Magic, lies, and deception

iPod Magic - Deceptions from Marco Tempest on Vimeo.

Marco Tempest is an illusionist who works with technology, as well as traditional magician's skills like sleight of hand. Although its easier to imagine how you program three iPods to do the things he has them doing in this video, it's still a neat display of skill. After all, most of us don't believe that magicians actually make things vanish, anyway. The fun is that most of us don't know how to do the trick, and we're impressed when the magician makes it work so smoothly. Same thing is true here, just in a slightly different way.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

Maggie goes places and talks to people. Find out where she'll be speaking next.

MORE: iPods • magic • Science • Technology

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

http://boingboing.net/ Jason Weisberger

Wait a minute. I’m a magician! I do make things disappear!
godfathersoul

Very cool. Very beautiful.

“Art is deception that creates real emotion.” I appreciate that. And, yes, that’s magic – in paintings, movies, books, music, architecture – anything – if it can deceive us long enough, enough to deceive the powerful disbelief we all have, drop us into a child state of wonder, then we DO experience something magical. Even if it’s just joy or laughter or excitement.
absimiliard

Very neat.

-abs is pretty sure that this is just as much “magic” as any regular sleight of hand
dcorbett

His timing and message combined were both incredible. I cannot imagine how long it took to design, create, practice and polish this piece. Wow…
social_maladroit

I really enjoyed that — it was very nicely done. Thanks for the post.
http://twitter.com/juliushermosura Julius Hermosura

“Art was the greatest deception of all” Imagine selling Jackson Pollock’s paintings for millions of dollars.