TECHNOLOGY IS MAGICAL

Photo: Tan Pow FeiRichard Kaufman of Genii Magazine, illusion designer Jim Steinmeyer , perfoemers Jason Latimer and illusionist Franz Harary are all quoted in an article from Inside Technology on the role that technology plays in magic today. 

Long ago, magicians had a grace period. In the mid-1800s, Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, the father of modern magic, employed a barely known phenomenon, electromagnetism. He had a giant electromagnet built into the stage floor to hold down a metal chest. Adults couldn’t budge it when the magnet was turned on, but children could lift it easily—when the magnet was turned off.

“If we did this trick now, people would assume it involved such a magnet. But at that time, practically no one knew about it,” says Richard Kaufman, the editor of Genii: The Conjurors’ Magazine and author of some two dozen books on magic. With technology a part of everyday life, the challenge becomes more about how well you can use and hide it.

“As soon as magic smells of technology, it’s ruined,” says veteran illusion designer Jim Steinmeyer. “The art is how it’s concealed and what it accomplishes in an unexpected way.”

Read the complete article HERE.