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Thinking Like a Magician

the TALK

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Designing the Impossible

the WORKSHOP

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Performance-Lectures

  

TALKS & Workshops

THINKING MAGICALLY FOR TEAMS & ORGANIZATIONS

Originally commissioned by:

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the magic and creative problem solving workshop

How to think like a magician to solve seemingly impossible problems

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Benefits for your team

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Solve problems, like a magician...
Through her years of researching magic history,  magician and speaker Jeanette Andrews has developed specific magical methods for utilizing existing tools and strategies in unusual ways. Learn how to translate this nonlinear problem solving style to your discipline. Andrews teaches a magic effect based on Gestalt psychology and contemporary neuroscience that discusses how perceptual assumptions can help to create a desired effect. The presentation discusses what goes into creating a successful illusion and how perceptual assumptions can help to create a desired effect. Connect your team via a fun, shared experience, while learning valuable techniques for crafting perceptions and disrupting expectations.

THe program

"I really enjoyed your performance and presentation.... we heard continuous rave reviews about attendee experiences."

Chicago Ideas Week Labs Coordinator, Madeline Stanton

“It was a wonderful presentation. I took a bunch of notes (and especially found the academic work you mentioned interesting/relevant to what we do).”
“Your workshop was excellent.”

Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt attendee reviews

PARTNERS & PRESENTERS

include

for talks and workshops

SELECTED SPEAKING AND WORKSHOPS

 

2024 - Harvard Macy Institute - " What Magic & Illusion Can Teach Us About Neuroscience, Teaching Methodology, and Provider-Patient Interaction." Boston, MA

2023 - MIT Museum - "Designing the Impossible." Cambridge, MA.

2023 - Harvard Law School - Petrie Flom Center - “What Magic Can Teach Us About Misinformation.” Panel (Virtual)

2023 - Female Founder’s Fund CEO Summit - “Designing the Impossible.” New York, NY

2023 - Columbia University - SOF Heyman Center and IRCPL - “On Wonder.” New York, NY

2023 - MIT Museum - “On Wonder.” Cambridge, MA.

2023 - Harvard College - Conflux Collective Residency. “Any Sufficiently Advanced: Magic, tech and liminal spaces.” Cambridge, MA

2023 - Columbia University, Teacher’s College - Creative Technologies Research Seminar guest lecture, “Any Sufficiently Advanced: interactive art projects.” New York, NY

2023 - University of Houston - Mitchell Center Artist Talk, Houston, TX

2022 - (NDA) Fortune 10 Company - Day-long hosting, speaking and performance. New York, NY

2022 - Harvard Medical School, “Medicine & Magic.” Cambridge, MA

2022 - Harvard Graduate School of Design, “Creating Space for Magic.” Cambridge, MA

2022 - New England Women in Banking Conference - “Designing the Impossible.” Newport, RI

2022 - Illinois League of Credit Unions, Women’s Leadership Conference - “Designing the Impossible.” Chicago, IL

2022 - Printed Matter / Franklin Furnace, “Book Talk: Invisible Museums of the Unseen Book Launch / Performance.” New York, NY

2022 - Ace Hotel, Impossible/Invisible panel series, Host. New York, NY

2021 - Harvard University - Mahindra Humanities Center, futureSTAGE Panel “Transmedia Arts Seminar / futureSTAGE.” Online

2021 - Global Innovation Forum. Online.

2021 - Illinois Science Council “Magic & Psychology: How Do We Know?”

2021 - University of Chicago’s Center for Leadership & Involvement “Designing the Impossible,” Online

2021 - Cambridge Science Festival / MIT Museum - “Through the Ether[net]: Interactive Magic & Illusory Demonstrations.” Online.

2020 - Illinois Science Council “The Science of Magic.” (Postponed)

2020 - Lincoln Park Zoo “Amazing Human and Animal Senses” Adult education webinar

2020 - Arlington Heights Memorial Library, “Coffee Chat: Science & Magic with Neuroscientist Prof. Stephen Macknik”

2019 - Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, “In Progress,” Artist talk

2019 – University of Pittsburgh, “Artist talk,” Online

2019 – Chicago Ideas Week “Designing the Impossible,” Chicago, IL

2019 - Science of Magic Association Conference, “Fantasy based on fact: Using the scientific method to design effective magic,” Chicago, IL

2019 – International Awesome Summit, “Artist Talk,” Chicago IL

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What can illusion teach us about perception and reality? This hybrid performance/talk delves into the visual, psychological, and philosophical tipping points that create successful illusions and what this teaches us about human perception. How can we apply these concepts to other aspects of life, business, and connecting us to each other? 

