Post by drtodd on Jun 1, 2013 10:55:44 GMT -5
Epistementalogie is on its way!
After 18 months of writing, the finishing touches are being made to Dr Todd's new opus Epistementalogie!
ÉPISTÉMENTALOGIE
By Dr Todd Landman
This book advances a post-pseudo-psychological paradigm for mystery entertainment that makes philosophy the meta-premise for performance.
Épistémentalogie combines insights from epistemology, philosophy of science, metaphysics and the history of ideas with mentalism, bizarre magic and the mystery arts in ways that remain intriguing, enchanting and above all else entertaining for audiences.
Section I provides an overview of the academic magician, which has formed over many years of Dr Landman’s experience in academia as a professor of political science and as a magician who has performed publicly since 1977. Or what you get when you combine the Da Vinci Code, the Dead Poets Society and The Paper Chase!
Section II shows how the idea of Épistémentalogie combines the concept of epistemology with the power of the mind and is framed around three critical questions that this approach poses at the outset:
• How do you know what you know?
• How do I know what you know?
• What do we know that matters?
Section III offers eight routines that reflect the overall concept here: narrative-based routines and effects that are steeped in philosophical and metaphysical ideas, use methods from magic and mentalism, and provide an exploration of deeper concerns of human existence.
• Venus and Void is an opening effect that addresses the sources of our knowledge based on experience, belief, and reason;
• Guardians of the Mind uses Plato and many other philosophers in a demonstration of accessing the ‘community of human minds’;
• Ring of Gyges is wonderful version of a ‘which hand’ routine based on a thought experiment from Plato’s Republic;
• Leviathan draws on Thomas Hobbes seminal work to discuss assumptions about human nature;
• Real Free Will uses books from philosophy that actually have something to say about free will and uses them as the objects that are chosen;
• Foundations addresses the philosophical origins of modern conceptions of human rights;
• The Veil of Ignorance connects Tarot, Gandhi, and John Rawls in a perplexing display of mind reading and synchronicity;
• The Beetle examines the use of words and how they find meaning through what Wittgenstein calls ‘public language’;
• Of Virtues and Solids draws on Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics and Plato’s Timaeus to provide a powerful reading system and reflective routine that provides sitters with the tools for meaningful engagement in their lives.
Section IV, entitled Épistémentalogie Unplugged offers a fully scripted performance based on the ideas contained in Section III combined with other hard-hitting mentalism routines using nothing more than a MindSpy wallet and a sharpie pen!
With over 120 pages and 20,000 words, the book comes as a hardback with original artwork from Peter Howells, Iain Dunford, and Phill Smith, and original photos that help illustrate and explain all the routines.
Described as a manifesto for a new way of performing mentalism and mystery entertainment, Épistémentalogie is sure to be part of any serious performer’s library!
This is currently on Presale through Stevens Magic in the USA:
www.stevensmagic.com/shop/epistementalogie-by-dr-todd-landman/
By late June, this will be available for the same price here:
www.lulu.com/spotlight/drtoddlandman
Really excited about this!
Cheers
Dr Todd
After 18 months of writing, the finishing touches are being made to Dr Todd's new opus Epistementalogie!
ÉPISTÉMENTALOGIE
By Dr Todd Landman
This book advances a post-pseudo-psychological paradigm for mystery entertainment that makes philosophy the meta-premise for performance.
Épistémentalogie combines insights from epistemology, philosophy of science, metaphysics and the history of ideas with mentalism, bizarre magic and the mystery arts in ways that remain intriguing, enchanting and above all else entertaining for audiences.
Section I provides an overview of the academic magician, which has formed over many years of Dr Landman’s experience in academia as a professor of political science and as a magician who has performed publicly since 1977. Or what you get when you combine the Da Vinci Code, the Dead Poets Society and The Paper Chase!
Section II shows how the idea of Épistémentalogie combines the concept of epistemology with the power of the mind and is framed around three critical questions that this approach poses at the outset:
• How do you know what you know?
• How do I know what you know?
• What do we know that matters?
Section III offers eight routines that reflect the overall concept here: narrative-based routines and effects that are steeped in philosophical and metaphysical ideas, use methods from magic and mentalism, and provide an exploration of deeper concerns of human existence.
• Venus and Void is an opening effect that addresses the sources of our knowledge based on experience, belief, and reason;
• Guardians of the Mind uses Plato and many other philosophers in a demonstration of accessing the ‘community of human minds’;
• Ring of Gyges is wonderful version of a ‘which hand’ routine based on a thought experiment from Plato’s Republic;
• Leviathan draws on Thomas Hobbes seminal work to discuss assumptions about human nature;
• Real Free Will uses books from philosophy that actually have something to say about free will and uses them as the objects that are chosen;
• Foundations addresses the philosophical origins of modern conceptions of human rights;
• The Veil of Ignorance connects Tarot, Gandhi, and John Rawls in a perplexing display of mind reading and synchronicity;
• The Beetle examines the use of words and how they find meaning through what Wittgenstein calls ‘public language’;
• Of Virtues and Solids draws on Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics and Plato’s Timaeus to provide a powerful reading system and reflective routine that provides sitters with the tools for meaningful engagement in their lives.
Section IV, entitled Épistémentalogie Unplugged offers a fully scripted performance based on the ideas contained in Section III combined with other hard-hitting mentalism routines using nothing more than a MindSpy wallet and a sharpie pen!
With over 120 pages and 20,000 words, the book comes as a hardback with original artwork from Peter Howells, Iain Dunford, and Phill Smith, and original photos that help illustrate and explain all the routines.
Described as a manifesto for a new way of performing mentalism and mystery entertainment, Épistémentalogie is sure to be part of any serious performer’s library!
This is currently on Presale through Stevens Magic in the USA:
www.stevensmagic.com/shop/epistementalogie-by-dr-todd-landman/
By late June, this will be available for the same price here:
www.lulu.com/spotlight/drtoddlandman
Really excited about this!
Cheers
Dr Todd