The Spectacle Of Illusion

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The Spectacle of Illusion

Matthew Tompkins
The Spectacle of Illusion Book PDF

Author : Matthew Tompkins
Publisher : Distributed Art Publishers (DAP)
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2019-04-23
Category : Art
ISBN : 1942884370

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The Spectacle of Illusion by Matthew Tompkins Pdf

In 'The Spectacle of Illusion', professional magician-turned experimental psychologist Dr. Matthew L. Tompkins investigates the arts of deception as practised and popularised by mesmerists, magicians and psychics since the early 18th century. Organised thematically within a broadly chronological trajectory, this compelling book explores how illusions perpetuated by magicians and fraudulent mystics can not only deceive our senses but also teach us about the inner workings of our minds. Indeed, modern scientists are increasingly turning to magic tricks to develop new techniques to examine human perception, memory and belief.0Beginning by discussing mesmerism and spiritualism, the book moves on to consider how professional magicians such as John Nevil Maskelyne and Harry Houdini engaged with these movements ? particularly how they set out to challenge and debunk paranormal claims. It also relates the interactions between magicians, mystics and scientists over the past 200 years, and reveals how the researchers who attempted to investigate magical and paranormal phenomena were themselves deceived, and what this can teach us about deception. 00Exhibition: Wellcome Collection, London, UK (11.04.-15.09.2019).

The Spectacle of Illusion

Matthew Tompkins,Matthew L. Tompkins,Wellcome
The Spectacle of Illusion Book PDF

Author : Matthew Tompkins,Matthew L. Tompkins,Wellcome
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2019-04
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0500022429

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The Spectacle of Illusion by Matthew Tompkins,Matthew L. Tompkins,Wellcome Pdf

In The Spectacle of Illusion, professional magician-turned experimental psychologist Dr. Matthew L. Tompkins investigates the arts of deception as practised and popularised by mesmerists, magicians and psychics since the early 18th century. Organised thematically within a broadly chronological trajectory, this compelling book explores how illusions perpetuated by magicians and fraudulent mystics can not only deceive our senses but also teach us about the inner workings of our minds. Indeed, modern scientists are increasingly turning to magic tricks to develop new techniques to examine human perception, memory and belief. Beginning by discussing mesmerism and spiritualism, the book moves on to consider how professional magicians such as John Nevil Maskelyne and Harry Houdini engaged with these movements - particularly how they set out to challenge and debunk paranormal claims. It also relates the interactions between magicians, mystics and scientists over the past 200 years, and reveals how the researchers who attempted to investigate magical and paranormal phenomena were themselves deceived, and what this can teach us about deception. Highly illustrated throughout with entertaining and bizarre drawings, double-exposure spirit photographs and photographs of spoon-bending from hitherto inaccessible and un-mined archives, including the Wellcome Collection, the Harry Price Library, the Society for Physical Research, and last but not least, the Magic Circle's closely guarded collection, the book also features newly commissioned photography of planchettes, rapping boards, tilting tables, ectoplasm, automata and illusion boxes. Concluding with a modern-day analysis of the science of magic and illusion, analysing surprisingly weird phenomena such as ideomotor action, sleep paralysis, choice blindness and the psychology of misdirection, this unnerving volume highlights how unreliable our minds can be, and how complicit they can be in the perpetuation of illusions.

Empire of Illusion

Chris Hedges
Empire of Illusion Book PDF

Author : Chris Hedges
Publisher : Knopf Canada
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2009-07-28
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780307398581

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Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges Pdf

Pulitzer prize–winner Chris Hedges charts the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion. Chris Hedges argues that we now live in two societies: One, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world, that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other, a growing majority, is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. In this “other society,” serious film and theatre, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins. In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Hedges navigates this culture — attending WWF contests as well as Ivy League graduation ceremonies — exposing an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion.