 

Offer attendees fresh insights into the inner workings of the human mind, as the presentation discuses what goes into creating a successful illusion and how we can integrate these ideas into our daily experiences. These topics include:

• Perceptual assumptions and twisting these expectations for a desired effect

• Manipulating anticipation and timing

• Utilizing elements of surprise to create dramatic results

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PARTNERS & PRESENTERS

include

for talks and workshops

SELECTED SPEAKING AND WORKSHOPS

 

2024 - Harvard Macy Institute - " What Magic & Illusion Can Teach Us About Neuroscience, Teaching Methodology, and Provider-Patient Interaction." Boston, MA

2023 - MIT Museum - "Designing the Impossible." Cambridge, MA.

2023 - Harvard Law School - Petrie Flom Center - “What Magic Can Teach Us About Misinformation.” Panel (Virtual)

2023 - Female Founder’s Fund CEO Summit - “Designing the Impossible.” New York, NY

2023 - Columbia University - SOF Heyman Center and IRCPL - “On Wonder.” New York, NY

2023 - MIT Museum - “On Wonder.” Cambridge, MA.

2023 - Harvard College - Conflux Collective Residency. “Any Sufficiently Advanced: Magic, tech and liminal spaces.” Cambridge, MA

2023 - Columbia University, Teacher’s College - Creative Technologies Research Seminar guest lecture, “Any Sufficiently Advanced: interactive art projects.” New York, NY

2023 - University of Houston - Mitchell Center Artist Talk, Houston, TX

2022 - (NDA) Fortune 10 Company - Day-long hosting, speaking and performance. New York, NY

2022 - Harvard Medical School, “Medicine & Magic.” Cambridge, MA

2022 - Harvard Graduate School of Design, “Creating Space for Magic.” Cambridge, MA

2022 - New England Women in Banking Conference - “Designing the Impossible.” Newport, RI

2022 - Illinois League of Credit Unions, Women’s Leadership Conference - “Designing the Impossible.” Chicago, IL

2022 - Printed Matter / Franklin Furnace, “Book Talk: Invisible Museums of the Unseen Book Launch / Performance.” New York, NY

2022 - Ace Hotel, Impossible/Invisible panel series, Host. New York, NY

2021 - Harvard University - Mahindra Humanities Center, futureSTAGE Panel “Transmedia Arts Seminar / futureSTAGE.” Online

2021 - Global Innovation Forum. Online.

2021 - Illinois Science Council “Magic & Psychology: How Do We Know?”

2021 - University of Chicago’s Center for Leadership & Involvement “Designing the Impossible,” Online

2021 - Cambridge Science Festival / MIT Museum - “Through the Ether[net]: Interactive Magic & Illusory Demonstrations.” Online.

2020 - Illinois Science Council “The Science of Magic.” (Postponed)

2020 - Lincoln Park Zoo “Amazing Human and Animal Senses” Adult education webinar

2020 - Arlington Heights Memorial Library, “Coffee Chat: Science & Magic with Neuroscientist Prof. Stephen Macknik”

2019 - Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, “In Progress,” Artist talk

2019 – University of Pittsburgh, “Artist talk,” Online

2019 – Chicago Ideas Week “Designing the Impossible,” Chicago, IL

2019 - Science of Magic Association Conference, “Fantasy based on fact: Using the scientific method to design effective magic,” Chicago, IL

2019 – International Awesome Summit, “Artist Talk,” Chicago IL

Performance-Lectures

"This two-part event guided by celebrated artist, magician and researcher Jeanette Andrews took place at the MIT Museum on September 20, 2023. The evening began with the Boston / MIT premiere of Andrews’ “In Plain Listen,” which uses a Morse-code-based musical notation system to create a musical score depicting the secret of one of the oldest pieces of magic in history purely in music form, performed in tandem with the original magic effect. MIT PhD student Valerie Chen accompanied on cello. “In Plain Listen” was originally commissioned and funded by the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston. Andrews then presented pieces from her repertoire and was joined by Professor of Anthropology Graham M. Jones and Professor of Computer Science Arvind Satyanarayan in a conversation about magic, culture and visual communication. Co-produced by MIT Anthropology, @MITCSAIL@MITMuseumOfficial, and the @MITDesignAcad. Supported by Amar G. Bose Research Grants."

Jeanette has created a distinct style of performance lecture. Merging the informational, performative and the inspirational, these presentations bridge the magical and the instructive in a way is both approachable and robust that Elizabeth Weit calls, "deconstructing magic without demystifying it." Andrews has presented these most often in partnerships with cultural institutions, as well as for corporate entities. 

On Wonder

A performed lecture at the MIT Museum

National Arts Club NYC

Project: A performance-lecture on the mental architecture of magic

"The National Arts Club presents an evening led by artist, magician and National Arts Club Fellow Jeanette Andrews. Magic performance combines with live-drawn overhead projections and philosophical conversation to investigate how and why we perceive and believe. Andrews creates interactive, surreal performance vignettes utilizing elegant, yet common items combined with sleight of hand causing viewers to question the dynamic nature of perception. She has presented for the Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, MIT, and Harvard. She has been praised by PBS, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times and Artnet (Katie White) says, “Andrews’s avant-garde approach to magic transforms it into performance art.” "

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