The finger on the sore spot
Ricardo Rodríguez (escuelamagia.cl) pours his decades of experience as a performer and as a teacher to share reflections on fundamental points of artistic magic: the great masters and why they are important, the role of theories in magic and how they compare with each other, the hierarchy of the different components of a magic trick, the genesis, creation and philosophy in magic... Whether you have been performing for ten minutes —it’s never too early!— or if you’ve been performing magic for ten years —it’s never too late— let Ricardo tell you the things he would have liked to know if he had to start all over again.
Episode 1 · Apology of Ascanio
Ricardo talks about the fundamental basis of Arturo de Ascanio’s Structural Conception of Magic for artistic magic and about his interpretation of it and the way in which he understands that theory in magic should be conceived and practiced.
00:00 · Intro.
00:38 · Ascanio’s theory as something that maps the territory of artistic magic.
04:24 · The impertinence of taking theory in magic as a recipe book.
05:08 · Analogy between Ascanian concepts and the generalization of a theorem.
07:12 · A theory that is based on a whole tradition.
08:02 · Perplexity, Jeff McBride and Mystery School.
10:07 · Systematic thinking and eclectic thinking.
10:59 · The concepts of Ascanian theory in dialectical relations.
12:02 · Ascanio’s Structural Conception, a theory that possesses the potential to question itself. Indiscriminate use of In-Transit Actions.
16:45 · Taking the Structural Conception as a basis, the conceptions of greater qualitative value of today were developed.
17:00 · There are theories objectively less powerful than others.
You can watch it on YouTube (with English subtitles):
ATENCIÓN: estos vídeos de YouTube tienen subtítulos en inglés, pero están grabados en castellano (también puedes traducir esta página web al castellano o de vuelta al inglés usando la pestaña de la parte inferior izquierda).
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Episode 2 · Apology of Ascanio II: Strong Magic
Ricardo continues to defend Ascanian theory, this time comparing the highly recommended book “Strong Magic” by Darwin Ortiz, which has become very popular, with the work of Arturo de Ascanio. The criticisms noted are examples that illustrate how he believes one should approach reading a book on magic theory (or magic in general).
00:00 · Intro.
00:34 · Why “Strong Magic” is far inferior to “The Magic of Ascanio”.
01:39 · Drawbacks of the absence of systematic criteria to coordinate concepts and Ideas.
02:52 · On argumentative weakness, contradictions and the frequent practice of renaming concepts.
06:56 · Recipes in magic and notes on “clarity” and “anticlimax”.
09:22 · Giving solutions to problems that don't exist and considerations about Darwin Ortiz’s claims about the “Sympathetic Clubs” effect.
13:18 · “Triumph”: Two effects?
16:54 · On the claim that asking a spectator to name a card is a bad idea.
17:52 · The claim that Elmsley’s “Between Your Palms” is a trick that is not good for lay audiences.
18:15 · The gratuitousness of many statements that “Strong Magic” contains.
18:52 · The practice of avoiding giving certain credits.
23:20 · Values of “Strong Magic”.
24:00 · Conclusions on the comparison between “Strong Magic” and “The Magic of Ascanio”.
You can watch it on YouTube (with English subtitles):
ATENCIÓN: estos vídeos de YouTube tienen subtítulos en inglés, pero están grabados en castellano (también puedes traducir esta página web al castellano o de vuelta al inglés usando la pestaña de la parte inferior izquierda).
And listen to it on Spotify:
Episode 3 · Magic and subjectivity
Subjectivity —things like the artist expressing his inner world or following his intuition— seems to have taken on too important a role in the arts these days. In particular, this is beginning to affect magic. Ricardo analyses some of the causes and consequences of this and, after studying the many aspects of the subject, proposes, in defence of the objective elements of works of artistic magic, the restoration of the subjective components that appear in them to their correct hierarchical order.
00:00 · Intro.
00:58 · The discourse of radical subjectivity in which the young magician settles today and its causes.
02:15 · Origins of the idea that subjectivity should be the fundamental axis around which human life should revolve.
02:47 · The moment when the distortion of the objective elements of the work of art in favour of subjectivity takes place.
03:18 · Placing subjectivity as the ontological centre of reality: drawbacks.
04:32 · The magic trick comes from the conscious act of an individual who creates it and interprets it objectively.
05:29 · The philosophical basis for this content is to be found in Gustavo Bueno's Philosophical Materialism.
06:00 · Consequences of the disappearance of all normativity.
07:25 · Subjectivity and the analogy of “the hammock”.
08:07 · The masking of poverty in the artistic result.
11:48 · Representation and exercise.
12:50 · Absence of normativity and impostures.
