There is a large town in England called Swindon that only exists because it is halfway between the cities of London and Bristol. When IK Brunel, an English engineer during the Industrial Revolution, was building his Grand Western Railway, he needed a central hub for works and repairs. A tiny village saw exponential growth as workers and investment poured into the area.
Creativity is connection. This month’s workshop is a story of making Swindons by joining together known magical effects and going down new routes. It will end with a curious magical object that is a weaved web of connections that increasingly ensnares a participant’s choices.
The journey begins with the duck-rabbit illusion. I’m fascinated by ambiguous objects that can have multiple expressions, and I’ve often felt that more can be made of the drawing that can be seen as a rabbit or duck depending upon its orientation. Fig. 1 shows a laser cut and engraved version that I designed. The whiskers are a recent addition. A mirror placed at 45 degrees allows a viewer to see both animals. The duck is a stronger image than the rabbit with its hunched over posture.
The first stop on the journey was a conversation with Nick Diffatte, which led me to create a version of the High Sign or Arrow board with the duck-rabbit image on a square board. Fig. 2 shows a design that can be printed out on cardstock before folding the sheet in half and gluing it back-to-back. Rotating the board diagonally by spinning opposite corners between your fingers will either cause the animal viewed by the audience to remain the same or switch.
