magic_syllabus.txt

MAS S.66:
Indistinguishable From…
Magic as Interface, Technology, and Tradition

Instructors: Greg Borenstein and Dan Novy
(Faculty Advisors: Joi Ito and Kevin Slavin)
Meeting Time: M 3-5 E14-493
SPRING  TERM — (Monday, Feb. 9, through Monday, May 11)
15 Weeks

Short Course Description:

With a focus on the creation of functional prototypes and practicing real magical crafts, this class combines theatrical illusion, game design, sleight of hand, machine learning, camouflage, and neuroscience to explore how ideas from ancient magic and modern stage illusion can inform cutting edge technology.  Students will learn techniques to improve the presentation, display, and interface of their projects as well as gaining a deeper understanding of the cultural  traditions that shape user expectations of technology. Topics will include: Stage Illusion as Information Display, The Neuroscience of Misdirection, Magical Warfare: Camouflage and Deception, Magic Items and the Internet of Things, Computational Demonology, Ritual Magick as User Experience Design. Guest lecturers and representatives of Member companies will contribute to select project critiques. Requires regular reading, discussion, practicing magic tricks, design exercises, a midterm project and final project.

Long Course Description:

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” -- Clarke's Third Law 

“Any sufficiently debased magic is indistinguishable from technology.” -- Rowling’s Corollary 

“Everything you can think of is true.” -- Tom Waits

When Aleister Crowley defined magic as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will," he might as easily have been describing technology. In fact, “magic” is still the word we use to encompass the wonders of a new technology before it becomes ubiquitous. 

From Neolithic ceremonies to Las Vegas stage shows, “magic” describes a long tradition of using technology, ritual, and performance to create wonder. As 21st century technologists there’s still a lot we can learn from this tradition. Engineering illusions requires close attention to the limits of human perception, disciplined practice of the art of showmanship, and subtle use of the crafts of deception -- skills that are just as relevant to contemporary technology demos as they were to 19th century stage illusions.

Further, magic is one of the central metaphors people use to understand the technology we build. From install wizards to voice commands and background daemons, the cultural tropes of magic permeate user interface design. Understanding the traditions and vocabularies behind these tropes can help us produce interfaces that use magic to empower users rather than merely obscuring their function.

With a focus on the creation of functional prototypes and practicing real magical crafts, this class combines theatrical illusion, game design, sleight of hand, machine learning, camouflage, and neuroscience to explore how ideas from ancient magic and modern stage illusion can inform cutting edge technology.

Topics will include:

Stage Illusion as Information Display, 
The Neuroscience of Misdirection, 
Magical Warfare: Camouflage and Deception
Magic Items and the Internet of Things
Computational Demonology
Ritual Magick as User Experience Design

Guest lecturers and representatives of Member companies will contribute to select project critiques. Requires regular reading, discussion, practicing magic tricks, design exercises, a midterm project and final project.

Course tumblr: http://magicandtech.tumblr.com

Go here to join:
https://www.tumblr.com/join/qJMJIJAhFo

Topics

One week each, reading selections, topic, and topic order may change

Week 0 (2/9): Introduction/Overview 
Dan and Greg do a trick
Magic? Really?
Types of Magic.
What this class isn’t. Goth Talk with Arduinos.
Classifications of Magic/Stage Illusions
Reading:
Alan Moore on magic art and art as magic -- http://glycon.livejournal.com/13888.html
"Principles, Techniques, and Ethics of Stage Magic and Their Application to Human Interface Design -  http://www.asktog.com/papers/magic.html ( I have a PDF now)
A MAN, A BALL, A HOOP, A BENCH (AND AN ALLEGED THREAD)… TELLER! http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2008/nov/20/man-ball-hoop-bench-and-alleged-thread-teller/
Ricky Jay profile in the New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1993/04/05/secrets-of-the-magus
Ricky Jay and his 52 assistants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jljt5Ml28FU
Assignment: Pick 1 of 2 classic sleight of hand illusions. Learn, practice it.
Read for Next Week: 
Prestigious Demons 3: Stage magic and demonic apparitions. (http://www.techgnosis.com/chunks.php?sec=articles&cat=phantasy&file=chunkfrom-2011-05-01-1549-0.txt )
Optical portion of Giambattista della Porta’s “Magiae naturalis.” 