14:12 · The fact that artistic magic will follow a course identical to that followed by other arts is a myth.
14:54 · The fact that an artist has created great works does not give him the authority to talk about them.
16:20 · When someone accepts that a work has been created from the unconscious, he has been “sold” a rationality disguised as irrationality.
16:48 · The restoration of the subjective components that appear in all magic plays to their correct hierarchical order.
You can watch it on YouTube (with English subtitles):
ATENCIÓN: estos vídeos de YouTube tienen subtítulos en inglés, pero están grabados en castellano (también puedes traducir esta página web al castellano o de vuelta al inglés usando la pestaña de la parte inferior izquierda).
And listen to it on Spotify:
Episode 4 · Technical Genesis and Creation in Magic
Ricardo addresses in this episode the technical genesis of magic and the related issue of creation in magic from materialistic rather than idealistic assumptions. Inspiration is not understood as the gift left by the visit of the muses, nor is it accepted that artists create from the unconscious, nor is it assumed that new ideas are somewhere mysteriously accessed by the artist. The magician does not create from nothing. It is something more along the lines that after spending hours on techniques, on understanding the principles, on bringing the magic tricks to the public, confrontations begin to arise and also ways of resolving them that are likely to break with the material from which they start.
01:06 · Technical genesis of artistic magic.
01:47 · The reflection on the art of magic is always subsequent to the exercise of the operations.
02:30 · Creation in magic from materialistic assumptions.
06:00 · Often there is no intention on the part of the artist to break the material from which he starts.
You can watch it on YouTube (with English subtitles):
ATENCIÓN: estos vídeos de YouTube tienen subtítulos en inglés, pero están grabados en castellano (también puedes traducir esta página web al castellano o de vuelta al inglés usando la pestaña de la parte inferior izquierda).
And listen to it on Spotify:
Episode 5 · Theories and Speculation
Theories do not offer subjective points of view. Well, good theories do not, because there are also bad theories, and to lump them all together is not acceptable. Discrediting theories (directly or slyly) for the sake of convenience, because they question one’s knowledge or performance, is a practice that is as common as it is mean-spirited. Ricardo takes a stand against the radical subjectivism that is currently in vogue, against the spiritual idea of creation in art, and in favour of the rational components, advocating that we free ourselves from these myths in order to prevent our artistic development from stagnating.
00:55 · Theories need not necessarily be metaphysics.
01:39 · When theories question our knowledge and performance as magicians.
02:44 · Some reasons for the discrediting by some individuals towards all theories.
06:44 · Identification of theories with speculation and the paradox of Epimenides.
07:30 · Alert to teachers who discredit in advance the value of any theory.
You can watch it on YouTube (with English subtitles):
ATENCIÓN: estos vídeos de YouTube tienen subtítulos en inglés, pero están grabados en castellano (también puedes traducir esta página web al castellano o de vuelta al inglés usando la pestaña de la parte inferior izquierda).
And listen to it on Spotify:
Episode 6 · Fictional conception of magic I
In this and the next episode Ricardo talks about many aspects of Gabi Pareras’ fictional conception of magic, which he conceived as a counterpoint to the conception he called realistic. A conception that proposes a “change in the gaze” and which is especially concerned about where the spectator looks from.
In realistic magic, understanding and emotion run parallel. The aim of the magic trick is to yield to the intellect, placing emphasis on the conditions under which the effect is carried out.
In fictional magic it turns out that understanding and emotion no longer run along parallel paths, but appear braided together. The emphasis is not on the conditions under which the effect takes place; the emphasis is instead on the imaginary play that the effect poses.
But, beware, Ricardo warns us not to think that this neglects aspects such as coverage or technique. Gabi’s conception is original and powerful in these and other aspects as well.
00:00 · Intro.
00:44 · Some key points of Gabi Pareras’ fictional conception.
02:15 · Difficulties in trying to define fictional magic.
04:00 · General lines that can help the uninitiated reader of Gabi’s work to get an idea of what fictional magic is.
04:16 · Realistic magic.
05:20 · Fictional magic.
06:51 · Fictional magic vs realistic magic.
07:32 · Effect and phenomenon.
08:55 · “Prestímano” and magician.
10:19 · The “magical Self”.
11:35 · Fictional magic and phenomenology.
12:55 · Fictional magic is not only concerned with external life, it has a very powerful and very refined technical conception.
14:40 · Phenomenology.
14:58 · Consciousness.
15:38 · Meaning.
18:37 · Magical gesture.
You can watch it on YouTube (with English subtitles):
ATENCIÓN: estos vídeos de YouTube tienen subtítulos en inglés, pero están grabados en castellano (también puedes traducir esta página web al castellano o de vuelta al inglés usando la pestaña de la parte inferior izquierda).
