<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>Hello and thanks for the prompt, Jennifer.<br></div><div><br></div><div>A real pleasure to read words from all.</div><div><br></div><div>The clairvoyant I'm working with used her personal take on a version of playing card cartomancy popularized in England the late 19th/early 20th centuries. There would have been many advertisements for these playing card readers in the papers around that time, and there were popular booklets and pamphlets on card reading. Playing card cartomancy was also vectored onto some beautiful and intimate objects. Thinking of the emphasis of touch referenced by Jennifer, Erika, and Ann Cvetkovich, fortune telling tea cups were pretty popular around this time: they were designed with prompts from playing card cartomancy in the early 20th century. These lovely objects merged tea leaf reading (often intuitive, interpretive) with more quantitative and image-based registers for reading the future. Some of them are quite stunning.<br></div><div><br></div><div>So this Canadian clairvoyant would read with playing cards. She used two decks for a reading, and many of her card decks ended up in a local archive after she moved into long term care. I was able to display some of these worn decks a few years ago here in London -- there were at least thirty decks in this partial collection, and they ranged from old casino cards to decks you would purchase at a gas station or general store, to promotional decks for businesses, liquor, etc. Some were beautifully worn. Clients were instructed to lay cards out in a grid pattern. If a client was seeking advice from afar, she requested they lay out their grid at home and send along a chart or representation of some kind. These archived charts are themselves quite exquisite objects: maps of questions and concerns translated into a language of four suits. This particular clairvoyant accepted questions of all sorts, and to see all aspects of life translated in that way is pretty remarkable. She claimed clairsentience on all registers and so used the cards in league with her own knowledge. <br></div><div><br></div><div>A few years ago I visited my first medium here in London. I explained that I was visiting half for a personal reading, half for "research." As we talked about my interest in this particular clairvoyant the medium excitedly exclaimed that her mother had visited the same woman while pregnant decades before, and had received word that her soon-to-be-daughter would be psychic. We chatted about the medium's self-published books, and I later gifted her one that I had multiple copies of. I had displayed two of this same book in an interactive work: referencing the medium's use of two card decks in a reading, it invited visitors to pick up and leaf through her books instead, seeking synchronicities, similarities, resonant images and passages that might lend some kind of insight for their present moment. Book-as-card-deck.</div><div><br></div><div>Happy weekend,</div><div>Ruth</div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Mar 24, 2021 at 5:52 PM Jennifer Fisher <<a href="mailto:jefish@yorku.ca" target="_blank">jefish@yorku.ca</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
<div lang="EN-CA">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">Hi All,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">What an inspiring array of posts. The Age of Aquarius, as Arshiya has notes, marks an epoch of expanded consciousness and individual freedoms. This planetary alignment arrives as a moment of promise in
expanded intuition where at the same time privacy is in danger of being eroded by the surveillance capitalism of big data. I resonate with Sally’s perception that the mood is at once “super-charged…and vulnerable.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">It is interesting that Spiritualism arose at an affective climate of collective grief (the American Civil War) coinciding with emancipatory social movements, in particular abolitionist feminism. The current
paranormal opening, likewise, arrives at the crest of collective grief stemming from the pandemic and Black Lives Matter. The tone of the moment was presciently anticipated by Okwui Enwezor whose posthumous Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America
is now on exhibition at the New Museum (<a href="https://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/grief-and-grievance-art-and-mourning-in-america-1" target="_blank">https://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/grief-and-grievance-art-and-mourning-in-america-1</a>).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">But I wanted to pick up the thread of Renate and Tim’s work on sense/sensation signalled by Ann. It appears that touch and the tactile interface operate in relation to intuitive technologies such as the
séance (where hands are held in a circle to create a current supporting mediumship), to Chrysanne’s aura photographs (which involved a tactile biofeedback interface to generate images), to the relationality of the Tarot reading (where the handling of cards
has operated emblematically in allegories of touch since Caravaggio). </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">In regard to the performativity of intuition: Ruth, I’d be interested in hearing more about the staging of the playing card cartomancy of the Canadian clairvoyant you mention; and Bev, might you envision
the role touch in reading your new Tarot cards? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">And on the documenting of the séance: Serena, do the mediums in the Hamiltons’ photographs directly address the photographers when in a spirit circle? Chrysanne, how did you orchestrate the aura photographs
to have non-English-speaking subjects peer directly at the lens (as many of your compelling subjects do) with their hands on the biofeedback interfact.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">Warmly,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">Jennifer</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">Jennifer Fisher</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">Professor Contemporary Art and Curatorial Studies</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">Department of Visual Art and Art History CFA 252</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">York University 4700 Keele Street</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><a href="mailto:jefish@yorku.ca" target="_blank">jefish@yorku.ca</a></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
</div>
</div>
_______________________________________________<br>
empyre forum<br>
<a href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au" target="_blank">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au</a><br>
<a href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a></blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.ruthskinner.com" target="_blank">http://www.ruthskinner.com</a><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Mar 24, 2021 at 5:52 PM Jennifer Fisher <<a href="mailto:jefish@yorku.ca">jefish@yorku.ca</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
<div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" lang="EN-CA">
<div class="gmail-m_-8256806910986982006WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">Hi All,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">What an inspiring array of posts. The Age of Aquarius, as Arshiya has notes, marks an epoch of expanded consciousness and individual freedoms. This planetary alignment arrives as a moment of promise in
expanded intuition where at the same time privacy is in danger of being eroded by the surveillance capitalism of big data. I resonate with Sally’s perception that the mood is at once “super-charged…and vulnerable.”<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">It is interesting that Spiritualism arose at an affective climate of collective grief (the American Civil War) coinciding with emancipatory social movements, in particular abolitionist feminism. The current
paranormal opening, likewise, arrives at the crest of collective grief stemming from the pandemic and Black Lives Matter. The tone of the moment was presciently anticipated by Okwui Enwezor whose posthumous Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America
is now on exhibition at the New Museum (<a href="https://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/grief-and-grievance-art-and-mourning-in-america-1" target="_blank">https://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/grief-and-grievance-art-and-mourning-in-america-1</a>).<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">But I wanted to pick up the thread of Renate and Tim’s work on sense/sensation signalled by Ann. It appears that touch and the tactile interface operate in relation to intuitive technologies such as the
séance (where hands are held in a circle to create a current supporting mediumship), to Chrysanne’s aura photographs (which involved a tactile biofeedback interface to generate images), to the relationality of the Tarot reading (where the handling of cards
has operated emblematically in allegories of touch since Caravaggio). <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">In regard to the performativity of intuition: Ruth, I’d be interested in hearing more about the staging of the playing card cartomancy of the Canadian clairvoyant you mention; and Bev, might you envision
the role touch in reading your new Tarot cards? <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">And on the documenting of the séance: Serena, do the mediums in the Hamiltons’ photographs directly address the photographers when in a spirit circle? Chrysanne, how did you orchestrate the aura photographs
to have non-English-speaking subjects peer directly at the lens (as many of your compelling subjects do) with their hands on the biofeedback interfact.
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">Warmly,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">Jennifer<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">Jennifer Fisher<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">Professor Contemporary Art and Curatorial Studies<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">Department of Visual Art and Art History CFA 252<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">York University 4700 Keele Street<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica">Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><a href="mailto:jefish@yorku.ca" target="_blank">jefish@yorku.ca</a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
</div>
</div>
_______________________________________________<br>
empyre forum<br>
<a href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au" target="_blank">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au</a><br>
<a href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a></blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><a href="http://www.ruthskinner.com" target="_blank">http://www.ruthskinner.com</a><br></div>