Furthering the Art of Magic...

[Huruey]

Kind of romantic, isn't it? Let's all further the art of magic. Let's all take magic to the next level and beyond and all that, right?

(Apologies for the coming post. I don't meant to be preachy, I just need a vent.)

Sorry to be so blunt about this, but in most cases such talk tends to make me cringe. There is seldom any substance. It is nice to think that you can have some kind of dramatic effect on something shared by so many, but the fact is that suggesting you are furthering the art implies you are at a boundary. You have reached the limits of what can be achieved and now you need to push the boundaries and make the art universally better. Maybe this is the case, maybe this is the start of a great movement that will revolutionise the way we perform. Or maybe, you just haven't discovered that that revolution has already come, and you only need to further YOURSELF so that you can see it.

For many people, magic is a way of feeding their ego. YOU have the special powers. YOU are the important one. After just a few short years, YOU can further an art that is hundreds of years old and the product of thousands of great thinkers! Why not take the time to try this little interactive ego test... Look at your forum signature. If it takes up more space than the majority of your posts, congratulations, you win!

Rather than trying to push boundaries that few have even come close to reaching in a lifetime of magic, why not focus on furthering yourself as a magician and gain a greater perspective on the art. Maybe one day, maybe a lifetime into the future, you may actually have sight of one of the boundaries and can have a great impact on the art, but until then, avoid just trying to look for the greater boundaries when you have yet to explore your own.

Joe

 

[Cedric Taylor]

Yeah i kind of get what he's saying, if you are going to further something you must take it to places it never has gone. IF every illusionist wants to further the art, then why are we still trying to create effects based on the same plots once done years ago. I never say that i'm going to further the art. I'm just goign to try and think outside the box and come up with something special. Thats all i try to do and make the performances last in the spectators mind forever.

I think if we are going to really further the art, do something no one has done. Not cards, Not Coins, No Levitations, No color changes. Just something different. But for the rest, if you are not tryign to be revolutionary, then keep creating and performing the usual. But maybe we aren't trying to push the envelope. Are we???

 

[Steerpike]

WHAT THEY SAY: I'm furthering the art of magic.

TRANSLATION: (fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap)


The statement might also carry more weight if there were more artists here. At this point, there are just enough artistic people on this site to fill a phone booth.

 

[visualartist]

People speak of advancing but most of us dont know what it means or where to start.
But they sure like to talk about it. Which is why I mostly stay out of those "lets advance our art" threads

 

[Randomwrath]

I must say, I quite agree. I've never been particularly big on the whole 'let's improve our art' thing, knowing that there's a lot I can do to improve myself. But in my opinion, the best way to improve the art as a whole is to improve the standards of the people partaking in the practice, which is achieved (as Huruey so rightly pointed out) by getting better ourselves.

 

[Haavard]

One of the better "let's improve our art" threads. You are not writing a 5 page long essay talking about the same thing over and over again, something I've seen in a lot of other threads lately.
I get what you are saying and I agree. The thing about signatures made the post. Very funny, but also right.

 

[William Draven]

Magic is a pool of water. No matter how small a stone that you toss into it, it still makes a ripple that is seen across the entire pool and the effects of that ripple are still felt by anything connected to the water.

Discussing, talking, and theorizing about what you can do to improve or change the art that you love so much is important. While you are right that talk by itself achieves little, it builds the foundation for establishing good habbits. It's those good habbits that when you remain faithful to them, over the course of a career can lead to positive change.

Not everyone is going to become the next Malini, Copperfield, or Angel. Sadly less than 1% of us will be called to that level. However that doesn't mean that we can't make a positive impression within this community here on T11, within our own community that we live in, or within and among the magician circles we belong to with regard to our local magician groups like the SAM or IBM.

Perhaps we should be posting more information about our experiences performing, pictures, videos, etc and less theory and discussion to encourage or ease your frustration. Walk the walk, talk the talk so to speak.

Kind of romantic, isn't it? Let's all further the art of magic. Let's all take magic to the next level and beyond and all that, right?

(Apologies for the coming post. I don't meant to be preachy, I just need a vent.)

Sorry to be so blunt about this, but in most cases such talk tends to make me cringe. There is seldom any substance. It is nice to think that you can have some kind of dramatic effect on something shared by so many, but the fact is that suggesting you are furthering the art implies you are at a boundary. You have reached the limits of what can be achieved and now you need to push the boundaries and make the art universally better. Maybe this is the case, maybe this is the start of a great movement that will revolutionise the way we perform. Or maybe, you just haven't discovered that that revolution has already come, and you only need to further YOURSELF so that you can see it.