Society Of The Spectacle

Guy Debord
Society Of The Spectacle Book PDF

Author : Guy Debord
Publisher : Bread and Circuses Publishing
Page : 164 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2012-10-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781617508301

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Society Of The Spectacle by Guy Debord Pdf

The Das Kapital of the 20th century,Society of the Spectacle is an essential text, and the main theoretical work of the Situationists. Few works of political and cultural theory have been as enduringly provocative. From its publication amid the social upheavals of the 1960's, in particular the May 1968 uprisings in France, up to the present day, with global capitalism seemingly staggering around in it’s Zombie end-phase, the volatile theses of this book have decisively transformed debates on the shape of modernity, capitalism, and everyday life in the late 20th century. This ‘Red and Black’ translation from 1977 is Introduced by Notting Hill armchair insurrectionary Tom Vague with a galloping time line and pop-situ verve, and given a more analytical over view by young upstart thinker Sam Cooper.

Illusions in Motion

Erkki Huhtamo
Illusions in Motion Book PDF

Author : Erkki Huhtamo
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 461 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2013-02-22
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780262018517

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Illusions in Motion by Erkki Huhtamo Pdf

Tracing the cultural, material, and discursive history of an early manifestation of media culture in the making. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, huge circular panoramas presented their audiences with resplendent representations that ranged from historic battles to exotic locations. Such panoramas were immersive but static. There were other panoramas that moved—hundreds, and probably thousands of them. Their history has been largely forgotten. In Illusions in Motion, Erkki Huhtamo excavates this neglected early manifestation of media culture in the making. The moving panorama was a long painting that unscrolled behind a “window” by means of a mechanical cranking system, accompanied by a lecture, music, and sometimes sound and light effects. Showmen exhibited such panoramas in venues that ranged from opera houses to church halls, creating a market for mediated realities in both city and country. In the first history of this phenomenon, Huhtamo analyzes the moving panorama in all its complexity, investigating its relationship to other media and its role in the culture of its time. In his telling, the panorama becomes a window for observing media in operation. Huhtamo explores such topics as cultural forms that anticipated the moving panorama; theatrical panoramas; the diorama; the "panoramania" of the 1850s and the career of Albert Smith, the most successful showman of that era; competition with magic lantern shows; the final flowering of the panorama in the late nineteenth century; and the panorama's afterlife as a topos, traced through its evocation in literature, journalism, science, philosophy, and propaganda.

Citizen Spectator

Wendy Bellion
Citizen Spectator Book PDF

Author : Wendy Bellion
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2012-12-01
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780807838907

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Citizen Spectator by Wendy Bellion Pdf

In this richly illustrated study, the first book-length exploration of illusionistic art in the early United States, Wendy Bellion investigates Americans' experiences with material forms of visual deception and argues that encounters with illusory art shaped their understanding of knowledge, representation, and subjectivity between 1790 and 1825. Focusing on the work of the well-known Peale family and their Philadelphia Museum, as well as other Philadelphians, Bellion explores the range of illusions encountered in public spaces, from trompe l'oeil paintings and drawings at art exhibitions to ephemeral displays of phantasmagoria, "Invisible Ladies," and other spectacles of deception. Bellion reconstructs the elite and vernacular sites where such art and objects appeared and argues that early national exhibitions doubled as spaces of citizen formation. Within a post-Revolutionary culture troubled by the social and political consequences of deception, keen perception signified able citizenship. Setting illusions into dialogue with Enlightenment cultures of science, print, politics, and the senses, Citizen Spectator demonstrates that pictorial and optical illusions functioned to cultivate but also to confound discernment. Bellion reveals the equivocal nature of illusion during the early republic, mapping its changing forms and functions, and uncovers surprising links between early American art, culture, and citizenship.

