Reforming the Image/Interpretation - Tarot

We have a million and one representative symbols, icons, images with meanings, art, etc.  Like in my last blog post, I have been toying with the idea of how a system of representation is established, or at least proliferated.  Well, funny story, Tarot has a nice little system to it that hopefully our class can model.

Like any other 'divination system' Tarot is not exactly a math equation, but a method of introspection and interpretation.  As Ulmer would say - you don't go to the Oracle to get the right answer, you go to hear the answer you already know.  We use Oracles, Tarot, Horoscopes, or even Prayer to request, re-consider, and re-position ourselves in the context of a particular situation.  We go to these systems with questions, but have to intuit the applicability of the answers - the signs and omens that might work for a given experience. The Tarot offers options and we fill in the blanks. As Rachel Pollack says, "this is the world of structure and symbolism, a world where ideas and images move in and out of each other, giving birth to deeper awareness" (41).  The cards do have specific meanings, general truths for each number, suit, and image.  For instance, the Aces are the beginning of the numbers and usually represent a new beginning or inspiration.  The suits, Wands, Pentacles, Swords, or Cups, each have a general meaning as well and an elemental association.  The combinations of features on the cards present a general truth or meaning to be applied to your life and to answer your specific question.

For example - My significator card according to the 'date method' is The Chariot.  (Using your birthday to determine a number that corresponds to a particular card - 4+19+1982 = 2005 = 7 = Chariot)

We are going to use the Tarot for inspiration, trying to configure a system that might help us build an aesthetic electrate apparatus from this bachelor machine

I actually ended up trying to explain some of our project and the connection of Tarot to electracy to a friend and I think the conversation ended up really helping me ask some questions, make some mistakes, but also get some clarity - so I wanted to include it here:

• Meg Rice
  

  
  

  hows that digital literacy class?
• 

  5:44pm
  

  Shannon Butts
  

  
  

  I kinda love it

  now we are looking at Tarot

  yeah, that's right

  Tarot cards

  since our whole focus is on using what here, combining tradition with what is 'smart' about technology and trying to get people focused on wellbeing
• 

  5:45pm
  

  Meg Rice
  

  
  

  whoaa

  cool
• 

  5:46pm
  

  Shannon Butts
  

  
  

  then we are actually looking at the history of Tarot in the Western tradition this week to examine how stories and mythology, morals and whathaveyou are worked into the various types of Tarot decks (because their are many)

  and then examining how Tarot works like an Oracle

  you know, the Oracle was never really the one with the answers

  she was just the high virgin that you asked questions that you really already knew the answer to

  or at least had some leaning

  but then she would say some crazy nonesense and you would interpret it the way you really wanted

  but the point was that going to her made you reexamine an issue

  so we are talking about getting people to do that with Smart technology

  instead of just been appetitive

  causing some sort of reflection

  even if it just makes people choose what they would have - hopefully it alters their perspective enough to look outside themselves for five seconds and consider alternative viewpoints

  It sounds super hokey and a little 'L.A' to me, but it is kinda cool how he is pulling all this stuff out through both the technological and mystical tradition
• 

  5:49pm
  

  Meg Rice
  

  
  

  but isnt that kind of subverted by the way smart technology is made?
• 

  5:49pm
  

  Shannon Butts
  

  
  

  to create a mix
• 

  5:49pm
  

  Meg Rice
  

  
  

  like that it is made to reflect the "most common" or "most likely" searches or outcomes

  isn't it necessarily funneling?

  i mean not unlike Tarot, but nonetheless

  so i guess i question how many opportunities there are to see things outside your own purview through smart technology

  maybe its about degrees of difference really, perhaps its not so far out of your own world, but just far enough away to push your own boundary?
• 

  5:52pm
  

  Shannon Butts
  

  
  

  but those smart searches kinda echo the idea of the Tarot in that you already have a system that you are working with

  then you interpret with your own bias

  google is totally biased

  kinda crazy how it works
• 

  5:53pm
  

  Meg Rice
  

  
  

  right, i agree, but then how does that make you reexamine?
• 

  5:54pm
  

  Shannon Butts
  

  
  

  even just the fact that you are not just going with the first thing that pops in your head, that you have to interpret generally makes you ask questions and think about consequences

  so while there is still a bias and it is not a perfect system, the 'pause' that it causes makes you consider other alternatives you might not have or relate it to other systems or things in your life

