User:Charlie/Thesis Outline

✧ Thesis Outline ✧

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What lays at the intersection of Art and Magic as the potential basis

for forming novel and idiosyncratic modes of practicing Magic?

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Introduction

Protocols for Magic, as the working title for thesis and project, investigates how art and creative expression may shape and form idiosyncratic Magic practices.

(..elaborate on art-based Magic vs. magic-based Art..) (KEEP SHORT)

Through historic contextualization, analyzing and comparing varying perspectives of Magic and its complex relationship with other concepts, such as religion and science, this thesis searches to understand what lays at the intersection of Art and Magic as the potential basis for forming novel contemporary modes of practicing Magic. Directly informing the material research of the graduation project. Which investigates how creative exercises and artistic play, in the form of protocols, can act as didactic tools to facilitate a user's personal relation to Magic.

The thesis positions Magic and Art as concepts in flux, inherently personal, yet always shaped by the larger systems they exist in. Whether implicit or explicit. Both as distinct modes of knowledge, yet especially in their interconnected forms, Art and Magic become a way to actively create meaning through connection and participation in the world. As such, Art as the conduit to Magic, art-based Magic and its counter part, magical Art, are always subjective but never neutral. (ORIGIN OF TERM ART-BASED MAGIC)

This research emerged from an apparent lack of resources and publications on practicing Magic (whether through art or otherwise) that are separate from, or not directly reflecting, established religions or codified belief systems.

(..elaborate on the potential value and function of Magic as a whole. Magic within systems and outside of codified practices and art-based Magic as a form of personal experimentation) (DON'T LOSE TRACK)

(MODE OF ADDRESS? + TARGET AUDIENCE)

The thesis and project as a whole reflects both my life-long fascination with Magic and the Occult, as well as, core components of my own artistic practice. The approach to the research question(s)/goals (to be formulated) lays in the practice of subverting existing frameworks as a means to analyze and reflect on them from a new perspective. It also incorporates aspects of learning-through-making and cross-media arts, which reflect my overall goal of creating artistic projects that are accessible and approachable to a variety of audiences outside of the academic or institutional (arts) setting. Hence my focus on art-based Magic, as opposed to magic-based Art. (REPHRASE)

Through the Protocols for Magic research, I aim to deepen my own understanding and relation to Magic through Art. But also to directly connect this artistic research with a public audience, as an artist and designer, by taking on the role of facilitator and educator through the creation of new tools and frameworks for engaging with Magic as a practice.

✧ Chapter #1 ✧

Key components

• Outline different definitions and understandings of Magic (~3 positions)
• Establish the intersection of Art and Magic through examples
• Define my personal position and motivation within the thesis and project

The first chapter is an introduction into different understandings of Magic through three working definitions that I compiled from references. Each definition offers a different perspective, illustrated through examples to give insight into the evolution and function of Magic, and establishes its complex and dynamic relation to Art throughout human history. Additionally, with each perspective as a framework, I may introduce and explain distinct categories and practices within Magic, which will directly inform my analysis of artists, works and art-based magic in chapter two. As well as, form the basis for my Protocols for Magic prototypes within the graduation project.

The first section looks at the idea of Magic as a force. As is most frequently found within general definitions of Magic. (REFRENCES)

From this perspective, I offer a brief overview of the ancient history of Magic. Using well-known examples from prehistory and past civilizations, as a way to establish the (often disregarded yet ongoing) prevalence of Magic throughout human history and its significant and long-standing relation to human creative expression and art.

The second section discusses Magic as a mode-of-thinking. A framework for Magic most represented in academic and scientific positions. (REFRENCES)

This definition is exemplified by looking at the origin of our modern (and rationalized) concept of Magic through the distinction and separation of Magic from other modes of knowledge — Science and Religion. And how all three modes have evolved, interacted and interconnected in various degrees of reciprocity towards each other, and most crucially, towards art. Positing art as its own mode-of-knowing. Formulating the relation between Magic, Science, Religion and Art, as socio-cultural and political construct, is crucial to understanding where and how contemporary Magic practices originated and function today.

The third section posits Magic as a connection. A perspective that, in some ways, attempts to synthesize the previous two by defining Magic through the inherently complex and idiosyncratic nature of the human experience, and its participatory relation to the universe. (REFRENCES)

Through this lens, the force of Magic lays in relational connections and the understanding that the human, body and consciousness, is itself part of greater systems. And can therefore be influenced by and effect influence on "it". Magic is accessed and enacted through engaging with the world around us. Magic is not a way to seek and assign meaning, but instead becomes a way to actively create meaning through connection and participation. Impression and expression. Intention and purpose.

