magic, adj. ; magical. Native speakers of English donāt have nearly as much trouble using these words appropriately as lexicographers have classifing the sense adequately. Both may mean either (1) āof, relating to, or involving mystical powers that allow impossible things to be accomplished,ā or (2) āof, relating to, or involving the performance of tricks for entertainment, esp. by sleight of hand.ā
Garner, Bryan. Garner’s Modern English Usage, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2016
This direct correlation between cause and effect makes techniques repeatable and transmissible, whereas the same cannot be said of magic, whose cause and eļ¬ect are heterogeneous and incommensurable. Inmagic, effectiveness is attributed to forces or agents other than technical actions.
Cheng, Joyce. “Surrealism’s “Primitive Reason”: Magic, Technique, Alteration.” Comparative literature 76, no. 2 (2024) p160.
It seems elementary that a theory of causality should put āunderstandingā in the place of mystery. Causality theories are preoccupied with explaining things away, with demystiļ¬cation. A theory of cause and effect shows you how the magic trick is done. But what if something crucial about causality resided at the level of the magic trick itself?
Morton, Timothy. Realist Magic: Objects, Ontology, Causality. Open Humanities Press, 2013. http://openhumanitiespress.org/realist-magic.html p17.
Effect Cards
Each player will be selected by a Effect when they choose a card from the Effect deck.
Again, you have just one chance to swap out your card for another. You may only swap with one character in your cult only (you cannot draw again from the deck). If you like the card you were dealt, you can choose to stick with it.
Effect Pages: QR Codes on Effect Cards
Each Effect has its own webpage. The QR code on your Effect Card will take you directly to the card’s webpage.
Effect Pages contain a mixture of research prompts. Each Effect is described by conficting voices. The conficting voices are parameters within which you will determine how to present your Effect to other characters in your group. It is up to you to interpret these voices when creating, narrating and performing the attributes of your Effect.
Read the information on your Effect Page very carefully before looking up more information elsewhere.
Once you have worked through the information on your Effect Page, you can start to fill out the blank spaces in theĀ Select Effect – Sheet
Try to envisage how your group might be able to achieve this effect.
Consider who the Principal Character is – are the capable of pulling off this particular effect. What attributes might be needed? What tools or methods might be requried to achieve the effect written on your card. Write down the key ideas on theĀ Select Effect – Sheet and keep them as notes to yourself.
Once everyone in the group has worked on their effect, each member of the group can now tell the others about their effect; working through the information on theĀ Select Effect – Sheet – again – remaining in character at all times.
Effect Confirmed – Board
The group should, again, now decide which of the effects is going to be nominated as the proposed outcome of ‘Crafting Magic’ in this game. You can do this by voting.
Remember to carefully consider who the Principal Character is – are they able to craft the effect that you want to choose?
In event of a stalemate, toss a coin (best of three).
Once a desired effect has been chosen, place the selected card over the QR code on the Board.
Quickly outline the information required on the Board.
Once your work on effects has been completed, please move on to magic circle.
This website, Shift/Work: Crafting Magic https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/craftingmagic/ is written and maintained by Prof Neil Mulholland and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