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Episode 7 · Fictional conception of magic II
Ricardo continues to introduce us to the main points of Gabi Pareras’ Fictional Conception of Magic and insists once again that it should not be reduced to some aspects of its external life. Gabi’s conception is personal and very rich in multiple aspects that are always combined having the spectator’s experiencein mind, since he is the great protagonist.
00:52 · Hierarchy of hands.
03:32 · Neurosciences.
04:15 · Cognitive neuroscience.
04:37 · Brain, mind and consciousness.
05:01 · Mental life.
06:23 · Constant present.
09:07 · The discourse of the lie.
10:50 · Vivid magic.
14:47 · Verisimilitude
15:27 · Main feature of fictional magic.
15:47 · Fictional magic is not reducible to a collection of fictional plots.
17:09 · The search for new themes is as important to fictional magic as is the broadening and perfecting of its technical conception.
You can watch it on YouTube (with English subtitles):
ATENCIÓN: estos vídeos de YouTube tienen subtítulos en inglés, pero están grabados en castellano (también puedes traducir esta página web al castellano o de vuelta al inglés usando la pestaña de la parte inferior izquierda).
And listen to it on Spotify:
Episode 8 · Magic and philosophy
In the field of artistic magic, as soon as we try to reflect on our activity, it is impossible to take a step without leaving the field of theories and entering the field of philosophy and also to do philosophy without basing ourselves, even if we are not aware of it, on some philosophical system. In this episode, which takes us into philosophy, Ricardo shows us the distinction between theory and philosophy and introduces the main philosophical systems, idealism and materialism, with a view to going deeper in the next episode into the philosophical materialism of Gustavo Bueno, which is the one he chooses for its tools and its power to analyse the phenomena not only of the world, but also of our artistic magic.
00:51 · Theories and Philosophies.
03:07 · Concepts and Ideas.
04:49 · Idealism and Materialism.
07:08 · Idealism and Materialism in the Arts.
07:44 · Materialism and Idealism are not born separate.
07:55 · Why the consideration of Philosophical Materialism as the most appropriate approach when interpreting phenomena related to the category of artistic magic.
09:18 · The coordination of the “regional map” offered by Ascanio’s Structural Conception with the “world map” presented by Philosophical Materialism.
09:52 · The importance of basing ourselves on a systematic philosophy.
10:42 · Ideas come from Concepts.
You can watch it on YouTube (with English subtitles):
ATENCIÓN: estos vídeos de YouTube tienen subtítulos en inglés, pero están grabados en castellano (también puedes traducir esta página web al castellano o de vuelta al inglés usando la pestaña de la parte inferior izquierda).
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Episode 9 · Artistic magic and philosophical materialism
Ricardo takes us into some aspects of Gustavo Bueno’s philosophical materialism and some of the repercussions of approaching artistic magic from this perspective. Behind the choice of philosophical materialism and its critical tools to interpret theories circumscribed to the field of artistic magic is the intention that our reflections do not remain in the realm of speculation and to understand the world and magic as they really are and not as one imagines them or would like them to be.
00:35 · Key ideas of the ontology of Gustavo Bueno’s Philosophical Materialism.
01:39 · Non-corporealist and pluralist materialism.
01:58 · Special ontological matter (M1, M2, M3).
03:18 · Discontinuist materialism.
03:34 · Symploké.
03:45 · Reasons justifying why we take Philosophical Materialism as a basis.
04:10 · Repercussions of taking Philosophical Materialism as a basis.
04:14 · Positioning contrary to spiritualist or idealist positions.
05:08 · Positioning against monistic materialistic presuppositions.
07:30 · A philosophical system analogised as a “map of the world” conditions the displacements we can make in it.
09:17 · Examples of discontinuities and the myth of the identification of multiple artistic categories with languages translatable into each other.
12:25 · A few brief biographical notes.
14:12 · The validity of the various “maps” can only be determined in relation to other maps, which are often guided by other coordinate axes.
14:58 · The Philosophical Materialism does not believe that it is possible to make a “map” of the entire universe. The general ontological matter.
You can watch it on YouTube (with English subtitles):
ATENCIÓN: estos vídeos de YouTube tienen subtítulos en inglés, pero están grabados en castellano (también puedes traducir esta página web al castellano o de vuelta al inglés usando la pestaña de la parte inferior izquierda).