It is within this definition of Magic that I will "anchor" my personal approach to Art and Magic, thesis and project. As I believe this perspective can equally lend itself to Art, as a way to process, interact and create meaning for the complexities of life within the greater systems that make up our world(s).

(...)

✧ Chapter #2 ✧

Key components

• References of art, projects and practitioners
• Art-based Magic vs. magic-based Art
• How intention and purpose inform form and medium

The second chapter looks at a selection of references on contemporary artists and projects, and practitioners outside of the artist category, that engage with Magic through art. With the help of the examples, this chapter discusses the distinction and compares art-based Magic (art for the explicit purpose of "doing" Magic) and magic-based Art (Art which incorporates ideas of Magic). Whilst Protocols for Magic at large, focuses on the former idea (art for magical purposes), the latter may also give valuable insight into the relation of Art as the medium for expressing magical thought.

Chapter two may also, similarly to chapter one, differentiate the examples through category-sections. As a way to explore how different concepts within Magic may be practiced or expressed through different artistic mediums, materials and forms. A subject that I will research more deeply in my project. As the basis for it, I aim to look at examples that cover the following categories:

• Performance-based magic-> Rituals and collective action
• Language-based magic -> Spells and poetry
• Craft-based magic -> Artifacts and visual design

(...)

(GIVE 2-3 EXAMPLES) (REFRENCES)

(CH.2 RELATION TO RESEARCH QUESTION)

✧ Chapter #3 ✧

Key components

• Applied insights
• Prototyping and reflecting
• Additional references

The third chapter will first reflect on the main take-away-s of the previous two chapters and summarize how it informed my project up to this point.

Following this, chapter three will take on a more back-and-forth approach to project and thesis, as a documentation and critical reflection of my prototyping process towards a final project. 


(DESCRIBE BACK-AND-FORTH AND MODE OF DOCUMENTATION)

(...)

(CH.3 RELATION TO RESEARCH QUESTION)

Conclusion

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References ✼ Bibliography

Magic History - Forms of Magic

Source	Synopsis	Source Form
C. Gosden (2020), “Magic: A History: From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the Ice Age to the Present”		📚
DK (2020), “A History of Magic, Witchcraft and the Occult”	Illustrated compendium on the history of magic practices through the ages	📚
L. Williams (2025), "Compendium Of The Occult - Arcane Artefacts, Magic Rituals and Sacred Symbolism"	Illustrated compendium on the history of occult practices through the ages	📚

Magic in theory and function

Source	Synopsis	Source Form
E. Bever, R. Styers (2017), “Magic in the Modern World: Strategies of Repression and Legitimization”	Contemporary analysis of modern magic practices and its function in society	📚
P. Stevens Jr. (2023), “Rethinking the Anthropology of Magic and Witchcraft: Inherently Human”	Anthropological theory on Magic's function in the human mind and society throughout history	📌👀
J. Sorensen (2006), “A Cognitive Theory of Magic”		📌👀
M. Mauss (1902), “A General Theory On Magic”		💾
R. Dukes (2002), “S.S.O.T.B.M.E. Revised - An Essay On Magic”	Theoretical concept of Magic as way of thinking, in comparison to scientific, religious or artistic thinking	💾

The Intersection of Magic & Art

Source	Synopsis	Source Form
J. Sutcliffe ( 2021), “Magic”	On magic's generative relationship with contemporary art practice	📚
S. Bellisario (2025), “Contemporary Visions: Refiguring The Esoteric; The Transformational Act of “Making” Magic”	Intersection of art and magic, symbolic value of artistic practice with the purpose of magic	💾
A. Davies (2023), “Art is Magic”	Intersection of art and magic, experience in a museum setting, contemporary art	💾
P. E. Moore (2019), "Art and Magick in the 21st Century; Reflections of a Neophyte", TULCA Festival Of Visual Arts, TULCA, Galway, IE.		🌐
J. Gilhooly (2010), “Enchanted Objects: Agency in the Magic and Contemporary Art Practice”	Secular” Magic and the agency of art and magic in “Technologies of Enchantment”	💾
H. Cornish (2022), “Sensing materiality in the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic”	Multi-modal experience/perception of magic practitioners in a Museum space	💾

Art & Artists

Source	Synopsis	Source Form

📚 = physical copy  💾 = .pdf  🌐 = online  📌👀 = still need a copy  ⏳ = waiting for copy

‌(Some books are impossible to find as free pdfs, only exist in physical form or ebook versions (which often cost the same price or close to a printed copy).

Since I read and collect a lot of books on magic, folklore an occult topics anyway, I don't mind spending a bit on physical books, and adding to my collection.

But I'll do my best to upload pdfs to the bootleg library, make my physical copies available as digital scans or store them at the studio for easy access at some point during the process.)

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✼ Process Log ✼ ➭

In-text citations