ABOUT THE PROJECT
Arcana of Affect is an ongoing tarot project comprising 34 cards including the 22 Major Arcana alongside 12 original cards.
Inspired by the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, the project reimagines familiar tarot archetypes through concepts such as becoming, assemblage, territorialization, and lines of flight. I’m interested in exploring how these concepts might open familiar archetypes to new possibilities of meaning, interpretation, and experience.
Each card is constructed as an experimental photographic collage using images drawn from my photographic work, including street photography, urban landscapes, environmental portraits, and the natural world. Through the juxtaposition of seemingly disparate images, I explore unexpected relationships between visual elements, philosophical concepts, and sensation. The process is as much about experimentation and discovery as it is about composition.
At the heart of the project is the question:
Rather than asking what a tarot card means, what happens when we ask what a tarot card can do?
That is, I'm interested in approaching tarot not as a symbolic system of fixed meanings, but as a site of affective encounter—something that has the capacity to affect us and, in turn, be affected by our engagement with it.
When cards are drawn together in a reading, they form unpredictable assemblages, entering into new relationships with one another, the reader, and the circumstances of the encounter. Meaning is not simply found within the individual cards but emerges through these relationships, creating possibilities for new interpretations and ways of becoming.
Intuition also plays a role in these encounters, allowing us to engage with what is not yet fully formed or understood, but nevertheless felt. These impressions and sensations need not resolve into clear meanings to have the capacity to affect us.
In this sense, tarot becomes less a practice of fortune-telling and diving predetermined futures than an experiment of the present moment and its ongoing creation.
ABOUT ME
I’m Andie - a photographer, tarot reader and independent creative practitioner with an interest in the intersections of art, philosophy, and esoterica.
My photographic practice is rooted in experimentation and an interest in the unexpected. I’m drawn to the tensions and contradictions of everyday life, the relationships between people and their environments, and the ways seemingly ordinary scenes can reveal strange and sometimes unsettling moments. I’m particularly interested in how images can be transformed through juxtaposition, creating unexpected relationships and possibilities beyond their original contexts.
Arcana of Affect brings together several of my longstanding interests: photography, tarot, and philosophy. It’s an opportunity to experiment with these practices in conversation with one another, allowing each to inform and challenge the others.
FORMAT
Although Arcana of Affect is being developed with the intention of producing a functional, hand-sized tarot deck, the individual compositions are also intended for exhibition as larger-format photographic works. I’m interested in exploring both forms of engagement: the experience of encountering the images as works of art and the more intimate, participatory experience of handling, drawing, and interpreting the cards
A WORK IN PROGRESS
Arcana of Affect is an evolving project, with new cards taking shape as the series develops. Images of completed cards will be added to the website as they are created, offering a look at the project as it unfolds.
Details about the completed series and the eventual release of the deck will be announced at a later date.