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Episode 10 · Effect and Phenomenon I
Gabi realised that the effect was insufficient to account for the complete communication process of artistic magic. He then rescued the term “phenomenon” from Nelms’ book "Magic and Showmanship” and reinterpreted it under the coordinates of fictional magic. But both words have been used, both by Gabi and by other authors, in a non-univocal way, even producing a semantic inversion of the term “effect”, which goes from referring to the external life to referring to the internal life (in Gabi’s case, this inversion is total, as he places the effect only in the internal life). Ricardo reviews historically the meanings in which the term “phenomenon” has been used and also how this semantic inversion of the term “effect” has been produced, to which everything from the creators of classifications to Arturo de Ascanio himself has contributed with his definition of effect by contrast (something that is logical because internal life and external life are two inseparable realities even if we dissociate them for purposes of analysis) and promises, for the next and last episode, taking into account everything discussed in this one, to launch a proposal for a definition of effect and phenomenon.
00:35 · Fictional conception, separation of Effect and Phenomenon.
01:18 · Univocal, equivocal and analogous terms.
01:50 · The fictional conception rescues Nelms’ term Phenomenon and reinterprets it under its own coordinates.
02:32 · In Nelms’ work the concept of Phenomenon is used imprecisely.
03:04 · Phenomenon as “Nature of Effect”.
04:30 · Phenomenon as “Group to which a given category of Effects can be confined”.
04:50 · Phenomenon as “Fictional Cause of which the Effect is a consequence”. Taking this as the exclusive definition of Phenomenon implies severely narrowing the sense in which Gabi interpreted it.
07:04 · Phenomenon as “Dramatic Interpretation of the Effect”.
07:42 · Where the more mature Gabi speaks out regarding how he understands the Ideas of Effect and Phenomenon is in conversations with Juan Esteban Varela (“Until Dawn”, El Caballo del Malo). He associates the Effect to the prestiman (internal life) and the Phenomenon to the sphere of the magician (external life).
08:28 · Historical evolution of the term Effect in artistic magic and semantic inversion of the term.
12:41 · In the conversations, Juan Esteban Varela tells Gabi that the considered Effects are also dramatic interpretations (external life). Gabi concedes that although an Effect can sometimes also be a Phenomenon, he finds it practical to understand it in such a way that the Effect belongs to the internal life and the Phenomenon to the external life, arguing practical issues.
13:46 · On the one hand, Juan Esteban hits on the key point, on the other hand, the practical aspect that Gabi alludes to is good to consider. In the next issue we will launch a proposal that will modulate the concepts of Effect and Phenomenon.
You can watch it on YouTube (with English subtitles):
ATENCIÓN: estos vídeos de YouTube tienen subtítulos en inglés, pero están grabados en castellano (también puedes traducir esta página web al castellano o de vuelta al inglés usando la pestaña de la parte inferior izquierda).
And listen to it on Spotify:
Episode 11 · Effect and Phenomenon II
So much for "The finger on the sore spot”. We hope that these 11 episodes have made you reflect, develop your critical thinking, appreciate the work of the great masters and perhaps debunk some “myths”. In this last one, Ricardo proposes his definitions of “effect” and “phenomenon”, in line with everything discussed in the previous one, and studies different very clarifying examples. Perhaps now is a good time for you too to study in detail and even develop the work of the great masters.
01:07 · Reminder of proposal.
02:00 · Effect.
02:20 · Phenomenon.
03:17 · What Effect and Phenomenon have in common and how they differ.
04:10 · The most useful classifications of Effects.
04:25 · Analogy with a watch face.
05:54 · When the Phenomenon is disconnected from the Effect.
06:42 · Example of Phenomenon and its connection with the Effect (minute hand near the hour one).
07:52 · Example of Phenomenon disconnected from the Effect.
09:14 · Example of Phenomenon connected to the Effect (minute hand away from the hour one).
10:26 · The particular form of communication that constitutes artistic magic will always offer, objectified in the work, an interpretation, whether it is delivered through the Phenomenon or the Effect.
11:13 · On the “impossible” quality of an event. Example.
12:09 · The proposal, without being conclusive, puts “in the spotlight” the possibilities of development that Gabi Pareras' theories have “in the making”.
You can watch it on YouTube (with English subtitles):
ATENCIÓN: estos vídeos de YouTube tienen subtítulos en inglés, pero están grabados en castellano (también puedes traducir esta página web al castellano o de vuelta al inglés usando la pestaña de la parte inferior izquierda).
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Credits
Original idea and recordings: Ricardo Rodríguez
Editing: Benjamín Cáceres “Benja”
Typography and designs: Carlos Vinuesa
Subtitles in English: Marcos Olivero “Marcus”
Photograph of Ricardo: Christian Zapata
Music: “Rondeña”, composed by Ramón Montoya and performed by Alejandro Hurtado