For many people, magic is a way of feeding their ego. YOU have the special powers. YOU are the important one. After just a few short years, YOU can further an art that is hundreds of years old and the product of thousands of great thinkers! Why not take the time to try this little interactive ego test... Look at your forum signature. If it takes up more space than the majority of your posts, congratulations, you win!

Rather than trying to push boundaries that few have even come close to reaching in a lifetime of magic, why not focus on furthering yourself as a magician and gain a greater perspective on the art. Maybe one day, maybe a lifetime into the future, you may actually have sight of one of the boundaries and can have a great impact on the art, but until then, avoid just trying to look for the greater boundaries when you have yet to explore your own.

Joe

 

[Randomwrath]

Magic is a pool of water. No matter how small a stone that you toss into it, it still makes a ripple that is seen across the entire pool and the effects of that ripple are still felt by anything connected to the water.

Discussing, talking, and theorizing about what you can do to improve or change the art that you love so much is important. While you are right that talk by itself achieves little, it builds the foundation for establishing good habbits. It's those good habbits that when you remain faithful to them, over the course of a career can lead to positive change.

Whilst this is true, a bigger stone is going to cause a bigger ripple. It's very rare that you're going to get a teacher that hasn't gone through school and passed the exams themselves first. So surely, by getting experience, practice and general magic knowledge, your chances of actually revolutionizing magic are much higher.

Not everyone is going to become the next Malini, Copperfield, or Angel. Sadly less than 1% of us will be called to that level. However that doesn't mean that we can't make a positive impression within this community here on T11, within our own community that we live in, or within and among the magician circles we belong to with regard to our local magician groups like the SAM or IBM.

No, and I appreciate the fact that someone making the effort to improve the community is going to be better received than one who isn't, but perhaps if people put more effort into becoming the best that they can, maybe we'd have more Copperfields. True, not everybody will make it big, but that is mainly because many people are lazy these days. If someone makes the effort to be above sitting in front of a webcam performing Tivo 79.0, there's no reason why they can't become a well known magician.

Perhaps we should be posting more information about our experiences performing, pictures, videos, etc and less theory and discussion to encourage or ease your frustration. Walk the walk, talk the talk so to speak.

There's nothing wrong with theory, apart from the fact that too many people blatantly ignore it. I've been guilty of this in the past, until I realized that people were posting these suggestions for a reason, and it wasn't because they enjoyed typing. It all stems back to the laziness issue. It's easy to sit around making suggestions for improving the art, but the only people that are going to get up and do something about it are the ones that are also getting up and doing something about their own performances. And seeing as people with more experience, and people who are better at the art stand a better chance of improving magic as a whole, it makes sense to do this first. Therefore it's simply a matter of priority.

 

[Mr.MadMan]

I agree with you totally. As i said in my thread on the subject "How can we advance the art if we are not advancing ourselves", that we at this time cannot advance the art. The art must be advanced by people who have done it for 40 years or more since they have the knowledge of performing for literally all audiences. Stuff you learn when performing for 20 years might as well be at your fingertips if you listen to the old guys.

The can make us ready for what is ahead and bring on new problems that we would experience after 40 years of performing. We would be solving questions before we would be at the natural state of things.

Mikk.

 

[Huruey]

Yay. Analogies are fun...

Magic is a pool of water. No matter how small a stone that you toss into it, it still makes a ripple that is seen across the entire pool and the effects of that ripple are still felt by anything connected to the water.

Throw a stone into a pool where somebody has already thrown a boulder, and there will be no ripple. This is what happens when people are too busy throwing stones and not bothering to look where they are throwing them. One who bothers to look and study the pool before hand will have a much greater chance of making that ripple, but it comes through patience and a willingness to learn.

I'm not trying to put people off of making a difference. Thing is, though, if that is the primary goal, then there is really no hope, as you cannot push the borders if you have not yet reached them yourself. If you want to push the boundaries, you must first reach those boundaries, and the only way you can do that is by advancing yourself. That is where the focus is most efficient.

Of course, discussing theory and sharing experiences can easily be a part of improving yourself and helping others to do so also, however, that needs to be the goal for it to be effective, else the discussion will be laden with ego and misinformation.

Joe

 

[Steerpike]

Magic is a pool of water. No matter how small a stone that you toss into it, it still makes a ripple that is seen across the entire pool and the effects of that ripple are still felt by anything connected to the water.

Discussing, talking, and theorizing about what you can do to improve or change the art that you love so much is important. While you are right that talk by itself achieves little, it builds the foundation for establishing good habbits. It's those good habbits that when you remain faithful to them, over the course of a career can lead to positive change.

There's a difference between trying to form a good habit and saying faux-profound crap to feel better about yourself. And therein lies our predicament