On 11 July 2023, over fifty philosophers, psychologists, and artists gathered at the headquarters of The Magic Circle in London for The BSA Workshop on the Art and Aesthetics of Illusion (https://scienceofmagicassoc.org/blog/aetheticsworkshop).
The event was led by BSA member Jason Leddington (Bucknell) and included eleven submitted talks spread across four sessions: (1) The Experience of Magic; (2) The Enjoyment of Magic; (3) Magic and Beyond; and (4) Illusion and Depiction. Each of these sessions was paired with a talk by one of the four keynote speakers: Magician Jeanette Andrews; philosophers Robert Hopkins (NYU) and Bence Nanay (Antwerp); and psychologist Jasmina Stevanov (Bristol). A BSA Small Grant covered travel, food, and lodging for the keynote speakers, artist performance fees, and a portion of the venue costs. The remaining venue costs, as well as lunch for all participants, were covered by The Magic Circle and The Science of Magic Association, which collaborated in the organisation of the event. The day also included a tour of The Magic Circle museum, a conversation with visual artist Patrick Hughes (one of whose paintings hangs in The Magic Circle headquarters), and an evening magic performance by Jeanette Andrews in The Magic Circle theatre.
The organisers followed the BPA/SWIP guidance and made sure that they had a gender balance among the invited speakers. (In fact, they nearly had 75% women.) In the male-dominated field of magic performance, they invited a young, female performer with theoretical interests, Jeanette Andrews, rather than the stereotypical older white male magician. They also invited a young female psychologist, Jasmina Stevanov, to give a keynote, when they could easily instead have invited one of the prominent male psychologists who ended up giving a submitted talk. Finally, they invited a female philosopher who works on illusion, Fiona Macpherson (Glasgow); but while she was interested, she was in the end unavailable.
To foster greater diversity and inclusion, the organisers reviewed submitted abstracts anonymously and decided to accept all of them, including some of uncertain quality.