Tarot as affective cartography in the uneven Anthropocene

Abstract

In the context of anthropogenic climate change, this article critiques the prevalence of ocularcentric strategies, such as spectacular large-scale artworks and data visualizations, questioning the epistemological assumptions underpinning them. The author proposes Tarot, a dialogical practice unfolding through a deck of cards, often used for divination or occult purposes, as a valuable method for addressing the cognitive and affective messiness of climate crisis. This article examines three socially engaged art practices centring Tarot – James Leonard’s The Tent of Casually Observed Phenologies (2017–), Adelita Husni-Bey’s The Reading/La Seduta (2017) and Denise Ferreira da Silva and Valentina Desideri’s poethical readings (2015–). These case studies advance an understanding of Tarot as affective cartography, foregrounding the embodied and interpretive labour of negotiating connections across different crises and contradictions. Tarot provides a social context to experiment with new possibilities, unsettling ‘rational’ habits of thought and rethinking the practice of ‘making sense’ in the uneven Anthropocene.