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0 M y t h 0 0 0 e s a t t h e E n d 0 f a
M l e n n u m
a digital tarot deck
by Pamela Ann Beverly M.F.A., University of Colorado, Boulder 1996
A thesis submitted to the faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of. Fine Arts Department of Fine Arts 1996
1 11 ~~i1f1~~l1i~1 11~ !1111l~l~~i1l~111 1ii1 111!~~1l1i1i11 U18302 1066134 This Thesis for the Master of Fme Arts Degree by Pamela Ann Beverly has been approved for the
Department of FmeArts
by
Kenlwamasa
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Introduct on
The primary focus of this paper is to discuss myth as it applies to my thesis exhibition titled:
Mythologies at the End of a Millennium. "Myths .. . " is a digital, interactive, tarot reading program. The project
has taken nine months to complete and is an outpouring of images that attempt to capture the icons or symbols
that metaphorically speak about this period of time as we approach the year 2000. The images, icons etc. were
used to reinterpret the traditional tarot deck. This digital project was created using my own photographs. I was
very interested in photographing people that somehow depict this period of time visually. In order to get as
many people as possible I set up my camera and lights in a small studio and invited people in. They were given
a list of tarot card meanings and chose which card they would like to represent. By allowing each model to
choose which card they identified with they could pose in a way that conveyed the card's feeling. Another unex
pected byproduct of this was that people really opened up and shared things about themselves and their lives.
I worked on a Power Mac 7200 with 32 megs of RAM and only 500 megs of hard drive space. Images
were scanned into Adobe Photoshop 3.0 where they were combined with other photographs and altered in some
way. Some of the images were output as "Iris" or Giclee prints, others as dye sublimation prints. All were
imported into Macromedia Director 5.0 and used for the interactive tarot reading. The Giclee prints were output
onto watercolor paper and the "dye subs" were output onto a glossy stock. All 78 images created were framed
and hung in the gallery during the exhibition. In one area of the gallery a wall housed a computer that ran the
interactive tarot reading portion of the show. The viewer/participant simply clicked the mouse, subsequently, the
sounds of cards shuffling could be heard and a hand moved across the screen leaving three cards for the viewer
to select. Once the viewer clicked the mouse on a particular card the tarot reading appeared. In addition to the
tarot readings button, two other buttons could be selected. One started a small movie that displayed many of the
cards and asked the question "What will history make of us?" The last button moved the viewer to a brief out
line/history of the tarot. Throughout the nine months that I worked on this project I focused on two main topics
that I will discuss in this paper:
I) The role of mythology and the importance of myth-making
2) Soul/spirit as it relates to technology
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Myth-Mak ng
"Mythology is the song. It is the song of the imagination .. . myths are metaphorical and spiritual potentiality in the human being, and the same powers that animate our life animate the the life of the world .. . " (Campbell, 27)
"Mythology is an interior road map of experience drawn by people who have traveled it" (Campbell, xvi)
As a society how will we be imagined in the next millennium? What will history choose to forget and which
images, stories, and events of our everyday lives will become part of the mythological fabric of the past? Mythologies at the
End of a Millennium opens for discussion this very question through imagery and text in a digital environment.
Myth plays as important a role now, as it has throughout time. All around us are stories and prophesies that pre-
diet great change on the planet around the year 2000. Many believe that with the coming of the new millennium there will
be great struggle even if it is only within our own thinking.
"I don't know what's corning, anymore than Yeats knew, but when you come to the end of one time and the beginning of a new one, it's a period of tremendous pain and turmoil. . . there is this notion of Armageddon corning you know." (Campbell, 21)
Even if one does not buy into the biblical mythological notion of all-out Armageddon there exist other cultural
prophesies, as well as sociological, and environmental disasters that have reached the point of no return. The idea of impend-
ing change has become a popular topic of recent times as we watch global weather changes, a seeming increase in natural
disasters, and sociological crises that seem unsolvable. Any and all of these topics are being discussed at great length on the
evening news, in the local newspaper and prolifically in recent literature.
