Urban Illusions is the best first-hand account I know of the struggle to solve the employment problem in American cities. Mike Bernick combines a knowledge of the issues as seen from Washington with actual experience leading anti-poverty programs at the local level, a rare combination. He writes extremely well, and he makes shrewd suggestions for where employment policy should go from here. Anybody interested in American social policy will find this book invaluable. Lawrence M. Mead, Author of Beyond Entitlement Urban Illusions goes beyond description of inner city unemployment to consider efforts to reduce the problem. It directly examines the successes and failures that have resulted from past attempts to reduce employment. Although the volume includes data on poverty and government anti-poverty programs, it is written from the perspective of one working on a local, grass-roots level: author Michael Bernick is the founder and executive Director of this outstanding inner city employment program.
"It is rare that illusionists will share the wealth of knowledge and insight that J C does in this book. For those who wish to use illusions in their work this book is simply invaluable. "Urban Illusions" is a much-needed collection of modern illusions for today's audiences and J C provides an essential new voice in the area of illusion design." - Franz Harary "Urban Illusions" is a stunning collection of professional illusion designs from one of the most prolific illusion designers in the world! Besides being one of Asia's most successful illusionists, J C Sum represents a new generation of illusion thinkers. The book explains 10 cutting edge illusions that are modern in design, building methods and materials. There are no conceptual illusions, ideas or notions detailed in the book; only practical and prototyped illusions that can be built. J C Sum performs many of the illusions in his live shows and on TV across the world. As "Asia's Most Famous Illusionist" (The Straits Times), J C is known for his cutting edge style and modern urban illusions. This book details the methods and detailed building plans for some of his most well known illusions such as "Crystal Metamorphosis" and "Revollusion."
From the author of the best-selling, "Urban Illusions" and "Pack Flat Illusions for Kids & Family Shows" comes another specialty illusion book written specifically for the working Corporate Magician - "Corporate Illusions Made Easy"! J C Sum, one of Asia's top professional illusionists and illusion designers, shares ten original illusions that have been custom-designed for product launches, media events, tradeshows, conferences and road shows across Asia Pacific & Europe over the last 20 years. From making corporate executives appear, producing new products, launching corporate logos and staging motivational stunts, the illusions in the book are simple to build, effective in design and practical to stage in non-traditional performance environments. All illusions are professional level effects and take into account realistic budgets, size, logistics, venue and staging constraints typical of corporate events. Best of all, no prior illusion knowledge is necessary to understand, build and execute the illusions. New illusionists will be introduced to known as well as original illusion methods and ideas that they can execute with confidence. Experienced illusionists will find original practical solutions for common requests from corporate clients that they can use immediately. In the first illusion book of its kind, it also includes an extensive discussion on presenting illusions for corporate events, the role of the "Corporate Illusionist," how to go about building the illusions in the book as well as incorporating corporate messaging into the illusions. If you book a launch, conference, awards dinner or tradeshow with just one idea from this book, you will recoup your investment in the book many times over with a single engagement. Contents include: Examining Illusions for Corporate Events - The Role of the Corporate Magician/ Illusionist Different Types of Corporate Events & Venues How to Build the Illusions in this Book The Arrival: A Self-Contained Surrounded VIP Appearance Showcase: An Elegant Production of a Product in a Clear Display Case Rising Identity: A Unique Way to Introduce a new Corporate Identity or Logo Corporate Restraint: A Motivational Escape Illusion Performed by a CEO Global Crossing: The Teleportation of a CEO Executive Travel: A Magical Transformation of Corporate Executives The Sword Box: Metaphor Incorporating Corporate Messaging with an Illusion Jeweled Revelation: A Big Effect for a Small Item Production The Conference: The Appearance of a Committee of People on Stage A Big Reveal: The Magical Production of a Large Inanimate Product "Corporate Illusions Made Easy" features detailed illusion construction plans, full illusion presentations and corporate messaging & customization.
How Do Contemporary Artists Express Themselves? Learn About Urban Art, Including Street Art And Graffiti. Supports Emphasis On Increasing Steam (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, And Math) Content.
This book intends to focus exclusively on anamorphic experiments in contemporary art and design, leaving an in-depth historical examination of its Baroque season to other studies. Themes, languages and fields of application of anamorphosis in contemporary culture are critically analyzed to make the reader aware of the communicative potentiality of this kind of geometrical technique. The book also has the aim to teach the reader the most appropriate geometric techniques for each of them, in order to achieve the designed illusion. Each typology of anamorphosis is accompanied in this book by contemporary installations, a geometrical explanation by means of 3D models and didactic experiments carried on in collaboration with the students of the Department of Architecture in Naples.
