Technologies for Intuition: Cold War Circles and Telepathic Rays by Alaina Lemon

Author:Alaina Lemon [Lemon, Alaina]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social, Language Arts & Disciplines, Linguistics, General
ISBN: 9780520967458
Google: P-M5DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Published: 2017-11-10T00:51:41.387000+00:00

PHATIC TRICKS: CHANNEL DISTRACTION

In 2008 the young illjuzionist Rafael Zotov appeared as a contestant on the television show Fenomen (on Channel Rossija), a show conceived in the United States, where it broadcast for one season in 2007. Israeli celebrity psychic Uri Geller acted as judge on a Russian version starting in 2008 and on a Ukrainian version beginning in 2011, speaking in English, aided by simultaneous translators. Grounded neither in Soviet science nor or Soviet-era romanticist antiscience, Geller’s authority banks on international celebrity. Zotov stands alone on an open dais. Blue and white spotlights crisscross the circular platform and over faces in the audience as the MC introduces the act. Zotov looks into a camera that closes on his face, a tiny microphone dangling on a wire from his ear, and asks, “Have you ever received a phone call from the very person you were thinking about?” He proposes an experiment in transmitting thoughts over distance: he will receive a telephone number. A celebrity pop singer joins him on stage to act as his transmitter. They make scripted small talk: “Have you ever tried telepathically to will a man: ‘call me, call me’?” “Of course!” she replies, singing a few lines from her hit single, “Call Me!” She asks for volunteers to offer their telephone numbers, selecting a gentleman from the back rows. Rather than, say, asking him to call her phone (activating caller ID, this being the preferred way to trade numbers in Moscow), a long-legged, blond assistant wearing a tuxedo jacket with tails over shorts—and also wearing a bluetooth earpiece and microphone—walks all the way up the rows carrying paper and pen. After a few moments we see the assistant cross the stage, rip paper from the pad, hand the piece to the pop singer, and stride off the stage. The singer holds the paper in front of her chest, carefully folding her fingers across the back to hide any shadows of pen marks. So many media, so many channels, where to focus attention?

Meanwhile, Zotov ruffles a ream of blank white A4 paper and brandishes a black Sharpie pen. One by one, the singer mentally transmits digits, staring into the psychic’s eyes until he writes something down and holds up each sheet of paper to show the audience, then his partner. He misses one! He approaches to hold the singer’s hand for a moment “to reestablish contact,” then backs away to retry. All but the last digit complete, he reaches for his own cell phone to type it all in—a phone rings in the volunteer’s pocket! Channels are clear! The volunteer smilingly consents for Zotov to write the last digit on paper, even “for millions of viewers to see.” The camera pulls back, then shifts to Uri Geller’s smile; he pronounces the performance a success, speaking English: “I liked it. I liked the way you incorporated technology,” using the phones over the paper.

This performance bears comparison with the experiment in Olender’s documentary, discussed previously. Both are enacted on a theatrical stage: one in an empty community theater, the other on a television soundstage.

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