Amaze
Sneak peek of the catalog of our Wunderkammer
I have always been fascinated by magic, and I realized that magic is not just something that happens on a stage, in a very controlled environment. We all can create magical experiences all the time, and we can do this for our friends, for our colleagues and […] for our students.
(Tina Seelig)
Self Portrait by Charles Willson Peale, oil on canvas, 1822.
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
We welcome you to our museum of wonders!
What you’re holding in your hands is the most unusual catalogue you can image. Our collection is very peculiar. We don’t collect records, Renaissance paintings or taxidermied animals. From the Great Book of the World, we carefully select a specific kind of story. All of them share a common element: protagonists who live a moment of wonder, a magical experience that forces them out of the mundane and surprises them, questioning their very worldview.
Some stories seem to come straight from an episode of The Twilight Zone. Other stories might have been imagined only by Stephen King. The most surreal plots evoke the writings of Robert Anton Wilson. Some other stories seem straight out of a Sophie Kinsella novel.
But the entrance sign speaks clearly: what we deal with here are only stories that really occurred. Or, at least, this is what the protagonists would be willing to swear!
Some of these stories are dearer to our hearts — the ones we personally designed in the last few years, during our activity of “creation of magical experience” or, as we like to call it, magic experience design.
One thing we would like to warn you about: dealing with our precious exhibits, maintaining the typical detachment of a professional guide, will not be possible. Devoured by our avid passion for magic, mystery and the extraordinary, we’ll strive to make you, the reader, participate in the wonder experienced by the characters of our stories. And maybe, following in the steps of who came before you, you too might want to create a magical experience.
The path we’re offering here cuts through our personal “cabinet of wonders” — something that in another time we would have called Wunderkammer. Only one shelf is still empty. We have a vague idea on how to fill it, but the story that will complete our collection is missing some details. It’s the story of a person who finds a book, gets immersed in it and discovers a never-heard-before discipline; a reading that opens up surprising perspectives, calls on wonder, and is meant to bring back some magic in our disenchanted modern world. We’ve written this book to find the protagonist of that story.
We want that person to be you.