From making a motorcycle appear while surrounded by an audience, to making a car materialize within an empty enclosure to walking through a giant industrial fan, this is the ultimate collection of professional illusions for the modern illusionist! J C Sum is a professional illusionist and widely regarded as one of the most prolific modern illusion designers in the world today. The "Ultimate Illusion Collection: Trinity Edition" is the 3rd edition of J C's illusion omnibus; 100% reformatted, expanded and updated into a single massive tome. The Trinity Edition contains the latest versions of J C's entire collection of illusions detailed in his professional illusion book trilogy, "Illusionary Departures," "Equilateral" and "Urban illusions," including new images as well as brand new illusion designs. In addition, all the stage acts & illusions detailed in his book "Illusionism" are included in this collection. These are specialty illusions designed with mentalism plots. As a bonus, the secret method of J C's first mega illusion, "The Impossible Teleportation," where he teleported 50 stories in 5 seconds in front of more than 9000 people, is outlined at the end of the book, along with a discussion on creating a mega stunt. The illusions have been sorted and divided into nine categories, classified according to illusion effect & genre, to make referencing easy. This will allow the reader to cross-reference methods, ideas and presentations between similar illusions easily. All illusion designs are detailed with full building plans, detailed fabrication instructions, material lists, performance and presentation notes. Almost 70 illusions are explained including: ILLUSION SYSTEMS & UTILITIES: Deceptive Base Work, Black Art Case Table, Black Art Table Slide, Fourth Dimensional Exit, Motion Delayed Vanish/ Appearance, Modern Flight Case Table and Light Pillars. APPEARANCES & VANISHES: Crystal Striptease, Light & Space, Light & Space II, Benchmark, Dekolta's Dilemma, Singular, Ultimate Victory Cartons, Graffiti Girl, Reinvent The Doll House, Back Door Appearance, Branded, VIP Trunk, Ghost Cabinet, 12-Girl Cabinet and Revollusion. PENETRATIONS: Visual Displacement, 6 Inches, Steel Displacement, A Walk Through The Winery, Slicing Through and Wind Passage. METAMORPHOSIS & ESCAPES: Reinvent The Sub-Trunk, ATA Sub Trunk, Crystal Metamorphosis, Chain Reaction and Fortress. BOX JUMPERS: Reinvent The Zig Zag Girl, Multi-Vide, Seven By Half V2.0, Wall 2 Wall and Squeezed & Skewered. MENTALISM ILLUSIONS: First Impressions, Unseen Forces, Shatter, Paycheck, Wedlock, Psychometric Touch, Jumbo Visible Deck, Fashion Statement and New-Age Spirit Cabinet STAGE ROUTINES: Creation Of Life, The Time Machine and Sweepstakes. COMEDY ILLUSIONS: The Vanishing 'Tiger' and Hiding In Plain Sight VEHICLE PRODUCTIONS: Ultimate Full Throttle, Bluff Appearance and Phantom Car Appearance. CREATING THE MEGA STUNT: The Impossible Teleportation (Teleporting 50 Stories In 5 Seconds) Difficulty Level: Intermediate to Advanced
This book is an investigation of the cultural phenomenon of branding and its transformational effects on the contemporary spatial – and urban – reality. It develops a novel understanding of the rationale behind the construction of large-scale architectural complexes that relate to corporate brands, and of its tremendous cultural effects. The author suggests that what we see today is the creation of "global mass ornaments", of a thorough ornamentalization of the entire globe. The origins of this are discussed with regard to examples of corporate brand-building from Europe and China (Autostadt Wolfsburg, BMW Welt Munich and Anting New Town). Additional cases are several simulated spaces in Berlin and the space-branding activities of companies like Apple or Prada. Theoretically, the author develops an innovative poststructuralist framework, combining ideas from Gilles Deleuze with the space philosophy of Peter Sloterdijk. He analyzes how the corporate redefinition of space makes the city enter into a mode of virtual urbanity. This idea leads to a notion of a "global urban" and, ultimately, the "global mass ornament". This concept of a global mass ornament is developed here with reference to Sloterdijk’s concept of a world of "spheres". The latter is used to understand the new mode of spatiality of mediatized spaces. The book makes the point that our world is involved in a process of mass ornamentalization that has only just begun. The concept of the global mass ornament is the first to come to grips with a culture in which branding is effectively changing the physiognomy of the earth. The global mass ornament is a banner for a cultural transformation that employs architecture, sign theory and mechanisms borrowed from traditional advertising and from social media, as well as social processes – and that we have yet to properly understand. This book is a significant step forward in this respect.
From award-winning journalist Jack Shenker, The Egyptians is the essential book about Egypt and radical politics In early 2011, Cairo's Tahrir Square briefly commanded the attention of the world. Half a decade later, the international media has largely moved on from Egypt's explosive cycles of revolution and counter-revolution - but the Arab World's most populous nation remains as volatile as ever, its turmoil intimately bound up with forms of authoritarian power and grassroots resistance that stretch right across the globe. In The Egyptians: A Radical Story, Jack Shenker uncovers the roots of the uprising that succeeded in toppling Hosni Mubarak, one of the Middle East's most entrenched dictators, and explores a country now divided between two irreconcilable political orders. Challenging conventional analyses that depict contemporary Egypt as a battle between Islamists and secular forces, The Egyptians illuminates other, far more important fault lines: the far-flung communities waging war against transnational corporations, the men and women fighting to subvert long-established gender norms, the workers dramatically seizing control of their own factories, and the cultural producers (novelists, graffiti artists and illicit bedroom DJs) appropriating public space in defiance of their repressive and increasingly violent western-backed regime. Situating the Egyptian revolution in its proper context - not as an isolated event, but as an ongoing popular struggle against a certain model of state authority and economic exclusion that is replicated in different forms around the world - The Egyptians explains why the events of the past five years have proved so threatening to elites both inside Egypt and abroad. As Egypt's rulers seek to eliminate all forms of dissent, seeded within the rebellious politics of Egypt's young generation are big ideas about democracy, sovereignty, social justice and resistance that could yet change the world.
First published in 1987, this book provides a wide-ranging account of how modern cities have come to look as they do — differing radically from their predecessors in their scale, style, details and meanings. It uses many illustrations and examples to explore the origins and development of specific landscape features. More generally it traces the interconnected changes which have occurred in architecture and aesthetic fashions, in planning, in economic and social conditions, and which together have created the landscape that now prevails in most of the cities of the world. This book will be of interest to students of architecture, urban studies and geography.
