Written in 2001. Manifesto
Further notes exist, but I can only include what is necessary to convey my message.
*(Note to self-the change is gradual. The change is happening with more open forms of communication, however, degradation of this art continues.)
Magic as Art is failing and who is to blame but ourselves!
How can an unimaginable power given to us be lessened overtime?
The great one-handed magician, Rene Lavand has said this is a lesser art, our punishment. We have punished ourselves. Now degraded to such phrases as, "a touch of the wand," "neither here, nor there", "a sprinkle of magic dust," and "let us say abracadabra".
“And naturally came the punishment that, of course, was not the rage of god, but the boredom of the audience.” -R.L.
We must act with immediacy!
We must examine the images that have shaped our culture. Let us take the rabbit for example, a hard truth, but a truth none-the-less. Beyond Copperfield, before David Blaine one photograph stood among the rest, defining the modern magician. You remember the man who wore a tuxedo, hair slicked aside, holding a top hat against his palm and with the other hand, pulled a “rabbit” out of the hat. Is there no other image in the last century to define us? Is this who we are today?
*(Houdini images come to mind. They evoke a feeling of restraint, is he telling us something?)
And further into the rabbit hole we go.
How can we return to our holy seats where Magi's were once heralded by kings and queens?
Let us investigate the consciousness of today’s magician by appropriately educating ourselves. Study our sacred art and those before us leading back when sorcerers etched in stones tell a story of a strong mysterious craft. Soon after, we disvalue everything we learned and start from the ground up (do not trap yourself into fixed terms, nor value those before us). Our collective consciousness will re-birth itself into a brand new era, a culture with devoted secrecy.
The need to break from one another to seek new images is more urgent, now then ever (this cannot be accomplished by moving in packs). We must bring proper images that bring back "life" to the Magi. We must stop backpacking on other ideas and seek further exploration into the dream, the dream that started our conquest to be truth tellers. We must move beyond respecting this art and grasp it with the faith of a thousand men.
The demoralization of our culture due to exposure will continue unless we govern stricter laws by creating more value onto our effects without a price tag! Once understood, the artist shall move forward creating illusions of grandeur, breaking the false reality along with methods that go further than today’s technology.
Our conquest must reach for what acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog has coined, “ecstatic truth”, an inherent truth realized only by the artist.
*(Reference his later works, also that of P.H.- reflect on past conversation with PH.-how astonishment affects magician? Rediscover. theres something there, don’t know yet.)
And maybe then, we can renounce our positions next to the kings and queens. Until then only ignorance remains and the repetitive rhythms of a dying culture.
*(do not forget antonin a.)
“We must believe in a sense of life renewed by the theater, a sense of life in which man fearlessly makes himself master of what does not exist, and bring it into being. And everything that has not been born can still be brought to life if we are not satisfied to remain mere recording organisms” – antonin a.
I am Bunny Boy
