Random thoughts about "The Science of Magic" on CBC's "The Nature of Things"

Updated at 9:30am to add links to: 

•  MORE TRICKERY FROM THE MAGICIANS FEATURED IN THE SCIENCE OF MAGIC from the CBC,
• WHAT MAGIC HAS TAUGHT US ABOUT HOW THE BRAIN WORKS from the CBC, and 
• The CBC promo page for The Science of Magic

"The Science of Magic" boasts an extraordinary list of participants, which include: Julie Eng, Ronald Rensink, Jay Olson, Gustav Kuhn, Anthony Barnhart, Amory Danek, Matthew Tompkins, Thomas Strandberg, Billy Kidd, Tom Stone, Thomas Fraps, Pit Hartling, and Juan Tamariz.

Had I known it was possible to do university level research involving the magician's force, mind-reading MRIs, or magic beans*, I may have reconsidered the focus of my post-secondary education.

I am, however, on the ball enough to jump at a chance to take an advance peek at (and ask questions about) "The Science of Magic," a documentary that examines these subjects and more!

Tune in to "The Science of Magic" on CBC’s "The Nature of Things" on Sunday, March 18, 2018 at 8PM (8:30 NT). The documentary will also be available to watch online at cbc.ca/natureofthings on Friday, March 16 from 5:00 pm EST.

When Donna and Daniel Zuckerbrot from Reel Time Images (who brought us  "Dai Vernon – The Spirit of Magic," "Max Maven: a fabulous monster," "The Houdini Code,"' and "Jeff McBride: a magickal life" among other titles) realized how much research was going on in the field of science and magic, they knew they had to investigate it further.
 

"You can see that the real question about our film 'The Science of Magic' isn’t why we wanted to make it, but rather, how could we not have?"
-- Donna Zuckerbrot

Julie Eng's reaction to being brought on board the project?

"I was thrilled. I have known the Zuckerbrots for many years and I am a big fan of their work."

  "The idea of using magic as a mechanism for study into how we think, and how we perceive the world is fascinating for me.  It was a huge honour to be asked to be the 'magical guide' for this film."

"Magicians don't have supernatural powers. Instead what they do is exploit very powerful and often very surprising limitations in human cognition."

-- Gustav Kuhn

In "The Science of Magic," the Zuckerbrots along with magical host Julie Eng, take us across Canada, the US, and Europe to visit with scientists using magic as an investigative tool in their exploration of cognition and behaviour.  (Pay close attention to catch cameos by Daniel Zuckerbrot, David Ben, and magic enthusiast Ari.)

The show is full of fascinating insights sure to capture the attention of those who like to be entertained by magic, those who perform magic, as well as those who are interested in psychology and behaviour.  There are even opportunities to participate in on air magic tricks!  From the press release:

"... viewers are able to feel the power of magic from the comfort of their homes and experience some of the psychological principles these tricks reveal (including ‘magicians choice,’ and choice blindness,' ‘failure to see,’ ‘change blindness,’ inattentional blindness, as well as the ‘aha’ moment)."

I'm not too proud to admit that on more than one occasion Julie had me right where she wanted.  I was also properly schooled by Anthony Barnhart.



On the other hand, I did well with Ronald Rensink's challenge and some of the other ones too!

Julie also teaches a coin trick that even I could master, with a little practice.

"We take these principles that magicians know, we bring them into the lab and we try and figure out how they work."

-- Jay Olson

It is humbling (and a bit disconcerting) to discover, as the press release describes, that "we sometimes don't see what's right under our noses," "we see tricks that fool us despite nothing actually happening," and that "we can be blind even to our own choices."

"We were all surprised at how magical the science was. It was astonishing to realize that we don’t see what we think we are seeing, that our memories are as slippery as our perceptions, that who we are — even our deeply held beliefs can change without us knowing. Like good magic the science left us with a feeling of wonder."  
-- the Zuckerbrots

For some behind the scenes photos have a look at the Reel Time Images Facebook page, Instagram account, or Twitter feed.  I look forward to hearing Daniel's thoughts at his Browser's Bash mini-talk.

During the making of the documentary, Julie said she was pleased to learn that "old magic tricks that I have known and have performed since I was a child can still have a deep and profound affect on people, particularly with the right presentation."


There are a variety of real world applications to the knowledge gained:

• Work on "how small distractions can blind drivers" can help improve driver safety.  ("Driver looked but failed to see" is an actual category of accident!)

Anthony Barnhart's studies showing how "off beats" work across sensory systems, help me better understand my habit of turning off my radio when I'm in a situation that requires my full attention.

• Suggestion-based treatments have promising uses in the medical field.
• The Zuckerbrots noted that Rensink's findings with respect to 'change blindness' "seems to underlie film editing.  It is apparently the reason why you don’t notice the change of pictures, from wide shot to close up for example, while you are watching a film."  
• In addition to psychology benefiting from the insights discovered using magic as an investigative tool, the Zuckerbrots observed that "some magicians believe they have already gained from what they’ve learned from psychologists.  Tom Stone is a great example, he certainly credits work he did with experimental psychologists as having changed his own performance in fundamental ways."
• Julie posits that "... from learning how intention and actions (movement) can help create smoother technical manipulation, to how it can mask the most technical sleight… is useful."  After all, she continues,

"If we can use science and technology to work out the perfect angle for speed skaters to maximize physics to their advantage, why can we not benefit from learning more about human behaviour and cognition to advance our field?"

"Each of these areas can bring a lot of insights to magicians to heighten the “magic" experience for audiences."

Is there anything else you'd like our readers to know about the show? 

"We hope they find watching it as interesting and as much fun as we did making it." 

-- the Zuckerbrots

"Bring their eyes and ears (and to be prepared to have fun!)"    -- Julie Eng

I certainly had fun learning and I'm sure you will too!  (As the scientific field evolves, I hope they'll film a second part.)

Tune in to "The Science of Magic" on CBC’s "The Nature of Things" on Sunday, March 18, 2018 at 8PM (8:30 NT). The documentary will also be available to watch online at cbc.ca/natureofthings on Friday, March 16 from 5:00 pm EST.



--
* Maybe they're really magic. Who knows? **
** With apologies to Stephen Sondheim.