Mind and Magic: Manipulating Perception Through Physical Misdirection
Event details
| Date | 07.03.2014 |
| Hour | 14:30 › 16:00 |
| Speaker | Mark Mitton |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Physical misdirection is the foundation on which all magic - tricks, illusions, escapes, pick pocketing, mind reading, and even physical comedy – is based. It operates on the relationship between the actual and the perceived in a tactical way. This kind of magic offers a specific way to track awareness, arousal and identity as an experience that is not necessarily verbal. World-famous magician Mark Mitton invites us to experience physical misdirection for ourselves from both the audience's and practitioner's perspectives. Mitton will give a talk about physical misdirection - his specialty within magic - and draw connections to themes from cognitive psychology like attentional selection and inattentional blindness. He will engage us in thinking about how physical misdirection can be useful to scientists, psychologists and philosophers who are interested in perception, memory and perhaps even consciousness.
About Mark Mitton:
Mark Mitton is a world-famous professional magician who is fascinated by using magic to better understand how we see the world. For the past 25 years, Mitton has not only been dazzling audiences with his amazing skills, but has also been involved in investigating magic’s connections with psychology, biology, neurology, and philosophy. A proponent of the renowned cognitive psychologist Urich Neisser and apprentice to the famous magician magician Slydini, Mitton is just as eager to engage with psychologists and neuroscientists as he is to perform mind-bending feats of physical misdirection. He has co-organized and/or participated in a number of meetings with leading cognitive psychologists (Eldar Shafir, Joseph LeDoux, Nicholas Turk-Brown, and others) around the theme of mind and magic. Mitton has also entertained at private events of Beyonce and Sting, done opening acts for Aerosmith, made Will Smith appear in the middle of Times Square, taught sleight of hand to John Travolta and Stanley Tucci, worked with the biologist and Nobel laureate Gerald Edelman, performed in honor of Frank Yang, and recently moderated a panel of art restorers and criminal investigators who were addressing the theme of fraud, forgery, illusion, and the counterfeit.
Mitton's web site: www.markmitton.com
A BBC documentary with Mark Mitton stealing people's wrist watches: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToDMG7ptZss
Mitton's CV (attached to announcement on memento.epfl.ch)
About Mark Mitton:
Mark Mitton is a world-famous professional magician who is fascinated by using magic to better understand how we see the world. For the past 25 years, Mitton has not only been dazzling audiences with his amazing skills, but has also been involved in investigating magic’s connections with psychology, biology, neurology, and philosophy. A proponent of the renowned cognitive psychologist Urich Neisser and apprentice to the famous magician magician Slydini, Mitton is just as eager to engage with psychologists and neuroscientists as he is to perform mind-bending feats of physical misdirection. He has co-organized and/or participated in a number of meetings with leading cognitive psychologists (Eldar Shafir, Joseph LeDoux, Nicholas Turk-Brown, and others) around the theme of mind and magic. Mitton has also entertained at private events of Beyonce and Sting, done opening acts for Aerosmith, made Will Smith appear in the middle of Times Square, taught sleight of hand to John Travolta and Stanley Tucci, worked with the biologist and Nobel laureate Gerald Edelman, performed in honor of Frank Yang, and recently moderated a panel of art restorers and criminal investigators who were addressing the theme of fraud, forgery, illusion, and the counterfeit.
Mitton's web site: www.markmitton.com
A BBC documentary with Mark Mitton stealing people's wrist watches: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToDMG7ptZss
Mitton's CV (attached to announcement on memento.epfl.ch)
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- LNCO