The Space of Stage Magic

Abstract

Interior architecture/design is differentiated from interior decoration or architecture by being a spatial discipline of performance and experience rather than composition or style. The perception of space as active became part of a way of seeing during the 19th century. The new discipline of interior design emerged from a general shift in spatial sensibility and a heightened appetite for spatial experience. The study of the physiological and psychological mechanisms behind such experience has its roots in the natural magic of earlier times. In this article, the author looks at another body of work that harnesses natural magic, that of the stage illusionist, to discuss our human fascination with impossible spatial actions, such as dematerialising, defying gravity, vanishing, or changing form. She speculates as to how stage illusions were able to feed spatial desires in the late 19th century and identify analogies in spatial design from the late 20th century.

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