The Smoke and Mirrors Exhibition

One thursday afternoon in July my tutor and I decided to have a break from the introductory tours of the VandA. John said he would surprise me with a new adventure and that I would need to step out of my comfort zone, so I was sure this would be an interesting adventure indeed. When John and I met just outside the Shakespeare pub, little did I realise that I would be so captivated by this Smoke and Mirrors exhibition. This article shall walk through the history and the psychology behind magic and I will also attempt to share some of the magical facts I learnt from this fantastic exhibition.

I was not so keen on this special outing when I learned that I had to visit a new location in London. Because of my autism, I am not a fan of seeing or visiting new places especially if I can avoid it. However, John knew how to get to me by saying the word magic over and over again when we were at the VandA.

In another lifetime I would have wanted to have been a skillful magician, performing tricks in front of thousands. For this reason, I was tempted to venture out of my comfort zone for this unique outing; because I was curious to see what tricks lay in store for me and what new facts I could learn about this mysterious profession.

For thousands of years magicians have done astonishing tricks and they have honed the art of manipulating the way that people think. Magic, from my point of view, is like a carpet or a tree, where you have to get to the very knots or roots in order to truly understand its nature. Therefore, this article shall also talk about the mental aspect of magic, and how it plays tricks on the mind and what we see.

Thanks to this exhibition I was able to learn a lot about my favourite magician, Harry Houdini (1874-1926). Houdini became well known for his escape acts and when I visited the Smoke and Mirrors they had original props that Houdini used and posters of most of his shows. If I were to draw one parallel between our lives I would say that I think tour guides have more in common with Harry Houdini than people believe. We both have to perform for large crowds and know how to talk to the public; telling stories and suspending disbelief.

Houdini lived in a fascinating time as it was when science was really picking up, and yet people still were curious about the otherworldly. In the 18th century magic was a great way of entertaining people as they were fascinated with the occult and there was ample opportunity to exploit this intrigue. In 1882 the Society of Psychical Research was the first organisation to do a Seance. As mortality rates were very high during this time, many people in the Victorian age wanted to contact a lost family member or friend and seances were an opportune method of doing so.

At first, these were very personal and emotional, and yet as time wore on, sceences became a popular game to be played at dinner parties. In fact, in the 18th century, when photographic technologies were being developed, many Victorians wanted to try and and capture a ghostly image or recording, in order to gain fame and fortune; a lot of amateur Victorians photographers would try to take a photograph a lot of them were indeed fake.

Spirit communication soon had millions of followers in the Victorian age. However, this fascination came into stark opposition with the burgeoning scientific community. Therefore, researchers joined forces with magicians to try and catch out fake mediums and spirit communicators.

I learned that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) despite being deeply suspicious of magic was a committed occultist and would frequently host and attend Seances. This strikes me as very odd as he created Sherlock Holmes who is very much a firm believer of the Empirical evidence and what you see in front of you. I think that its very interesting when one has someone as educated as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believing in ghosts and it just goes to show how important it was back in the 18th and 19th centuries.

When I saw the Smoke and Mirrors I learned all about how people used magic as a form of misdirection and this was often leveraged by those who hosted seances for profit. The Magician would draw your eye to one part of the trick then make you look in the wrong place at the right time. Or the right place at the wrong time. Understanding this art of misdirection is very interesting, as it helps us to grapple with how we perceive and process our everyday experiences, especially when coupled with loss and grief.

When I was visiting the Smoke and Mirrors exhibition I was deeply interested in what it means to have free will and why we have it when other animals do not. I think that free will is what made as one of the most advanced races in the world. To this end, the exhibition briefly touched on the British military, which throughout the late 20th and early 21st century was said to have been fascinated by 'Psychic' or 'paranormal' forces.

Overall, I think that magic has more importance than ever in these so called modern times; just looking at all of the news we are surrounded by stories of 'misdirection', 'fake news', 'doctored images' and mental manipulation. This is even more important when you look at the roots of mental health and how we, like the Victorians, hold out hope for more meaning and resolution. Magic has always has an element of mystery and relevance in people's lives, I hope people continue to be spellbound by such magic and yet not be consumed by it.