It is at this point that our mythologies as a culture and as a family of humans play an important role. If we can
honestly look at ourselves and our behaviors (the myth-making in which we have been engaging until now) we can create
new cultural/global ideals that will evolve into a new mythology. It is only through looking at ourselves honestly that we can
begin to recreate our direction. If each of us consciously participates in our individual myth-making we may then be able to
effect larger global change. Such a change seems overwhelming and inconceivable to achieve yet individually we feed into a
larger global consciousness that begins on an individual level.
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Myth-Making con't
In The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell states: "The individual has to find an aspect of myth that relates to his
[her] own life ... " and that myths work to address four basic functions:
I) "The Mystical Function: realizing what a wonder the universe is .. . myth opens the world to the dimension of mystery." 2) "the Cosmological Dimension: .. the dimension with which science is concerned-showing you what the shape of the universe is." 3) "The Sociological Function: supporting and validating a certain social order." 4) "The Pedagogical Function: . . .how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances." (Campbell, 38)
Myths not only shape our lives, but also teach us how to live. In the West, however, the predominant mythology
has been biblically based. This particular mythology has shaped the psyche of cultures and continents yet it is from another
time-the first millennium b.c. At this time in history a new mythology is essential. One that addresses deep sociological,
individual and global concepts of today. Within a new mythology we can re-invent our ways of operating and perhaps
change the course of our lives and our planet.
"We are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves . . .the greatest tragedy that can befall us is to go unimagined." (Highwater, 214)
In Suzi Gablik's book "Conversations before the end of time" she interviewed artists, writers, philosophers, and art
critics. Her agenda was to document- dialog style- what role art is playing in what some fear is "the end of time". I was par-
ticularly struck with her interview with archetypal psychologist James Hillman. Hillman feels there is a crisis in art that is an
extension of a larger spiritual and global crisis.
"Beauty, its sensate presence, is for Hillman, absolutely fundamental to life, it is not a cultural accessory, or something that belongs to the exclusive province of the arts. Beauty is in the inherent radiance of the world, and its repression he feels, is the most significant factor in our culture, because its loss is what keeps us from caring for nature. "Nature today is on dialysis", he says, "slowly expiring, kept alive only by advanced technology." When all is said and done, it is only love for the world, and a desire for rich, sensory contact with the beauty of its sounds and smells and textures that will save us .... Elsewhere he claims that beauty is the way in which the gods touch our senses, reach the heart and attract us into life. If beauty is not given its full place, we will probably not survive." (Gablik, 179)
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Myth - Making can ' t
If Hillman is correct in this theory, then a new mythology is required that allows room for other voices. We need to
take a hard look at the way the machine and the systems within the machine are running our Jives. A softer approach is need
ed that takes into account the simple and beautiful in our world. Recognizing and preserving the beautiful in other living
beings, and in life is a mythology that I would like to be a part of.
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Soul in Technology
"Eisenhower went into a room full of computers. And he put the question to these machines, "Is there a God?" And they all start up, and the lights flash, and the wheels tum, and after awhile a voice says, "Now there is." (Campbell, 24)
"Modem technology advanced in such tiny increments for so long that we never realized how much our world was being altered, or the ultimate direction of the process. But now the speed of change is accelerating logarithmically. It is apparent that developing a language and a set of standards by which to access technological impact, and to block it where necessary is a critical survival skill of our times." (Mander, 9)
"Machines help us to fulfill the idea that we want the world to be made in our image, and we want it to be what we think it ought to be . .. .But then there comes a time when the machine begins to dictate you. For example, I have bought this wonderful machine-a computer. Now I am rather an authority on Gods, so I was able to identify the machine- it seems to me to be an Old testament god with a lot of rules and no mercy." (Campbell, 24)
Last August I attended a workshop on incorporating the world wide web into class curricula. I was excited about
this new technology being accessible in the classroom setting and thought of the possibilities it could hold in an artmaking
atmosphere. I was, simultaneously, deeply involved in my own digital work. For three months I felt a little unsettled about
creating an entire body of work in cyberspace. Day after day I worked with personal photographs, scanned each into the
computer and altered or manipulated them in some way. The project included 78 images and the digital interactive tarot
deck. As I attended critiques on my work I would show up with a small bag which held my Iomega Zip (storage) Drive and
about 24 Zip disks. It seemed strange that rru:mths and months of work were all stored on these fragile little disks. If any-
thing were to happen to the disks my entire thesis show would be in ruin. All my work was in the form of bits rather than
atoms, lacking the tactile and the sensory. I had to face the question within myself, was this art, if I felt it lacked a soulful
ness in its mechanistic creation. As the lecture on the web began I was quickly turned off by the rhetoric and idealistic belief
in technology as if it were the solution to humanity's problems. A professor from Engineering at the University of Colorado
stood in front of 40 plus graduate students and told us how he could take his computer to a remote African village, tap it into
a satellite and teach the technologically deprived villagers. It was at this point that I developed a nagging suspicion that we
are giving technology quite a lot of room in our lives and not questioning its larger, perhaps imperialistic, implications.
