2006

CAPTIVATED BY APPEARANCES

Magic between Ritual and Reality

"To be deceived is commonly held to be wretched. I, on the contrary, maintain that the greatest misfortune is to be above all deception. The human mind is simply made in such a way that appearance captivates it more than truth," Erasmus of Rotterdam claimed 500 years ago.

To enchant and to dazzle, to fascinate the human imagination: nothing is so well suited to this as magic, the art of the magician. It is as old as humanity itself, and as old as our unquenched desire to influence events or to produce wondrous effects that we could not achieve with the known forces of nature or with the normal abilities within us. It is the idea of making our dreams come true. Magic is regarded as man's oldest invention. It may also have laid the foundation for the first efforts in science, medicine, technology and art.

To this day our relationship with magic has not become more rational. And conversely, our reason is no less easily enchanted. With stage and television illusionists we enjoy the craft of deception without believing in the supernatural. With horoscopes we believe in the supernatural without wanting to be disillusioned.

The programme was originally called: Captivated by Appearances - Magic between Science and Entertainment. However, the editors did not want to attribute such importance to magic. As a result the programme was unfortunately watered down by other authors with a number of banalities. For example: "Enlightenment outwitted? Between ritual and reality, deception and fascination, we are captivated by appearances. And lately even the natural sciences are discovering magical moments ..."

VOICES	Birgitta Assheuer, Marianne Lochert, Doris Wolters, Klaus Barner, Matthias Haase
MUSIC	Helmuth Flammer, Mahmoud Guinia , Airto Moreira, Gershwin
DIRECTOR	Heinz Nesselrath
SOUND ENGINEER	Alfred Habelitz and Christiane Köhler
EDITOR	Walter Filz
DURATION	85 minutes
FIRST BROADCAST	SWR 20.8.2006; RadioART: Feature am Sonntag