Tactical Magic

Fueled by the ways of the magician, the ninja, the artist, and the private investigator, Tactical Magic is a fusion force derived from seemingly disparate "art" paradigms and invoked for the purpose of activating the social imaginary with notions of responsible citizenship through creative action. Such transformative inversions of power relationships highlight not only the creative appropriation of seemingly innocuous elements but a greater inclination toward the elaborate integration of all things related; a magical perspective that, far from being limited to the child's experience, sees nonapparent links and connections amidst an illusion of order, control, and restriction. In this way "magical thinking" drops its cloak of transcendental escapism and materializes as a social, political, and cultural counterperception - an alternative worldview that summons the creative and prophetic power of the multitude.

Surprise:
Tactical Magic embraces the element of surprise, drawing on the power of the unexpected to overwhelm perception with unforeseen advances that amaze, astonish, and astound. A sneak attack, a twist of fate, a buried treasure revealed at last, surprise admonishes the arrogance of stability founded on hegemonic proclivities, thus forsaking structure for entropy, spontanaeity, and the unanticipated discovery of underdog victories resulting from anarchic affinities. When did you last feel the resonant power of surprise? What surprises can we invoke before the eyes of power? Be prepared to surprise and be surprised.

Infiltration:
The whispers of infiltration are the incantations of transgression, penetration, furtive exploration that gains access to fertile information. Whether occurring on physical, psychic, or digital planes, infiltration is the breaching of security, the exploiting of hidden vulnerabilities, the surreptitious act of border-crossing into privileged terrain. Who is granted access and by whose authority? What is the value of freedom tied to the restrictions of others? The rhetoric of safety and protection is a see-thru mirror concealing Authorized Personnel Only.

Subterfuge:
Subterfuge - to escape with a trick, an inversion of the prevailing conditions, trickery over power, repression, control, and restriction. It's beguilement and cunning; bewilderment and craftiness enacted against an unpleasant predicament, turn of events or happenstance. Whether a scheme, a ruse, or a stratagem, subterfuge is the Tactical Magicians multi-tool, a secret move effecting the transposition of success and fortune.

Disguise:
Disguise is the power to conceal, to hide away in the shadows of another's misperception. The appropriation of signifiers reconstructed in the minds of onlookers, keyed in to their signal decoders along hacked bandwidths. What are the limitations of sensory perception? Which clues are left behind to guide the investigation through labyrinths of folly? Freedom often hinges on the fact that things are not always as they appear.

Misdirection:
Older than recorded human history, misdirection is the hypnotic glow of mental bug-zappers, plotting fast-acting undertakings, chance gamblings, and covert operations. Banking success on spell-binding diversions that suspend attention, besieging opportunity, and dancing in the realm of resource acquisition. In the last five thousand years, what have the powerful learned from the quickness of pickpockets? Where is your attention placed and displaced? No more esoteric than smoke and mirrors, misdirection is a timeless astral lesson befriending all who seek awareness.

Sabotage:
Sabotage enchants us with the creative urge to set things awry, to perturb production, and ease the machine into creaky incompletion. A wrench in the gears is a smack to the masters, a paling in profits, a reprieve from repression. Decrying the neutrality of technology, highlighting vulnerability and ingenuity in a manner which converts the currency of meaning and cavorts with the cohorts of agency and alienation, Sabotage is Transformation.

Stealth:
Above all else, stealth denotes a close affiliation with one's surroundings. High-altitude and underground, invisible and shadowbound, stealth moves in like radiation, lunar rays, and cloud formations. Beguiling the mind and eluding the eyes, stealth realizes the full force of effect while masking methods with murky lurkings through darkened halls, creek trickles and bird calls, coffee breaks and background noise. When did you last upgrade your instincts? How will you know what is hidden until you begin to look around? Heightening awareness, stealth is the magic cloak that evokes the interchange of truth and falsehood.

Evasion:
More than a last-second side-step or a momentary disappearance, evasion is the ability to engage and disengage at will. A dodge or deflection, a guided redirection of sinister intentions, it is the levitation above pitfalls, phantom blips on radar screens, and vanishes through solid walls. Evasion employs a raincoat or force-field, a doctor's note or police shield, much like a lightning ride conjured in the nick of time to magically transport one safely to the friendly side, or deep behind enemy lines. Why win once when you can evade and win again? Absent yet accounted for, present yet unseen, evasion is the only i.d. card you ever really need.

Surveillance:
Surveillance demands a furtive command of a strategic perspective that deftly corrects the deficiencies of our organic info receptors. Bugging and tracking, trailing and spying, prying and tailing rely on a social condition now dominated by digital precognition and satellite telepathy. Who at the top needs most to be watched? Military industrial hand-me-downs quite easily channel activist spirits amplified by radio crystal balls, techno-telekinesis, and ESP - electrosensory perception.