Ways of Magic

One sort of magic occurs in the disconnect between what we sense and what we understand. For instance, you might watch a pianist perform a concerto and interpret it emotionally, all without understanding the internal machination of the piano which produces the sound. To the listener, the music is simply coming from the pianist’s finger tips, somewhat magically. Another example could be movies, where you perceive the character instead of the actor. If this disconnect is too great, it can become frustrating. When a performer walks out on stage singing to an instrumental backing track without a band behind them, it’s not unusual to feel a bit cheated. There is no vehicle facilitating the magic, it is left hanging in thin air. If the disconnect is non-existent, we become bored. The average painting of a fruit bowl is of no significance to a painter who has painted many similar fruit bowls before. The painter has a fairly complete comprehension of painted fruit bowls, for them there is no disconnect in the visual and the medium.