M A N - L I K E M A C H I N E S
a r t / e n l i g h t e n m e n t / t h e f u t u r e
The Cards.
The idea behind these Cards, as in a deck of Tarot cards, is that they function as a sort of art-focus for internal activities of the mind(/soul?). Randomness, it would seem, is utilized to bring some sort of subtle divined information through the positioning of the elements. In the case of the Cards, the elements are classic story archetypes. Joe and George were intrigued by the divination process of the Tarot, having recently begun their investigations into the true nature of the individual's relationship to the World, in particular the weird, subtle, pseudo-spiritual, esoteric/apocryphal corners of this relationship that the modern model seems to ignore. From the Tarot, they were inspired to create this unique system of divination that functions under the vision of life occuring fundamentally as a story. The Cards were designed to read a classic three-act structure, but their full inspirational/divinatory potential has turned out to be near infinite. The Cards were designed as polar entities, each with two sides of a single larger narrative concept, such as The Hero/The Villain or The Citizen/The Slave. Of the ninety-four cards, two of them are unique and do not share the dual nature of the others. They are The Messiah and Deus Ex Machina. We would like to recommend that you try making your own deck, and see how it works for you. The Cards |
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We used 3x5 index cards and clipped the images out of a wide assortment of art and culture magazines, choosing the images very carefully. Building each of our two decks took us about four full evenings.
The Three-Act Reading spread we designed has ten places in this order: The Hero, The Villain, The Milieu, The Nature of the Conflict, Three Supporting Players, The Inciting Incident, The Climax and The Denouement. This is done once for each act.
In a reading, each placement requires two cards, their up-down orientation being very significant. The top image on the two cards modify each other, usually the second modifying the first.
For instance, the Hero might be The Slave modified by The Sea (an Ahab-type?), and the Villain might be The Sherrif modified by The Labyrinth, or whatever.
Also, we have had a great deal of luck using other, spur-of-the-moment reading spreads for creating characters and scenes and many other random minor inspirations.