"Computer technology has sprung us headlong into an entirely new existence, one that will permanently affect our lives and the lives of 01.1r children anq our grandchildren. It will speed up profound changes on the planet, yet there is no meaningful debate about it, no ferment, no critical analysis of the consequences." (Mander, 53) breast im ant calve implant liposuction breast reduction tummy tuck leaner trimmer thighs in 30 days 5 pizza xra antibiotics aids virus ebola virus ecoli fear visa mastercard american express discover card
Soul in Technology con't
Perhaps we have turned to technology so trustingly because we no longer trust our ability to interact with one
another or cure the things that ail the human psyche. "Deep in American life lies a dormant soul, almost obliterated by politicians and the media that consider it too lowly and weak for serious attention. This soul is powerful, not in a political or military sense, but because of its capacity for imagination and passion. To effect a deep change in culture would require a refusal of the status quo and the courageous application of tolerant and community-minded vision. We could all find in our hearts the ancient contemptus mundi that might inspire us to give less to the lure of a technological future and more to our children, our homes and land, our marriages, and those small, intimate details of everyday life that in being nothing special gives us back our souls." (Moore, 32)
My intent in creating a digital tarot deck was to open for discussion the idea of myth-making as we approach the
year 2000. I was also very intrigued by how reliant we have all become on computers and other forms of progressive tech-
nology. I was personally driven to broach these subjects in my work and pit them against my own notion that our culture is
moving away from soul or spirit in everyday life.
Spirituality was central to my existence as a child. As Christian Scientists, family crises were moderated through
prayer. There was an unspoken understanding in my family that we could find answers to life's more elusive questions
through faith and prayer rather than contemporary beliefs in medicine or psychology.
Recently, I have witnessed my mother struggle with her health. In the search for healing she turned away from her
lifelong faith in prayer to traditional medicine. Watching my Mother, I began to question the role that technology has taken
in our lives. Where does one tum for spiritual answers in an era that leans more toward the "virtual" and less toward the
"natural"? "Mythologies at ihe End of a Millennium " addresses this question. In creating a digital interactive tarot deck, I
juxtapose the spiritual with the technological. The computer acts as tarot card reader and becomes a tool for divination for
the viewer/participant who looks for answers to spiritual/personal questions.
This digital tarot deck is a work in progress that will be completed in 1999. I will gather images during the last
five years or the millennium. These images will represent a shift in time and philosophies. Images representing the media,
language, technology and the self, will be worked into tarot cards replacing traditional tarot symbols to capture the essence of
this period of time. In this way I hope to create a new mythology-one that will carry us into the future. I am interested in
how history will choose to remember this era. Wqat images, stories and eveµts will become part of the mytliological fabric
of the past? What will history make of us? price war star wars industry manufacturing corporation ozone depletion qvc the home shopping channel 6 gm merce z ralph lauren madonna lone eagles virtual office conference calls militia new world order
Myth o logies at the End of a Millennium conceptual and formal concerns of the exhibition
The Cards
Mythologies at the end of a Millennium is an installation of 78 prints and an interactive computer program. In both
cases the traditional tarot was reinterpreted to represent a more contemporary view. The reinterpreted cards carry the tradi-
tional Roman numeral system, but have an entirely contemporary meaning. For example, the traditional card for The Fool
depicts a young man walking near a cliff. Over his shoulder is a staff with a pouch tied to the end of it. He does not see the
pouch and does not realize that it contains his fate. A small dog is nipping at this heels as he continues on his journey.
