Related Resources

Apollo Robbins: Pickpocket and Attention Expert
The New Yorker. “Appollo Robbins, The Master Pickpocket: Tricks of the Trade.” February 8, 2013. YouTube.

Don’t miss the excellent New Yorker profile on him as well:
Green, Adam. “A Pickpocket’s Tale.” The New Yorker, January 2013.

Tactile Tricks … Magic for the Blind
TommyEdisonXP. “Magic Tricks for Blind People (Follow Up).” January 5, 2014. YouTube.

Is a Cocktail a Multisensory Magic Trick?
Shellenberger, Stephen. “Advanced Sensory Convergence Basics.” Boston Apothecary. June 10, 2011.

Kundalini Rising
Vanishing Inc. Magic. “Magic Kundalini Rising.” Levitating Card Trick referenced by Marco Tempest in class. October 25, 2007. YouTube.

Audio Illusions
AsapSCIENCE. “Can you Trust your Ears?” May 29, 2014. YouTube.

Making Future Magic
Light painting plus iPad to create volumetric images floating in air.

McGarryBowen London. Making Future Magic: iPad Light Painting. Vimeo.

City Sigil
Watts, Jemma. “City Sigils.” Using the motifs of road markings to create city magick sigils.

How to Magically Win at Roulette
Thorp, Edward O. “The Invention of the first Wearable Computer.” (PDF).

HenGenTou (Deformation Lamps): A Magical Lighting System to Produce Illusory Movements in Static Photos and Paintings
Adding movement to static images through projection mapping. Wicked and magical research from Hiroo Unoura.

変幻灯チャンネル. “HenGenTou Deformation Lamps.” February 16, 2015. YouTube.

The Magic Google
William Kalush is a lifelong student of sleight of hand, magic and its histories. He is the founder and Executive Director of Conjuring Arts Research Center in New York City, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of magic and its allied arts. Kalush created a magic-dedicated search engine called Ask Alexandar.

3D Project Tracking on Pop Up Book
Tempest, Marco. Nikola Tesla in Sound and Light. Vimeo.
———. Making of “Nikola Tesla in Sound and Light”. Vimeo.

Bot and Dolly
Projection Mapping done well with industrial motion control (MoCo) robots.

Box & Dolly. Box. Vimeo.

As discussed in class, this is a little disingenuous, as the only perfect view of the illusion is that of the camera. A foot or two off to any side of the camera / projector rig and the illusion begins to slip. So while this makes an excellent video it wouldn’t be as impressive as a live experience.

Here’s a making of, in which they name check the types or classifications of illusions.

The Creators Project. “Box by Bot & Dolly | Behind the Scenes.” October 1, 2013. YouTube.

Marco Tempest: A Magical Tale (With Augmented Reality)
The story of what magic is, how it entertains us and how it highlights our humanity.
Tempest, Marco. A Magical Tale (With Augmented Reality). Vimeo.

———. Magic and Storytelling – Behind the Scenes Documentary. Vimeo.

More about Marco Tempest.

How’s that After-image Going for You?
So, neurologically speaking, what color IS this dress? And can you tell me why there’s confusion?

Holderness, Cates. “What Colors Are This Dress?BuzzFeed, February 26, 2015.

The New York Times makes Josef Albers Proud
OK, so they don’t mention Josef Albers at all, but it would have been a great opportunity to. Although Josef was not a magician, he did dedicate his life to teaching others about how colors interact with each other through our perception. If you aren’t familiar with his work, check out:
Albers, Josef. Interaction of Color: Revised and Expanded Edition. Foreword by Nicholas Foxx Weber. Yale University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780300115956. [Preview with Google Books]

Also, here is the New York Times breakdown of the dress illusion:
Corum, Jonathan. “Is That Dress White and Gold or Blue and Black?The New York Times, February 27, 2015.

Open Sourcery

Tempest, Marco. “Open Source Magic.” Vimeo.

National Geographic. “Brain Magic: The Memory Illusion.” February 28, 2015. YouTube.

The Secret Art of Book Hacking in New York

Disturb Reality. “Coke can that Magically Refills Itself.” March 17, 2014. YouTube.

RFID in the Magic Kingdom
Kuang, Cliff. “Disney’s $1 Billion Bet on a Magical Wristband.” Wired, March 2015.

Dark Rides: Magic for the Other Senses
Krosnick, Brian. “Disney Had to Close its Scariest Ever Attraction. Here’s Why,” Theme Park Tourist, March 15, 2015.

McGill Uses Magic to Study Perception, Memory, and Influence
Frauenfelder, Mark. McGill Researches Show How Magicians Sway Decision-Making. Boing Boing. April 1, 2015.

Ghosts in the Medieval Machine
Truitt, E. R. “Preternatural Machines.” Aeon Magazine, March 2015. (Edited by Ed Lake)

Course Info

As Taught In
Spring 2015
Level
Learning Resource Types
Design Assignments
Media Assignments