Magic show from a kids party 3.5 minute bit
Dave Baumbach is a writer, illustrator, and digital-web-media designer, specializing in elearning and human memory.
California was the epicenter for a renaissance of cultural changes that affected the entire world. As a true native of California, I was formed by its rich variety of influences: from the cinema and mythology of Hollywood, to the brilliant capitalist intellect and digital technology of Silicon Valley, to the solitude and power of the California deserts, beaches, and northern forests. "The Human Potential Movement" was a context for the cultural diversity and progressive thinking I discovered through seminars, yoga ashrams, and martial arts dojos.
Street-performing magic at Balboa Park, San Diego California.
My first real locus of great knowledge.
Javanese Gamelan, studies at "The Center for World Music".
I regularly performed magic shows at Balboa Park and other venues. One evening, I saw a contemporary adaptation of an Ancient Greek theater piece called "The Oedipus Carnival.” It was outdoor theater, performed mostly in vignettes and all around the base of the library at the University of California, San Diego. This library was named “The Geisel Library”, after Theodor Seuss Geisel, the children’s book author, Dr. Seuss.
This experience was my introduction to the UCSD Library where I found inspirations in science, theater, filmmaking, and the world's cultures. I discovered and studied Ethnomusicology at “The Center for World Music” at UCSD and SDSU. I audited classes, trained in filmmaking and media studies, and also trained in physical comedy and improvisational theater with several troupes in San Diego and San Francisco.
La Paloma Theater in Encinitas, California was one of several laboratories for experimenting and practicing theater arts.
Doug Henning (with Ruffles the tiger) around the time of my Apprenticeship in stage performance and illusion construction.
Over time, I gravitated toward the computer as my main tool for art and research.
I found myself onstage in Las Vegas, under bright lights, with several thousand people before me—a twenty-something young ninja onstage, the next instant crawling down a dark secret tube and whisking past the whiskers of the pungent young tiger that would take my place in that onstage magic trick. I was the apprentice to one of the most pioneering stage magicians of our age—Doug Henning. I actually lived in his studio. We built theater illusions and special effects. Over the years I also performed magic shows as my profession. There were thousands of events, close-up and on-stage including the Magic Castle in Hollywood. Through this experience, I learned something profound about human perception and cognition.
My focus in digital arts emerged as I received training in special effects from technicians at Lucasfilm's “Industrial Light and Magic” (ILM). I performed a magic show at a party for ILM, and George Lucas was in the audience. We spoke briefly, and he impressed me with how much of filmmaking was going to be engulfed by digital media. I didn't need much convincing, I was gradually assimilating the digital medium, or being assimilated by it.
I started repairing computer hardware and troubleshooting software at a small shop. Eventually, I was hired at several national companies as a computer technician, systems administrator, and web designer. Companies like “The Whole-Life-Expo” in San Rafael, California, where I facilitated a sales staff working with thousands of exhibitors and attendees. California was also the epicenter for the global renaissance of digital technology, the personal computer, and the Internet.
Seventh Gate near Bright Behind Me, at Mountain of Attention Sanctuary.
Adi Da's personal library, housing "The Basket of Tolerance", and His own literature and art.
A great Master of art, writing, and spiritual life.
Adi Da Samraj, the Avataric Great Sage, a genius of the highest degree created magnificent sacred art and literature. Imagine if you could just snap your fingers and go back in time to study with Leonardo da Vinci or perhaps meet and talk with Buddha, Socrates, or any great historical genius. Adi Da was also not merely a master of art and philosophy but a Spiritual Master of the living reality and of life in all its domains. He was a controversial Guru, but in every epoch and nation, genuine spiritual masters have always been a source of controversy as well as a source of culture and wisdom.
Much of my most significant inspiration and research took place in Adi Da’s personal meditation halls and environments—such as His library, “Bright Behind Me”, which houses a collection of thousands of books that He curated, organized, and commented on. This was my Alexandria, the storehouse of wisdom from the ancients. “The Mountain of Attention Sanctuary”, and all of Adi Da's personal environments are places of the transmission of Great Spiritual Force.
From my studies of the sciences, world cultures, as well as the philosophy of western civilization, I began to understand the underlying structure of the arts and sciences. This became my work. I became a student and investigator of cognition and Consciousness. I conducted formal experiments with myself and others, designing learning systems and games. This work took the form of participatory experimental cognitive science. I created and tested mnemonic systems and creativity training games with the intention of enhancing memory, learning, and creativity.
Throughout the years, I have always enjoyed training in the martial arts of Aikido and Aiki-jujutsu. The dojos where I trained fostered a culture of respect and a mutual ethic of learning and teaching, governed by cooperation, rigorous training, and self-transcendence. This discipline also informed my artistic process. True art is about practicing in this manner.
To see more about these games for increasing your memory, learning, and creativity see my project site geniusdojo.art