User:Charlie/Graduate Proposal
Project Proposal ~ DRAFT
✧ Draft #1 ✧
✼ What do you want to make? ✼
An illustrated publication on "Protocols for Magic", texts that reflect different aspects of my research alongside a variety of games, templates and exercises to practice Magic.
Informed by my thesis on Magic as a system-of-thought within different contexts, this publication will include experimental frameworks based on Magic systems and existing Magic practices focused on art and creative expression.
+insert prototype picture+
✼ How do you plan to make it? ✼
- Thesis - Literature review and references analysis
- Prototyping systems - Templates/Exercises/Games/Riddles/Texts
- Testing - Workshops/Feedback Sessions/Other
- Presenting - Textual + Visual
- ...
✼ What is your timetable? ✼
- Initial Research (overlapping)
- Thesis Reference and Literature: ~ 2 months
- Prototyping + Test sessions: 2-3 months
- Reflections and Refinements: 1-2months
- Publication: 1<2 months
✼ Why do you want to make it? ✼
When I was tasked to imagine what I really truly wanted to make, above all else, this project beat all other more "reasonable ideas".
Maybe because, despite being a so-called skeptic, I have always been deeply fascinated by all types of esotericism, the occult and most of all, anything adjacent to Magic. Over time, I have tried to develop my own personal view of Magic and "how it works". And in this eternal attempt to reconcile rationality with wonder in pursuit of real life magic, I have come to find that art, in both admiration and creation, is the closest I may get to "it".
Or maybe because, I like to imagine that in another life I took a slightly more academic route and pursuit studies in art history with a minor in occult art, or religious studies and gone on to do a Master in Western Esotericism (they offer that in Amsterdam). Alas, I chose Illustration, because I wasn't a very good student in high-school and loved drawing more than reading. And now I'm doing a Masters in Experimental Publishing.
Or maybe, after all considerations, all theories on magic, new age believes and esoteric practices I have read about, art is still the closest substitute to magic I have found so far. And like a bastardized version of Alchemy in which I merge my love for art, science and heresy, this may be a final attempt at distilling the very substance of Magic to a digestible goo in hopes of transmuting it into a shiny goblet that can hold my specific world view.
(Please excuse me.. I wrote this too late in the evening and was pondering my choices)
✼ Who can help you and how? ✼
Dr. Justin Sledge - Esoterica (YouTube channel) = I would really like to contact him and ask many questions in regards to Magic practices of the past and his philosophical views on the matter. (maybe maybe)
✼ Relation to previous practice ✼
- BA Project (expand..)
- Ornamenta
- Sneaking-in occult symbolism in all my work
- Publications based on supernatural or superstitious themes
- ...
✼ Relation to a larger context ✼ in progress..
Despite the exponential rise in scientific rationalism since the Age of Enlightenment, Magic has remained ever-present. Its prevalence within public life and mainstream beliefs fluctuating throughout human history. In certain ways, I would argue that the societal push for purely scientific reasoning may have contributed to an increase in contemporary magic practices, esoteric believes and new age spiritual movements.
Especially, the historically persistent conflict between scientific and religious thought may have contributed to an increase in people identifying as atheists or agnostics, it may also have pushed some to seek more eclectic modes of worship and spiritual practices. Away from hierarchical dogma. More interestingly, many of these recent forms of Magic which emerged in the last two centuries are often characterized by their proclivity for employing scientific language to gain credibility and fortify their believes against skeptic scrutiny.
In SSOTBME Revised - an essay on magic by (Dukes, 2000), Ramsey Dukes shares his perspective on the relationships between scientific, artistic, religious and magical thought within Western society. He believes that the driving forces of these four modes of thought interact with each other in a cyclical manner. In short: As new scientific advancements are integrated into everyday life, they gradually lose their novelty-status. Bored by technological stagnation and the supposed societal fixation on scientific order, Dukes believes people then become more inclined to seek excitement elsewhere, even in its opposites. The mysteries of the undefinable — Magic. A renewed surge of interest in the magical and occult occurs. (Dukes gives examples of time periods in which many still existing Magic-related belief systems developed, though he doesn't mention them.) Magic in all its aspects regains prominence in public discourse, media and most notably, art. Yet after a while, so Dukes says, humanity's "lust for Magic" reaches a high point, excess, which results in a surge of religious modes of thinking that aim to oppose magic as whole. Religious thought then, in turn, takes the prominent role in the public sphere, before Science ultimately regains faith and begins the cycle anew.
Overall, Dukes' proposed cycle of opposing modes of thought is disappointingly generalizing at times. It even takes on a prophetic aspect at the end (more on that another time). Even when giving more concise historical examples to illustrate his theory, he barely manages to throw art into this supposed cycle, and fails to include or mention wider political contexts that may or may not have contributed to his theory. Still, I find some value in his observation on the interplay of all these factors/systems of thought.
Especially as we are currently experiencing an era of renewed religious conservatism bordering on extremism and the dogmatic reverence of (digital and surveillance) technology, whilst many other fields of science are being systematically defunded (as does the art sector). All the while, the boundaries between corrupt politicians in positions of power, tech-feudal lords and right-wing fascist groups continues to blur. I wonder where Magic would fit into this scheme.
✼ References ✼
- Dukes, R., Snell, L. (2000). 'SSOTBME Revised - an essay on magic.', The Mouse That Spins, England. (ISBN: 1-903548-00-4)
- Dk (2020). 'History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult.' Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Incorporated. (ISBN: 978-0-2413-8611-8)
- Nataf, A. (1990). 'Les Maîtres de l’occultisme.' , France Loisirs, (ISBN: 978-2724250015)
- Haute, L. O., (2023) ' talismans pour celles qui ne savent pas de quoi ils parlent' (translation: Talismans for the ones who don't know what they talk about)
- Per Faxneld (2017). ' Satanic feminism: Lucifer as the liberator of woman in nineteenth-century culture ', New York, Ny: Oxford University Press.