Questions of fate are raised by this card: will he fall over the edge of the cliff or ever come to realize his destiny? The rein-
terpreted card is called "the pursuit of material goods" . It carries many of the same issues as the traditional fool card in that
the figure is not aware of her fate. Furthermore, the card addresses the current social phenomenon of spending a good part
of one's life in pursuit of material goods. This card can represent the positive and negative aspects of pursuing the material
in life.
Twenty two of the 78 cards are called the Major Arcana. These cards are output from the computer as "Iris" or
Giclee prints. "From the French giclee which means to squirt or spurt. This is a form of reproduction created by scanning an
image into a computer (or occasionally, "painting" the image using the computer and its software), and causing it to be print-
ed with finely sprayed vegetable dyes." (Blakslee, 6) Each of these images is unique from all the others and reference the
traditional tarot only in the roman numeral system of numbering from O to XXI.
The remaining 56 cards are the Minor Arcana and were created in the same way as the Major Arcana but are print-
ed as dye sublimation prints. This type of printing is a thermal wax print on a specific paper unlike the various paper possi-
bilities that the Giclee provides. These cards are represented in four suits of fourteen cards. Each suit is given a particular
color scheme with imagery that supports the cards intent.
The Fates
Ancient Tarot decks consisted of 78 cards-four suits of 14 and 22 Major Arcana. This divination system was well-
respected and used often. With the rise of Christianity, however, clergy became suspicious of the cards. The Major Arcana,
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The Fates con't
or the power of Fate and otherworldly influences in people's lives was thought to be particularly threatening. Over a period
of time, Tarot cards as a divination system fell into disuse and some cards were lost or excluded-namely the Major Arcana.
Today's playing cards maintain the Minor Arcana, or four original suits (hearts/cups, spades/swords, diamonds/pentacles, and
clubs/wands), minus the 22 remaining Major Arcana, with the exception of the Fool which is now the Joker in traditional
decks.
Appearance of the Major Arcana in your reading indicates influences beyond your control. You are being helped, guided,
visioned and swayed by powerful forces. What you do with this guidance and support is up to you; however, do not try to
control or manipulate it. In this day and age of technology, where we often think whatever we touch we can manipulate, the
Major Arcana remind us of humility; our humanity, of the grace with which we live day by day.
The modern images of The Fates attempt to create a new Mythology for the Millennium. If we can recognize the ancient in
the modern, the magic in technology, then surely we will be even better prepared for whatever the future holds.
The Vessel
Representing the traditional suit of Cups, the Vessels are images of hands. Usually the suit of emotion, love and
affection, the Vessels work to show the interconnectedness of all living things. Hands join or separate. They are empty or
full, busy or idle. We carry the vessel of ourselves in our hands. If the future of ourselves as a species on this planet
depends on diversity and understanding, we must open hands to support and care for ourselves, one another and the planet on
which we live. Appearance of this suit in your reading indicates emotional matters, desires, physical and spiritual well-being.
The Media
Traditionally the suit of Swords, the Media represents how thought manifests itself in modern society. What are the
ways we gather, perceive and collate information? The media has become a powerful iconographic replication of modern
ideas and philosophy. Sometimes it is the purveyor of truth, although all too often it is the diseminator of violence, shock,
schlock, distortion and desensitization. Appearance of the Media in your reading indicates issues of idea exchange, intellect,
thought, philosophy, morals, struggle, and decisions.
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C om mod es
Replacing the traditional Tarot suit of Pentacles is Commodities. Since the Pentacles normally involve money and
material well-being, Commodities, with its iconographic replication of the body, represent the intersection of the body and
money in modem society. Quite simply, in modem society, our bodies have become our currency, the stuff with which we
bargain, purchase, invest and earn. It pays to be beautiful. Appearance of this suit in your reading indicates matters of
material loss or gain, wealth, craftsmanship, physical trappings, reciprocity, and money.
The Lex con
Traditionally the suit of Growth, The Lexicon represents The Wands of traditional tarot. With the high-paced repli
cation of new technology comes a whole new vocabulary, a whole new Lexicon. We are growing the borders of our lan
guage faster than ever. The depiction of each work as image of the Lexicon suit attempts to fuse the technological jargon of
the present with ancient forms of seeing and divination. Appearance of this suit in your reading involves issues of growth,
rebirth, stagnation, fruition, creativity, work, progress, tasks and achievement.