Week 1 (2/17): Smoke and Mirrors: Stage Illusion as Storytelling Tool 
Guest: Marco Tempest
Students present slight of hand illusions
3D telepresence chair and aerial display
c
Selections from The Official Cia Manual of Trickery and Deception ???
Selection from The War Magicians???
Deception: From Ancient Empires to Internet Dating. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2009. -- Harrington, Brooke. 
Trivers, Robert. Social Evolution. Menlo Park, Calif: Benjamin/Cummings Pub. Co, 1985. 
View: The Ghost Army (Link)
Assignment: Begin to amplify your trick++ using this week’s lecture.

Week 2 (2/23): Magical Warfare: Camouflage & Deception, Dee, Crowley, Maskelyne, and Mulholland.
Guest: Joi Ito & Elizabeth Bear

Cell phone towers as trees
Read for Next Week: 
Example of D&D play from AD&D 2nd Edition Player’s Handbook: https://gist.github.com/atduskgreg/46e6b51c0d45faa6c561 
Something from Mark Rosewater (lead designer of Magic)
Assignment: Continue practicing or developing your Trick++???


Week 3 (3/2): Magic as System
Guest: Kevin Slavin
Read for Next Week: No reading. Practice. 
Assignment: 
Continue practicing your Trick++

Week 4 (3/9): Trick++
Trick++ presentations with guest critic
Read for Next Week:
Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire, and the Internet of Things
The Demon-Haunted World, Beautiful Seams
Assignment: 
Start thinking about your MidTerm Project
	

Week 5 (3/16): Magic Items: Rings, Swords, and the Internet of Things
Guest: David Rose
Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire, and the Internet of Things
Guest: Matt Jones
The Demon-Haunted World, Beautiful Seams
Design Exercise: Pick a spell from the Players Handbook and build it??
Read for Next Week:
Selection from: Magic and Showmanship: A Handbook for Conjurers.
Selection from: Fitskee??
Assignment: Develop your Midterm Project

Week 6 (3/30): Showmanship, Environment, and Illusion
Guest: Marco Tempest??? Ferdinando Buscema???
Reading: ????
Assignment: Apply the principles of this week’s lecture to your Mid-Term Project.
Train car film theatres
Reality effect
Theme park design
Melies
Hero’s Journey for magic trick (what is the monomyth of a magic trick)

Week 7 (4/6): Midterm Project Presentation
Read for Next Week:
Selection from The Atrocity Archives??
Black Mirror episode, “Be Right Back”


Week 8 (4/13): Computational Demonology: Bots, Familiars, and Machine Learning
Guest: Darius Kazemi/Greg Borenstein
Twitterbots
Femosecond Trading
Daniel Suarez’s Daemon??


Assignment: Create Final Project Proposal

Week 9 (4/27): Final Project Proposal MAY NEED TO DELETE
Read for Next Week:
Cosmic Trigger Robert Anton Wilson???
Pervasive Games;Theory and Practice, Ch. 1.???

Week 10(5/4): The Magic Circle: Ritual Magick as User Experience Design (Rules and Permission)
Guest: Peter Bebergal??? Eric Zimmerman??? Philip Tan??
Read for Next Week:
From Counterculture to Cyberculture -- Stewart Brand???
Assignment: ???

Week 11(5/11): Open Sourcery: Law, Hackerspaces and Programming Languages as Occult Communities
Guest: Graham Jones???
Read for Next Week: 
No reading
Assignment: Practice Your Project as a Magic Trick

Week 12: Your Project as a Magic Trick MAY NEED TO DELETE

Read For Next Week:
Selections from Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions
Selections from: Thinking, Fast and Slow???
Selection from: The Trick Brain??


Week 12: NeuroScience of Magic.
Guest: Daniel Kahneman??? Alan Oppenheim???
The Neuroscience of Misdirection

Reading: 
???
FLOW, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi ??
Assignment: ???

Week 12 (5/11): Final Project Presentation

Grading
Grading will be based on attendance, enthusiastic participation in class discussion, respectful project critiques of fellow students, and clear and detailed documentation of projects (25%). Participation includes speaking during class, being attentive and engaged, as well as commenting and critiquing online materials at the class website. The first 3 projects will be each worth 15%, and the final project will be worth 30% (including documentation). Each unexcused absence will result in a loss of 10% of total points. Each failure to do the assigned readings will result in a 5% loss of total points. Projects may be done alone or in collaboration. Collaborations must document the full extent of each participant's contribution and equal effort is expected per collaborator. The final project may build on one of the previous three.