The Amazing Meeting with Penn and Teller

The James Randi Foundation sponsors "The Amazing Meeting" which is a celebration of skepticism where many skeptics gather and share, and discuss.

www.amazingmeeting.com

The video above is taken from one of the "amazing meetings". In this video we see magicians Penn and Teller perform a magic trick before going into a Q&A.

Penn and Teller are not only magicians but also skeptics themselves and have their own television show on skepticism called "Bullshit!". This show is incredibly interesting to me as it covers many areas where skepticism may or should be needed to make people aware or think or feel the need to argue. This is something I feel will be very influential on my work in future when using my skepticism to make "arguments" in my own work, or using skepticism to help shape the art I may work on in future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit !

In the video above the duo Penn and Teller talk about how without James Randi there may be no "Bullshit!" and possibly not even a Penn and Teller. It is interesting to see how this pair that I admire are so heavily influenced by James Randi, my chosen artist to talk about. It seems that Randi has a larger influence on my outlook and education on skepticism then it may have originally seemed.

The rest of this QandA with Penn and Teller is below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtCK-mN-2_4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olj-sGfHZlk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbf_7B9dGw0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbf_7B9dGw0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J7Gzqpcvnw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWsdbh_2E60&feature=related

James Randi Educational Foundation

The institution I have chosen to research and discuss for the "Starting Out" module is the James Randi Educational Foundation.

This is an institution set up by magician and skeptic James Randi (my chosen artist). Here is a brief description of the foundation, taken from it's website:

"The James Randi Educational Foundation is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1996. Its aim is to promote critical thinking by reaching out to the public and media with reliable information about paranormal and supernatural ideas so widespread in our society today.

The Foundation's goals include:

• Creating a new generation of critical thinkers through lively classroom demonstrations and by reaching out to the next generation in the form of scholarships and awards.
• Demonstrating to the public and the media, through educational seminars, the consequences of accepting paranormal and supernatural claims without questioning.
• Supporting and conducting research into paranormal claims through well-designed experiments utilizing "the scientific method" and by publishing the findings in the JREF official newsletter, Swift , and other periodicals. Also providing reliable information on paranormal and pseudoscientific claims by maintaining a comprehensive library of books, videos, journals, and archival resources open to the public.
• Assisting those who are being attacked as a result of their investigations and criticism of people who make paranormal claims, by maintaining a legal defense fund available to assist these individuals.

To raise public awareness of these issues, the Foundation offers a $1,000,000 prize to any person or persons who can demonstrate any psychic, supernatural or paranormal ability of any kind under mutually agreed upon scientific conditions. This prize money is held in a special account which cannot be accessed for any purpose other than the awarding of the prize. "

The official website is:

http://www.randi.org/joom/

I feel that the work done by this organisation will be very useful to me in future practice as I hope that the information they provide through their research and services allows me to learn more about skepticism and helps me to find a focus in this area for my own research so that I may incorporate it into my own artistic practice.

Randi Debunks Geller

Does anyone remember Uri Geller?

Heres a video of James Randi debunking the "psychic" abilities of Uri Geller taken from a program aired on PBS called "Secrets of the Psychics".

I deicded to write about James Randi as my chosen "artist" as I am fascinated by skepticism, being a skeptic myself. James Randi is a magician who uses his craft to debunk those who claim they have supernatural or paranormal abilities. Magic is an art, and so is using the knowledge of how magic and science work to debunk. I consider James Randi to be an artist as his work often has a real purpose behind it which is to educate and help people to not take these "illusions" as reality or else it could become quite dangerous.

Heres a little bit about Randi taken from wikipedia:

James Randi (born August 7 , 1928 )^[1] (stage name The Amazing Randi) is a stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience . Born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge,^[1] in Toronto , Ontario in Canada , Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). Randi began his career as a magician, but then began investigating paranormal claims. Although often referred to as a "debunker ", Randi rejects that title, describing himself as an "investigator".^[2] He has written about the paranormal, skepticism, and the history of magic. He was a frequent guest on the The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson , and is occasionally featured on the television program Penn & Teller: Bullshit! .

The JREF sponsors the famous million dollar challenge offering a prize of US $ 1,000,000 to anyone who can demonstrate evidence of any paranormal , supernatural or occult power or event, under test conditions agreed to by both parties. As of this time, no one has claimed this prize.

For more go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Randi