In conclusion-the quest for imagination, beauty, mythology, soulfulness in everyday life contributes to the very
fibers that create fulfillment in all of our lives. As an artist my work addresses directly the concerns of my soul. Utilizing
the computer for this particular undertaking was necessary in order to discuss mythology and technology. The soulfulness,
and myth-making of our daily lives are interwoven with television, telephones, C.D. players, CD Roms and computers to
name a few. This digital landscape is growing and moving faster than the human imagination can fathom. How we maintain
the ordinary and special in daily life amongst the frenetic energy of our times is indeed a huge challenge. By creating this
digital tarot deck I intended to place the viewer/participant in a situation where they where directly turning to the computer
for divination. In doing this I created a dynamic that actively forced the viewer to engage with technology in order to find
answers in their lives. Mythologies al the End of the Millennium, with its contemporary photography, acts as a record of one
part of the journey. The journey includes all of our lives, individually and collectively. No one is quite sure what the next
millennium will bring but philosophers, writers, and psychologists of our time seem to agree on one thing and that is that
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Works C ted
1) Blakeslee, Carolyn. "Iris and Giclee Prints-The Controversy Continues" Art Calendar. Oct. 1996. 2) Campbell, Joseph and Bill Moyers. The Power of Myth. New York: Anchor-Doubleday, 1988. 3) Gablik, Suzi. Conversations before the end of time. Thames and Hudson, Inc New York. 1995. 4) Highwater, Jamake. The Lani::uai::e of Vision. Grove Press. New York. 1994. 5) Mander, Jerry. In the Absence of the Sacred. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. 1988. 6) Moore, Thomas. "Does America Have a Soul?" Mother Jones. Oct. 1996.
Relevan Read ngs
1) Garen, Nancy. ( 1989) Tarot Made Easy. New York: Rockefeller Center 2) Grosso, Michael. ( 1995) Millennium Myth-love and death at the end of time. Wheaton, II : Theosophical Publishing House 3) Moore, Thomas. ( 1994) Care of the Soul. New York: Harper Perennial 4) Negroponte, Nicholas. (1995) Beini:: Dii::ital. New York: Vintage Books-Random House 5) Walker, Barbara. (I 984) The Secrets of the Tarot. San Francisco: Harper and Row In partial fulfillment of the requirements foc the degree Master of Ftne Arts Pamela Ann Bevecly
bas submitted this written thesis as a supplement to the creative thesis and 20 slides which are in the pecmanent possession of the University of Colorado and recorded with the Department of Fine Arts
Approved by Ul1 l ~um, Membec of the Committee
~ ~~-i ttee___ -----_
Arts Mythologies at the End of a Millennium Installation view and sampling of digital tarot deck images
Slide List
1. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Installation view: Detail of title wall & computer
2. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Installation view: Detail of Major Arcana: Iris prints
3. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Installation view: Overview of installation
4. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Installation view: Detail of Minor Arcana:
Dye sublimation prints
5. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Deck of cards: Box with cards: Dye sublimation prints
6. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Deck of cards: Detail of box: Dye sublimation prints
7. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Tarot Cards: Minor Arcana: The Lexicon Suit I
8. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Tarot Cards: Minor Arcana: The Lexicon Suit III
9. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Tarot Cards: Minor Arcana: Commodities Suit II
IO. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Tarot Cards: Minor Arcana: Commodities Suit V
11. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Tarot Cards: Minor Arcana: Commodities Suit VI
12. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Tarot Cards: Minor Arcana: The Vessel Suit III
13. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Tarot Cards: Minor Arcana: The Vessel Suit VI
14. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Tarot Cards: Minor Arcana: The Vessel Suit VII
15. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Tarot Cards: Minor Arcana: The Media Suit IX
16. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Tarot Cards: Minor Arcana: The Media Suit XIII
17. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Tarot Cards: Minor Arcana: The Media Suit XIV
18. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Tarot Cards: Major Arcana: Illusion I
19. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Tarot Cards: Major Arcana: High Priestess II
20. Mythologies at the End of a Millennium, Tarot Cards: Major Arcana: The Lovers VI