Magic Research Group

Performance magic is more popular and inventive than ever before. It is a performance art with a vibrant culture of live performances, popular TV shows, and emerging forms that use the street and the Internet to create unique performances, to stage challenging effects and to engage new audiences and practitioners. The popularity of contemporary performance magic now rivals the magic assemblage of the nineteenth century’s ‘golden age’ of magic and certainly overshadows it both invention and in its astonishing scope.

Most performance magic research has been in the form of historical studies primarily focused on the nineteenth century’s ‘golden age’ of magic and subsequently performance magic has been shamefully neglected by the academy. This is partly due to the misconception that performance magic ended as a cultural entertainment with the birth of cinema. In reality, performance magic found ways to inhabit and energise both film and TV, just as it is now inhabiting and innovating new media.

The Magic Research Group brings together researchers and practitioners to promote research into performance magic.  Largely multi-disciplinary in its approach The Magic Research Group encourages reflection on areas of performance magic not already covered in publication or areas already heavily researched.

The Group organises lectures, workshops, seminars, symposia, and performances that reflect the cutting edge of research into performance magic.

We offer postgraduates a dynamic and supportive research environment and the opportunity for practice-as-research as well as traditional modes of study.

For enquiries about research carried out within The Magic Research Group, our events, or opportunities to study or collaborate with us, please contact Nik Taylor n.a.taylor@hud.ac.uk