audio instructions to perform the steps. One such trick is performed by David Copperfield for his television audience, where he instructs the viewer to go in circle clockwise and anticlockwise, and predicts the final position. The reason this successfully tricks the audience is because he is a master in distraction. The illusion is presented in such a way that it is believable.

Magic In Cultural Media

A Scenario-Similarly, such a trick can be performed in live audience by one to one interaction or using a group. The magician decorates the simple logic with distraction and abra kadabra and dramatic music, to make it seem like he is really able to read the viewer’s mind.

Magic In Cultural Media

A Scenario-Using Interactive Technologies, a similar underlying concept can be decorated and presented in a more profound fashion to make the trick more believable. The video is static way of giving instructions and the viewer cannot control what the magician is doing, however, if the viewer gets the chance to alter the next moves of the magician, and if he is given the possibility of a choice as to what magician does, the trick becomes more believable.

Magic In New Media

For a trick to be successful, the audience has to be convinced and be a part of all the three acts. Usually in live performances, some viewers are called to inspect ‘The Pledge’, and they are sometimes a part of ‘The Prestige’, but they are kept away from ‘The Turn’ using the distraction. The ability to interact with the audience during ‘The Turn’, will make any magic more realistic, reaching to a wider audience, and making them the part of it, and enabling them to perform ‘The Turn’ themselves will make the whole experience more enjoyable.

Magic In New Media – The Three Acts

Thank You

Satyan Chawla - 10020537