Magic As Medium

"Why is magic seen only as light entertainment?"

These days, not a week goes by without us receiving, oh, say, six emails from readers asking this exact question. That is almost one email per day, each more insatiable than the last. Here we finally have the answer for you, in magical NEAT form.

This book examines our current understanding of reality as a whole. Easy stuff.

Magic as Medium is an introduction to linguistics, semiotics, phenomenology and the meaning of art, all through the lens of magic and theatre. It explores the space between the ideal and the real. It prods at the moment of astonishment.

Citing a vast compilation of work from magicians such as Paul Harris, Eugene Burger, Max Maven and Derek DelGaudio, Shawn DeSouza-Coelho dissects the writings of philosophy giants from the past 100 years and considers their works alongside and amidst magic. From Saussure and Lacan to Barthes and Heidegger, Magic as Medium offers a rigorous and wholly unique critique of magic, and a compelling commentary on art.

Magic has been relegated to the seemingly permanent status of light entertainment, dwelling on the fringes of other, more legitimate art forms. Its profound beauty and affective power eclipsed in the eyes of its audiences, magic does not seem to offer an audience the transcendence that art does... but why not? 

Can these two wily characters, magic and art, ever really meet? What might they talk about if they did?

CONTENTS:
Magic and the Misconception
Success and the Structure of Art
Failure and the Art of Magic
Our Imprisonment is our Escape

Each book includes a production script from one of Shawn’s theatre performances.

155mm x 220mm
ISBN: 978-1-8380597-8-1
160 pages
Hard-back cloth cover with foil block type.
Section sewn, 1-colour litho process throughout.
0.45kg
Cover illustration by Jordy van den Nieuwendijk