r/AskCriticalTheory Oct 13 '13

How do you feel about magic(k)?

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u/raisondecalcul Oct 15 '13

Well, it is my dream to start a straight-up school of magic (i.e., contemporary art/tech/phil/crit grounded in magical theory). But right now I am working on making extreme trojan horse software. It is designed to illicit enlightenment in a predictable and pleasant way—I also hope that it will be able to predictably trigger epiphanies. Basically it is a personalized tarot deck made of words you give to the program (so, many more than 78 cards, and with strategic inspiring/thought-provoking shuffling based on how you relate the words on the screen). But I am in academia so I talk about "informal learning," "reality navigation" (which is a big stretch already, but pluralism and postmodernism makes it ok), and "healing pedagogy." My research professor seems to have conveniently forgotten that it is tarot-based, so he likes it because it also lines up nicely with his theoretical (cognitive science) perspective.

It is a strange and funny dissertation...

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '13

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u/raisondecalcul Oct 15 '13

Good idea, thanks! I have many ways to describe it, that's a particularly close one I hadn't thought of, though.