Houdini - Skeptic
The above video is taken from "Memory & Imagination: New Pathways to the Library of Congress" - a documentary now available on DVD about the congress libary.
In this video, magicians and skeptics, Penn and Teller walk us through some of the pieces available in the Libary of congress on magician Harry Houdini.
This video shows that skepticism is not a new art, but has been practiced and studied for years, even back to Houdini, who was not only a magician but also a skeptic. His skepticism manifested through the forms of literature, performance, advertisment in papers and challenging people to prove that they have supernatural ability - much like the James Randi Educational Foundation.
This is important to me as it helps inspire me and show me just some of the various ways that skepticism can be found in art and practice.
Penn and Teller on Environment Hysteria
This video shows how eager anybody is to sign a petition to ban something if spoken to in the right way even if they don't know what it is that they're signing for.
It's a clip taken from "Penn and Teller: Bullshit!" and I believe that it's a perfect example of how romantic notions often overpower common sense. This idea makes the need for skepticism or skeptical science seem even more relevant to me and pursuades me even more to pursue the idea of incorporating skepticism into my own art... Possibly even taking inspiration from the techniques used to make these points seen in the video.