Experiencing the Impossible

Gustav Kuhn
Experiencing the Impossible Book PDF

Author : Gustav Kuhn
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2019-03-12
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780262039468

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Experiencing the Impossible by Gustav Kuhn Pdf

How the scientific study of magic reveals intriguing—and often unsettling—insights into the mysteries of the human mind. What do we see when we watch a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat or read a person's mind? We are captivated by an illusion; we applaud the fact that we have been fooled. Why do we enjoy experiencing what seems clearly impossible, or at least beyond our powers of explanation? In Experiencing the Impossible, Gustav Kuhn examines the psychological processes that underpin our experience of magic. Kuhn, a psychologist and a magician, reveals the intriguing—and often unsettling—insights into the human mind that the scientific study of magic provides.Magic, Kuhn explains, creates a cognitive conflict between what we believe to be true (for example, a rabbit could not be in that hat) and what we experience (a rabbit has just come out of that hat!). Drawing on the latest psychological, neurological, and philosophical research, he suggests that misdirection is at the heart of all magic tricks, and he offers a scientific theory of misdirection. He explores, among other topics, our propensity for magical thinking, the malleability of our perceptual experiences, forgetting and misremembering, free will and mind control, and how magic is applied outside entertaiment—the use of illusion in human-computer interaction, politics, warfare, and elsewhere. We may be surprised to learn how little of the world we actually perceive, how little we can trust what we see and remember, and how little we are in charge of our thoughts and actions. Exploring magic, Kuhn illuminates the complex—and almost magical—mechanisms underlying our daily activities.

Creating the Illusion (Turner Classic Movies)

Jay Jorgensen,Donald Scoggins
Creating the Illusion Turner Classic Movies Book PDF

Author : Jay Jorgensen,Donald Scoggins
Publisher : Running Press
Page : 432 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2015-10-06
Category : Design
ISBN : 9780762458073

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Creating the Illusion (Turner Classic Movies) by Jay Jorgensen,Donald Scoggins Pdf

Marilyn Monroe made history by standing over a subway grating in a white pleated halter dress designed by William Travilla. Hubert de Givenchy immortalized the Little Black Dress with a single opening scene in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. A red nylon jacket signaled to audiences that James Dean was a Rebel Without a Cause. For more than a century, costume designers have left indelible impressions on moviegoers’ minds. Yet until now, so little has been known about the designers themselves and their work to complement and enrich stories through fashion. Creating the Illusion presents the history of fashion on film, showcasing not only classic moments from film favorites, but a host of untold stories about the creative talent working behind the scenes to dress the stars from the silent era to the present day. Among the book’s sixty-five designer profiles are Clare West, Howard Greer, Adrian, Walter Plunkett, Travis Banton, Irene, Edith Head, Cecil Beaton, Bob Mackie, and Colleen Atwood. The designers’ stories are set against the backdrop of Hollywood: how they collaborated with great movie stars and filmmakers; how they maneuvered within the studio system; and how they came to design clothing that remains iconic decades after its first appearance. The array of films discussed and showcased through photos spans more than one hundred years, from draping Rudolph Valentino in exotic “sheik” dress to the legendary costuming of Gone with the Wind, Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, Bonnie and Clyde, Reservoir Dogs, and beyond. This gloriously illustrated volume includes candid photos of the designers at work, portraits and wardrobe tests of stars in costume, and designer sketches. Drawing from archival material and dozens of new interviews with award-winning designers, authors Jay Jorgensen and Donald L. Scoggins offer a highly informative, lavish, and entertaining history of Hollywood costume design.

The Secret History of Magic

Peter Lamont,Jim Steinmeyer
The Secret History of Magic Book PDF

Author : Peter Lamont,Jim Steinmeyer
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2018-07-17
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781524704452

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The Secret History of Magic by Peter Lamont,Jim Steinmeyer Pdf

Pull back the curtain on the real history of magic – and discover why magic really matters If you read a standard history of magic, you learn that it begins in ancient Egypt, with the resurrection of a goose in front of the Pharaoh. You discover how magicians were tortured and killed during the age of witchcraft. You are told how conjuring tricks were used to quell rebellious colonial natives. The history of magic is full of such stories, which turn out not to be true. Behind the smoke and mirrors, however, lies the real story of magic. It is a history of people from humble roots, who made and lost fortunes, and who deceived kings and queens. In order to survive, they concealed many secrets, yet they revealed some and they stole others. They engaged in deception, exposure, and betrayal, in a quest to make the impossible happen. They managed to survive in a world in which a series of technological wonders appeared, which previous generations would have considered magical. Even today, when we now take the most sophisticated technology for granted, we can still be astonished by tricks that were performed hundreds of years ago. The Secret History of Magic reveals how this was done. It is about why magic matters in a world that no longer seems to have a place for it, but which desperately needs a sense of wonder.

