MISDIRECTIONS
makes its official debut in a veritable variety show of cine-magical marvels ! These including Stephanie Hough’s temporary transformation of your personal digital devices into a novel interface for seeing and knowing anew, in her EARTHVIEWS series, and, from primordial depths, a media archeological fossil in the form of a kinescope film, featuring a bonafide magician circa 1950! Presented digitally and yet shimmering even still with the curious textures of this long-forgotten format.
From Andrew Kim’s film essay on the oddly named village, Colon, MI and its claim as “the Magic Capital of the World,” to the enchanted ephemera in Kathleen Quillian’s collage animation, The Conjuror, this entourage of audiovisual delights culminates in an illuminated excursion into the life and times of the late, great magician, vaudevillian, and comedy emcee, Werner “Dorny” Dornfield, as presented by his grand-nephew, yours truly,
Carl Diehl.
Adapted from my recent publication, Misdirections: A Serio-Comic Catalogue of Details, Detours, and Derivations from the Life of the Magician, Vaudevillian, and Comedy Emcee, Werner "Dorny" Dornfield. This 68 pg chapbook and affiliated online trove is available for purchase at Antiquated Future
MISDIRECTIONS (2022)
Misdirections is a 68 page chapbook, printed with embedded clues that correspond with an affiliated web-based audiovisual trove. Following clues from the book, attentive readers can unlock further anecdotes, images, and vignettes, including original animations by Portland illustrator, Bill Boyer. What begins as a biography of the magician, Werner "Dorny" Dornfield, broadens into a mosaic of many riddles and revelations that resonate across the contexts of art, magic, and everyday life
Order your copy from Antiquated Future
MORNINGS OF THE MAGICIAN (2017)
A companion piece to Misdirections: Unlike other magicians in the family, my father was a private magician, the pancake was his philosopher’s stone. Idiosyncratic culinary rituals are explored through family history and a metaphorical framework of alchemy.
EXHIBITION RECORD
2017 Electronic Elsewhere: Video by Carl Diehl, NW Tracking, Whitsell Auditorium, Portland, OR
Mornings of the Magician (detail from video), 2017