The Art of Magic Series - Mitch Williams
Tools and Resources to Make Your Magic the Best it Can Be!
GIVING MAGIC MEANING
If art is self expression, and you want to make your magic your art, you must express yourself somehow through it. This need not be deep and profound, although you may surprise yourself, and it may in fact end up being deep or profound, or at least more so than you might have expected. Because when you truly follow your artistic vision, quite often where you end up is a complete surprise. But in any case you certainly must express something.
I'd hope that you will express more than merely, "Look what I can do. You can't figure it out. Ain't I great!" Unless of course, that context has a deeper subplot, for example that you're really poking fun at yourself and at the whole idea of self aggrandizement -- in which case that will need to be made somehow blatantly obvious to the audience -- but then, that's a whole other story for another time perhaps.
My point was... (I do tend to wander...) My point was that if you wish your magic to be your art, your vehicle for self expression, you have to allow yourself room to express something of yourself through it. While this might seem obvious in principle, in practice it often isn't.
First, your magic itself, the technique for accomplishing effects, must be flawless to the degree that it in no way detracts from the message you wish to express. And keep in mind that while I say "message", what you choose to express may not be something so concrete that it can be conveyed in words. It may be more abstract than that, but it must be clearly conveyed in some form, whether verbally, emotionally, or subtly through context, to the audience. And as I said, you don't want your method, the magic technique, to interfere with this expression, or draw attention away from it. So it must be so flawlessly executed that it is invisible.
Secondly, The magic effects, as well as any outwardly apparent physical actions inherent in or necessary to the accomplishment of the effects, must have a purpose, a reason for occurring within the context of whatever it is that you are EXPRESSING. (Or at the very least they must not conflict with the context at all.) They must have motivation, in other words. Some of this integration of technique, effects, and expression must be worked out when first structuring a magic routine. Other subtle elements, such as timing, inflection, and eye contact, for example, may in many cases be spontaneous to each performance.
Given that these elements are in place: flawless and therefore invisible technique, and integration of effect and expression, the other side is identifying what that expression will actually be. Of course this isn't necessarily a separate process, nor is it one that will come after the others, but you must discover it in some way. Your "message" or expression will come from within you. It comes from inspiration, an experience springing up from within, that you then convey outward. It may be something you say, or it may be something you do or feel or believe, but you must experience it, and even if you can't necessarily define it clearly, and you must nonetheless convey it clearly to the audience.
You may for example be expressing a complex emotional tone that runs throughout a piece. Even if it isn't something you can easily put into words, you should be able to get whatever you're feeling across to the audience in a way that they are likely to connect with it. Or what you express may be communicated in words, ideas, images, or any other concrete form, so long as it is something your audience has at least the probability of comprehending or empathizing with. Which brings up the other element of this equation: your audience.
In my view, artists who take no consideration whatsoever for the perspective of their audiences are poor artists indeed. Art is not only about self expression, it is most importantly a communication medium. If you express something that has absolutely no chance of being "received" by "another", there is no communication, and nothing of value has occurred (except perhaps your own personal therapy session.) This doesn't mean you have to "sell out" in terms of what you want to express. It simply means you need to have enough awareness of your intended audience to put your expression into some particular form to which they can somehow relate.
Even if your intention is to shock, in order to do so effectively, you must have some understanding of what is likely to be perceived as "shocking" to those who will witness your art. Even if you actually believe you're "ahead of your time", and you therefore target your message to some potential "future audience" that is more sophisticated and more enlightened than these mere mortals of today, -- (though this tends to be even more impractical with magic than many other art forms, given the fact that magic is generally a "live performance" vehicle) -- you must nonetheless have an idea for who they are.
So it's important to be aware of your audience. I've seen many magicians who go on autopilot and perform their routines without any awareness of what's going on around them or how what they're doing is being received. This awareness of the audience is crucial: both the anticipation of it when developing new material, as well as the moment to moment awareness of it when actually performing. If I'm going to reach my audience, I must pay attention to them -- honestly -- and respond accordingly.
In my view, art is a form of service, in that, as Tolstoy said, it is an attempt to communicate to others "the highest and best to which men have risen." Art is meant to transform. I communicate to you an idea, a feeling, an experience... and hopefully you will think or feel or experience something new yourself as a result... hopefully something you would not have experienced otherwise. And we are both changed by the interaction.
Now, before you think I'm just on some high horse here, let me say again that this need not necessarily be deep or profound. It can be as simple as having fun, spreading a little joy and goodwill: entertainment, in other words. But are we not in fact transformed by these experiences, to one degree or another, each and every time they occur?
I believe so.
And in that regard I believe that it's important that we identify our message and how we will express it. What is it that you want to convey through the vehicle of your magic? What is the most important thing you have to say to the world? The thing that's just dying to get out of you. And I mean that literally. If we don't give expression to these urges, and let them out into the world to become what they will, they do "get backed up in our system", and become stagnant and eventually die.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, regardless of whether you share my view on this or not, how do these ideas on approaching magic make you feel about your magic? Does it give you any different perspective on it? Does it make you think or feel or relate to your involvement in magic in some new way? Does it motivate you to change your approach in any way? And if so, what will you do about it?
No one can answer that question but you.
--Mitch Williams