Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function Why, it's Tearigami!

Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function Why, it's Tearigami!



An impossible object?


Naw, I'm not promoting Schoolhouse Rock (Oops! See what I just did there?).

In my process of trying to figure out the next great business card design, so that my business card doesn't get accused of being crap by mentalist Joel Bauer, I stumbled across this 2006 tearigami invention:
Conjunction
is a remarkable effect with a very simple description. You take one of
your business cards, give it a series of folds and tears, and in the
process transform it into an impossible object: two unbroken cardboard
rings that end up linked through one another. So, you may ask, what sets Conjunction apart from the multitude of other effects that have bits of card linking together? Simple: You do it for real.




According to people who have learned it, this is not a magic trick: It is "legit", where the paper truly is linked.

On this Magic Cafe forum thread, the author, Joshua Quinn, answers some FAQ:


THE CONJUNCTION FAQ Can I do it with my current business card?

The answer to that question -- and I wish I had a better one -- is
"maybe." And since I'm well aware of how frustrating that answer is,
here is the most detailed elaboration I can give you without giving too
much away. Once you learn how the link is done, you'll be able to do it
with any card. However, in order to prevent people from being able to
tell how you did it, the card you use will have to meet certain
requirements, the details of which I can't disclose. If your current
card meets those requirements, then you'll be able to make a deceptive
set of linked rings from it; if it doesn't, you won't. Note, however,
that even if you can, that doesn't guarantee that you'll be able to
finish with your contact info still intact on the linked rings. In
order to make that happen, there's a very good chance you will need new
cards. However, the manuscript outlines a number of alternatives for
people who don't want to change their current business card. Can I do it with a borrowed business card?

Again, it depends on the card; some of them will work, some won't. Can I do it with a playing card?

Finally, a question with a definite answer! And that answer is, no. How long does it take in real time?Once you get good at it, about two minutes. And yes, that is a long
time for people to watch you fold and tear paper. I discuss various
approaches to covering this in the manuscript.
What's the difficulty level?

It will require a good deal of practice, but not the same kind of
practice required for difficult sleight of hand; it's more akin to
learning to make an origami bird, or make a Jacob's Ladder out of a loop
of string. If you've ever mastered something like that, you'll have no
problem with this. Can I do it with a larger piece of paper in a stage setting?

It's theoretically possible, but wholly impractical.

How impromptu is it?

You have to have a suitable business card, but that really is all
that's required. If that fits your personal definition of impromptu,
then it's impromptu; if it doesn't, then it's not.

What comes with the effect?

A 48-page, 8.5x11", staple-bound, photo illustrated, clearly
written, professionally proofread, typographically pleasing manuscript,
plus a few blank business cards to practice with.

Why did you release it as a booklet rather than a DVD?

Because I'm an intellectual elitist who spits on the bourgeoisie and
their sluggardly desire to have everything spoon-fed directly into
what's left of their atrophied brains through a CRT screen. And also
because the nature of the effect makes it easier to learn from still
pictures (which you can stare at for as long as you need to), than from a
DVD (which you would have to keep pausing and rewinding). But mainly
it was the first reason.
andA paraphrase from the manuscript...

Any topologist, origami expert, or high school geometry teacher will
tell you that tearing two unbroken, interlinked rings from a single
piece of paper is physically impossible, and has been known to be so for
centuries. Yet that is exactly what I'll teach you to do, using a
process that requires no circumvention of natural laws, but merely a
slightly different way of looking at things -- one which has evidently
eluded centuries' worth of topologists, origami experts, and high school
geometry teachers...Color me intrigued. The rest of the conversation flow on that thread is also interesting.

One commenter even mentions Joel Bauer:
I highly recommend this to anyone
interested in topological puzzles and/or origami. I am already
brainstorming on how to present this... can't wait to get it down quick.

Also for those of you that might learn this and wonder how they
might present it... consider this: I have seen Joel Bauer mesmerize a
room full of people while folding a bunny bill, which takes considerably
longer to create than conjunction. With enough practice and a well
written script, I think this could be a piece of theater that will set
one apart from every other magician/mentalist out there.And a response to that by another:Re Joel Bauer....I think it would be
fairer to say that Joel Bauer could mesmerize a room full of people by
just reading out a phone book !

I don't mean to steer this post off-topic to be about Joel Bauer, but he's a friend and just has amazing energy. I'm sure some who attended OUSA around 2002 may remember his energy and presence.

Going further into the thread, Quinn mentions kirigami's role (in being disappointed by it) in the process of developing Conjunction:
I mention this briefly in the manuscript,
but the inspiration was Ian Rowland's stage effect wherein he cuts two
linked rings from a sheet of newspaper. When I saw it, I was one of the
people who got to examine the rings, and even after giving them a good
looking over, I didn't have a clue. That bugged me. A lot. Ian
then mentioned (on this board if I recall correctly) that his effect
was inspired by Isao Komine's "Kirigami Rings." So I tracked down a
copy of it, and immediately experienced what I refer to in the book as
"one of those crushing, amateurish moments of disappointment with the
method." Of course I can't go into exactly why, but like most such
moments, it came down to this: I wanted it to be real, and it wasn't.
As embarrassing as this is to admit, I think I took the news of Santa's
nonexistence better. However, that disappointment got me thinking about
the problem, and pointed me toward a way that just might allow
me to actually do it for real. So, as is my usual prerequisite for any
worthwhile thing I accomplish or create in life, I became a bit obsessed
with it.

For anyone who gets a copy of Conjunction (and I'll most likely be ordering it if it's ever back in stock!), Walt offers up this presentation idea:
Business is stressful,
so have you ever considered all the stress balled up in ones business cards?
Lots of tension to be found there I guarantee.

Origami is the ancient Japanese art of paper-folding,
theres another ancient art of paper-cutting, called Kirigami,
these are all designed to focus the attention,
to center-- and to find the calm within that Center.

I prefer paper tearing.
It allows me to rid myself of hostilities so I dont go postal.
And at the same time find my Center.
Both de-stress -and- meditate.

All in perfect harmony--
as tiny bits of card flutter in higher-consciousness.

Owning my feelings of pressure in the Now.
Anticipating my feelings of peace in the Zen.

Sort of a Now-and-Zen approach you could call it?

So pouring all my frustration and focus--
into this one business card.

Within the Center of My Being,
even the Impossible becomes…. the Probable!

Which begs the Zen Koan…
“What is the sound of one card… linking?”
I sort of have it figured out (I've worked one out). The video on this site actually offered up a clue, as well as from reading what people have been writing, including from Quinn himself. I understand now why it most likely can't be done with just any kind of paper. The type of business card cardstock matters.