Illusionist Demonstration
Have you ever wondered how magicians perform their illusions? Illusionists use their understanding of how the brain perceives stimuli to create illusions that change our perceptions. Your assignment is to find an illusionist from any era (Chris Angel, David Blaine, Harry Blackstone, Harry Houdini, etc…) and explain how they “do“their illusion.
Copy the illusion (on DVD, wave file, FLV, whatever format they like) and in a 1 page paper explain from a perceptual perspective.
Describe the illusion – what is the Illusionist attempting to do?
Reveal how they redirect our attention or do their “trick”
What concept(s) that we’ve studied in perception are they employing?
Students in the past have demonstrated their illusion in front of the class. Others have brought in video they’ve created explaining the illusion while some brought posters.
8Pts.
15 pts. – Clearly describe the illusion – what is the magician performing.
30 pts. – Reveal the illusion – how does he do it?
35 pts. – Proof of concept(s) – explain the perceptual phenomena occurring within the illusion. What types of perception are being manipulated.