The Illusion of Power

Stephen Orgel
The Illusion of Power Book PDF

Author : Stephen Orgel
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 110 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2023-11-10
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780520341876

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The Illusion of Power by Stephen Orgel Pdf

"Elegant, deeply learned, and intellectually adventurous, its implications extend far beyond the boundaries of the Stuart and Caroline masque. It is an indispensable, exploration of political art and aestheticized politics. . . . a classic."--Stephen Greenblatt, University of California, Berkeley "A triumph of scholarship, insight, and explication, Oregel's book is truly a classic in the field of Renaissance studies. Anyone interested in Renaissance culture will find here a masterful analysis of its celebration of royal power."--Coppelia Kahn, Brown University "As knowing of art, theatrical and political history as it is sensitive to poetry, Orgel's book is learned, lively, and beautifully clear."--John Hollander, Yale University "A foundational text for the New Historicist Perspective in English Renaissance literary and cultural studies . . . as informative and suggestive as it was when new; in the clarity and grace of its writing, the breadth and precision of its arguments, the aptness and resonance of its examples, it is unsurpassed as an introduction to the dialectic of theatrical illusion and state authority--of play and power--in the culture of Elizabethan and Stuart England."--Louis Montrose, University of California, San Diego

Grand Illusion

Gabriela Cruz
Grand Illusion Book PDF

Author : Gabriela Cruz
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 313 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Music
ISBN : 9780190915056

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Grand Illusion by Gabriela Cruz Pdf

A new and groundbreaking historical narrative, Grand Illusion: Phantasmagoria in Nineteenth-Century Opera explores how technical innovations in Paris transformed the grand opera into a transcendent, dream-like audio-visual spectacle.

The Illusionist Brain

Jordi Camí,Luis M. Martínez
The Illusionist Brain Book PDF

Author : Jordi Camí,Luis M. Martínez
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2022-06-07
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780691239156

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The Illusionist Brain by Jordi Camí,Luis M. Martínez Pdf

How magicians exploit the natural functioning of our brains to astonish and amaze us How do magicians make us see the impossible? The Illusionist Brain takes you on an unforgettable journey through the inner workings of the human mind, revealing how magicians achieve their spectacular and seemingly impossible effects by interfering with your cognitive processes. Along the way, this lively and informative book provides a guided tour of modern neuroscience, using magic as a lens for understanding the unconscious and automatic functioning of our brains. We construct reality from the information stored in our memories and received through our senses, and our brains are remarkably adept at tricking us into believing that our experience is continuous. In fact, our minds create our perception of reality by elaborating meanings and continuities from incomplete information, and while this strategy carries clear benefits for survival, it comes with blind spots that magicians know how to exploit. Jordi Camí and Luis Martínez explore the many different ways illusionists manipulate our attention—making us look but not see—and take advantage of our individual predispositions and fragile memories. The Illusionist Brain draws on the latest findings in neuroscience to explain how magic deceives us, surprises us, and amazes us, and demonstrates how illusionists skillfully “hack” our brains to alter how we perceive things and influence what we imagine.

