The American Museum of Magic/Lund Memorial Library and Other Resources on Magic and Conjuring

How did he do that? This question has been on the lips of audience members since magicians first began delighting and amazing viewers with skills of dexterity and legerdemain. The first-known recorded, secular magic performance2 dates back to 2500 B.C. when the conjuror Dedi presented a series of tricks for the Egyptian king Cheops at the royal palace. The event was recorded in the Westcar papyrus, a document that was composed around 1700 B.C. but is thought by Egyptologists to have been copied from earlier sources.3 Yes, magic and conjuring have long been an integral part of popular entertainment, and from these very early beginnings, secular magicians have continued to provide entertainment for audiences of all ages right up through the present day. Magic shows are still some of the hottest tickets of the Las Vegas strip, and touring artists such as David Copperfield can still fill theatres. Magic is also popular on television once again thanks to the work of David Blaine and Criss Angel. Organizations such as the International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM) and the Society of American Magicians (SAM) also boast a strong membership

How the Coronavirus Increases Terrorism Threats in the Developing World

As the coronavirus reaches developing countries in Africa and Asia, the pandemic will have effects beyond public health and economic activity. As the disease wreaks its havoc in areas poorly equipped to handle its spread, terrorism likely will increase there as well. We are political scientists who study the developing world and political conflict. Our recently published research identifies a potential link between the pandemic and an uptick in violence. We find that food insecurity – the lack of both financial and physical access to nutritious food, which leads to malnutrition and undernourishment in a population – makes citizens angry at their governments. Citizens conclude that their political leaders are either unable or unwilling to ease their suffering. This anger gives terrorist groups opportunities to recruit new members by providing them a violent outlet for venting their frustrations. In many cases, terrorist organizations do what their governments can’t or won’t do: give people the food and money they badly need to survive

The dilemma of liberal democracies : an aggregate analysis of counterterrorist efforts

What compels states to cooperate in the face of a global terrorist threat? What are the consequences of state action? International terrorist attacks have risen sharply in the 21st century, and liberal democracies often bear the brunt of the onslaught. Consequently, they are the ones to shoulder the responsibility of eliminating the threat. On a global scale, the elimination of a common terrorist threat resembles a prisoners' dilemma, with many states choosing to shore up defenses at home rather than bear the costs of a cooperative, preemptive strike abroad. Utilizing original data, this dissertation represents an empirical examination of the prisoners' dilemma of counterterrorism to determine what characteristics drive cooperation, whether that cooperation depends on the institutional characteristics of a state, and whether their response has any effects on terrorist retaliation. The results confirm that states prefer instead to shore up defenses at home, rather than participate in military intervention. Furthermore, cursory evidence shows that terrorist organizations utilize suicide attacks with more deliberate consideration than normal attacks, which are more path-dependent. Overall, attacks have an insignificant effect on state action, confirming the logic that terrorists rely on the fear of the attack rather than its actual occurrence

Triggering Fear: Possession and Sound Design in HEREDITARY

Presentation by Beth Kattelman for the national conference of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association in the Horror Studies Area, Washington DC, April 19, 2019.The horror film Hereditary, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018, has received a lot of critical acclaim for its screenplay, its performances (especially that of Toni Collette), and its soundtrack. While much has also been said about how the music and non-diegetic soundscape are employed to build tension within the film, less has been written about the way in which director Ari Aster employs sound effects within the diegetic world to trigger fear reactions and impart information. Elements such as the telltale “cloque” that Charlie makes to evince the presence of Paimon and the frantic banging on the attic door near the end of the film—the cause of which is revealed to be something very disturbing and unexpected indeed—are just two examples of ways in which Aster employs aural diegetic elements to elicit fear in both subtle and unsubtle ways. Drawing upon Michael Chion’s concept of “added value” this paper explores how direct and acousmatic sounds are used in Hereditary to trigger fear and indicate possession/contagion within the narrative.No embarg

Interrogating the Blue Room: Reflections on a Turn-of the-Century Magic Show and the Veracity of the Senses

The illusion was first created and presented by John Henry Pepper and John Walker at the Royal Polytechnic Institute in London where it premiered under the title "Metempsychosis" in 1879. Shortly thereafter, Harry Kellar, renowned stage magician began using the technique in his "Blue Room", a stage illusion wherein audiences watched as Kellar slowly transformed himself into a skeleton or made a rose bush grow instantaneously from a seed right before their eyes. Kellar performed his Blue Room illusion throughout the last two decades of the nineteenth century, a time in which visual evidence's relationship to reality was being called into question.No embarg

100 Years of Eileen Heckart

Actress Eileen Heckart’s illustrious career spanned almost 60 years. As a result of her amazing talent, she took home numerous awards including a Tony, an Academy Award, an Obie, a Golden Globe, and several Emmys. Heckart was born in Bexley, Ohio and is an alumnus of The Ohio State University. OSU's Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute currently holds her papers. This talk was given at the Bexley Public Library to honor Heckart on what would have been her 100th birthday.No embarg