Magic (anthropology)

The contemporary conjurer, fine artist and critical theorist Jeff Sheridan offered the following meditation on and typology of 'magic/illusion' in his chapter "Conjuring and its Cousin" in the publication "Con Art" (Ed. Helen Varola, 2002, Site Gallery, Sheffield, UK):

"Because the art of magic is predicated on illusion, the general consesnsus is that this is an art concerned mainly with deception. As such, magic is generally held, in spite of its popularity, in a somewhat lower esteem in comparison with the other arts, whose aesthetics appear to be concerned essentially with revelation. Although illusion and revelation may be at first seem farily antagonistic as concepts, a closer examination reveals them to be quite often, two sides of the same coin."

"When in terpreted in their broadest sense, the words 'magic'and 'magical' can apply to many things..However, the definition of magic in the art of oconjuring is specifically defined as the apparent disobedience of nature's natual laws. Although thye can be broken down further, there are basically only eleven ways in which this can be done:

'Production, Vanish, Transposition, Restoration, Penetration, Levitation, Animation, Suspension, Mind-Reading (or Clairvoyance) and Physical Anomaly (i.e. Headless Woman'."

Sheridan's rumination on and elucidation of 'magic' has a canonical weight due both to the comprehensiveness of the above taxonomy but also due to his own standing as a magician of considerable accomplishment.