Arcane is a limited-edition tarot deck developed in 2022 as an artistic exploration of AI image generation, esoteric symbolism and printed matter.
The printed QR code connects the physical deck to its live online companion, where each card can be expanded through its description and symbolic correspondences.
Produced in June and July 2022, the project used Midjourney V2 to generate a large field of original images, from which the final 22 Major Arcana cards were selected and edited into a coherent visual series. The deck draws on the Marseille tradition while introducing deliberate distortions, planetary links, zodiac signs and Hebrew letters that map the cards onto the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
The accompanying texts were written in dialogue with GPT-3, intentionally preserving a robotic tone and its limitations. The edition also includes a printed manifesto reflecting on the rapid expansion of AI and its impact on artistic labour, treating the deck not only as an oracle object but also as a document of a specific technological moment.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." — Arthur C. Clarke