  I mean, the whole Tarot system is based on asking a questions first

  seeking an answer

  so if you get some card back that signals 'you will face a trial in your work or study of moderate strength, forcing you to take responsibility that you have been avoiding'

  then you have to think - what situation, or what responsibility

  and then you start going through you life and how everything relates and you start thinking about alternative possibilities
• 

  5:58pm
  

  Meg Rice
  

  
  

  hmmm, yah i see, but it seems no different than continually reshuffling the same information into new organizations that makes it have a different meaning

  i just think about the position, like how far outside the original question can you end up while working within the same deck, or smart tech.
• 

  6:00pm
  

  Shannon Butts
  

  
  

  but maybe it makes you do more than just follow the leader

  or what feels good

  maybe it makes you consider consequences in a way that we don't always

  not to make us crazy

  just more thoughtful as humans

  and as far as being in the same deck

  well - that is where the alternative traditions come in

  and your own

  it is a syncratism of logic and mysticism that somehow makes a system

  again, not perfect

  but could we create an 'app' for that 
• 

  6:01pm
  

  Meg Rice
  

  
  

  ha

  and thats the take home lesson folks

  "theres an app for that"
• 

  6:02pm
  

  Shannon Butts
  

  
  

  hahaha - yeah, probably not - but our goal is not to 'app' but to think about why we need the app in the first place

  as Ulmer (my professor) likes to say

  let the tech kids build the software, but we need to be asking the questions of why and how we are using it

  its here - what can we do with it
• 

  6:03pm
  

  Meg Rice
  

  
  

  bc its the path of least resistance
• 

  6:03pm
  

  Shannon Butts
  

  
  

  mentally, logically, not just entertainment
• 

  6:03pm
  

  Meg Rice
  

  
  

  when an app emerges, its because whatever point a and point b are

  it gets us there the quicket
• 

  6:03pm
  

  Shannon Butts
  

  
  

  yeah, so how can we speed up the process of thoughtfull deliberation, really genuine consideration to 'smart' time?
• 

  6:04pm
  

  Meg Rice
  

  
  

  and the popularity of the app, speaks to the how large that drive is in the society that point a to point b is necessary
• 

  6:04pm
  

  Shannon Butts
  

  
  

  that is the kinda of 'literacy' system he wants us to be thinking about

  those kind of applications - not 'apps'

  yes!
• 

  6:04pm
  

  Meg Rice
  

  
  

  right right
• 

  6:04pm
  

  Shannon Butts
  

  
  

  because part of his whole thing is that we have become disconnected

  we want to do and feel, but thinking...eh

  not at the same time at least
• 

  6:05pm
  

  Meg Rice
  

  
  

  disconnected from thinking? but not each other?
• 

  6:05pm
  

  Shannon Butts
  

  
  

  so he likes the syncratism of logic and mysticism to link (or sync) the mind and body as well

  both actually

  the post modern bullshit condition

  we have to recognize the (w)hole

  to reconnect the collective to the individual in the same way
• 

  6:07pm
  

  Meg Rice
  

  
  

  well devil's advocate here, but how is it that it can be definitively disconnection? and not a refashioning of the meaning of what it is to be connected
• 

  6:08pm
  

  Shannon Butts
  

  
  

  oh, i'm with ya

  and I think it is

  that is the point

  we are connected through 'smart' technology

  we literally walk through physical environments and our little phone brains are triggered to respond

  so how to we use this system to work within our physical and mental selves

  again, its here - how can we learn from it and use it

  facebook and computers and gaming and all that shit can isolate you as much as connect you

  so how do we emphasize the connection - what is already happening to an extent

  but with human processes and decision making instead of mechanical ones

  kinda like we are learning from the machines a bit

  (and then they TAKE OVER THE WORLD!)

  or at least, I acknowledge that is a bit of what it sounds like
• 

  6:11pm
  

  Meg Rice
  

  
  

  HAHAHA

  yeah
• 

  6:11pm
  

  Shannon Butts
  

  
  

  but it is fascinating nonetheless
• 

  6:11pm
  

  Meg Rice
  

  
  

  the android-armageddon

  it is

  and relevant