finding magic
in pages
I began my journey by reading some interesting books about Indian magic. I looked up more on the Vedic principle of ‘Maya’ and contemplated how it could inform our interactions with the virtual. I read about storytelling and creating moments of wonder.
One example being ‘Life of Pi’:
“We believe what we see.So did Columbus. What do you do when you’re in the dark?”
“At moments of wonder, it is easy to avoid small thinking, to entertain thoughts that span the universe, that capture both thunder and tinkle, thick and thin, the near and the far.”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi
To me both the book and film are a work of genius. It is so profound and so beautifully communicated.
“So you want another story?”
Uhh… no. We would like to know what really happened.”
Doesn’t the telling of something always become a story?”
Uhh… perhaps in English. In Japanese a story would have an element of invention in it. We don’t want any invention. We want the’straightfacts,’ as you say in English.”
Isn’t telling about something — using words, English or Japanese — already something of an invention? Isn’t just looking upon this world already something of an invention?”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi
I also found this interesting article that draws a parallel between storytelling and magic by going over the 7 principles of magic. I wonder if this could somehow translate in my work.
The book ‘Here is Real Magic’ by Nate Staniforth made me cry. When he said “We shrink our world down to the size of our certainties” it got me. He wrote about magic tricks as “tools to unleash the moment” — a vessel rather than an end in itself.
It also helped to get out and see a remarkable show at the Wellcome Collection — Smoke and Mirrors :The Psychology of Magic
At this exhibition a lot was said about the magicians creating an illusion of free will — how you are unconsciously manipulated into thinking you are the one making a conscious decision whilst picking a card. It got me thinking about choice, and how interactive narratives function, how it appears as though you have control, agency and choice when in fact most decision branches lead nowhere. It is all very illusive indeed. Say, would using involuntary bodily functions as controllers be saying something?
“I’m here — this experience couldn’t work without me, I’m making it happen but I have no control over it”
Or is this sending a strange mixed message? What am I even trying to say?
Speaking of the body and interactive choice based narratives….
What if we could we write a ‘sensitive’ story?
A story set in gradients. One where choice is non binary. Not the usual — which cereal would you like to eat ?
What are story aids that could exist in gradients?
Sound, Time (Playback Speed), Colour, Size (Zoom, detail)
Would it make sense to map these to the body?
How much agency and control do you truly have in these situations? How to draw a delicate balance between surrendering control and taking control. A combination of awareness and ignorance. Maya.
This led me to thinking about the breath specifically.
“Breath occupies a unique status as both voluntary and involuntary, the only major function of the body that is managed unconsciously in a manner that can be overruled by conscious control”
[Kate Elswit (2019): A living cabinet of breath curiosities: somatics, biomedia, and the archive, International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, DOI:10.1080/14794713.2019.1633107]
I find this to be an extremely interesting model for interaction and creating embodied experiences.
What sort of bio-feedback loop would this present? The way that you feel affects the way you perceive the world? This might just be a Cybernetic Loop.
Loop- de -doo!