The Age of Illusions

Andrew Bacevich
The Age of Illusions Book PDF

Author : Andrew Bacevich
Publisher : Metropolitan Books
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2020-01-07
Category : History
ISBN : 9781250175090

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The Age of Illusions by Andrew Bacevich Pdf

A thought-provoking and penetrating account of the post-Cold war follies and delusions that culminated in the age of Donald Trump from the bestselling author of The Limits of Power. When the Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Washington establishment felt it had prevailed in a world-historical struggle. Our side had won, a verdict that was both decisive and irreversible. For the world’s “indispensable nation,” its “sole superpower,” the future looked very bright. History, having brought the United States to the very summit of power and prestige, had validated American-style liberal democratic capitalism as universally applicable. In the decades to come, Americans would put that claim to the test. They would embrace the promise of globalization as a source of unprecedented wealth while embarking on wide-ranging military campaigns to suppress disorder and enforce American values abroad, confident in the ability of U.S. forces to defeat any foe. Meanwhile, they placed all their bets on the White House to deliver on the promise of their Cold War triumph: unequaled prosperity, lasting peace, and absolute freedom. In The Age of Illusions, bestselling author Andrew Bacevich takes us from that moment of seemingly ultimate victory to the age of Trump, telling an epic tale of folly and delusion. Writing with his usual eloquence and vast knowledge, he explains how, within a quarter of a century, the United States ended up with gaping inequality, permanent war, moral confusion, and an increasingly angry and alienated population, as well, of course, as the strangest president in American history.

Green Illusions

Ozzie Zehner
Green Illusions Book PDF

Author : Ozzie Zehner
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 462 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780803243361

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Green Illusions by Ozzie Zehner Pdf

We don’t have an energy crisis. We have a consumption crisis. And this book, which takes aim at cherished assumptions regarding energy, offers refreshingly straight talk about what’s wrong with the way we think and talk about the problem. Though we generally believe we can solve environmental problems with more energy—more solar cells, wind turbines, and biofuels—alternative technologies come with their own side effects and limitations. How, for instance, do solar cells cause harm? Why can’t engineers solve wind power’s biggest obstacle? Why won’t contraception solve the problem of overpopulation lying at the heart of our concerns about energy, and what will? This practical, environmentally informed, and lucid book persuasively argues for a change of perspective. If consumption is the problem, as Ozzie Zehner suggests, then we need to shift our focus from suspect alternative energies to improving social and political fundamentals: walkable communities, improved consumption, enlightened governance, and, most notably, women’s rights. The dozens of first steps he offers are surprisingly straightforward. For instance, he introduces a simple sticker that promises a greater impact than all of the nation’s solar cells. He uncovers why carbon taxes won’t solve our energy challenges (and presents two taxes that could). Finally, he explores how future environmentalists will focus on similarly fresh alternatives that are affordable, clean, and can actually improve our well-being. Watch a book trailer.

My Illusion My Mistake

Akshat Jain
My Illusion My Mistake Book PDF

Author : Akshat Jain
Publisher : BlueRose Publishers
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2020-02-24
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

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My Illusion My Mistake by Akshat Jain Pdf

Couples around the globe marry when in love. But in some parts of the world, and especially in India, the term ‘Marriage’ is quite confusing. In India, ‘Love’ and ‘Marriage’ are thought to be two completely different entities. They can’t exist together. If somehow they do, then the tedious process of bridging the gap between love and marriage is even harder than getting a US work visa! However, love does exist in our land. Just before and after marriages. But only the latter is legal and accepted. Life is quite ironical in so many ways. It takes sadness to know what happiness is, noise to appreciate silence, and absence to value the presence of someone very special. But the story you are going to read is quite different. Welcome to My Illusion, My Mistake, the story of Mansi and Manav. They are from different parts of the country, love each other, and want to get married. But this doesn’t happen… Yes, parents, customs and other illogical logics don’t allow them. Their love was at its peak, but Mansi’s family, being overly conservative and concerned, arrange her marriage with an NRI living in the U.S. and working for Wipro. Manav is devastated. He feels his life slipping out of his hand, and leaves his lucrative job in a premier software company, falling into a black spiral of depressive days... After many months, Manav chances upon another girl of the same custom and religion as him in a corporate fair. His life goes through a lot of twists and turns after that… Will he be able to rise from those dark days and nights? Will this girl help him? Only time will tell…