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The four suits relate to themes of labour and resources (Coins), intellect (Swords), emotions and the subconscious (Cups), and creativity and enterprise (Wands). These themes are reflected in imagery and movement (the cyclical Coins, directional Swords, psychedelic Cups, and colourful and interactive wands). Each card has an upright meaning and a reversed counterpoint, and their relevance lies in the tension between.
There is a story across each suit - from a new start (Ace) to a point of hardship or conflict (Five) to a culmination (Ten) - like moving through a life. The royals have their own focus: from tools (Page), to action (Knight), to assets (Queen) and realm (King).
The Major Arcanas are a sequence of cookt characters, on their path towards enlightenment from Fool (0) to all-connected World (21). Major Arcanas are each inspired by or use other NFT artwork, including CC0 collections, adulation of three great projects (Exodus 2, Unix Days, NUXUI), and inclusion of two friends’ work for the most transformative cards (Death and Tower) - thank you Errorgardener and gsrvnt.
The cards reveal a learning process and beginner’s exploration of creative coding in p5js. The coins cards were created in the early ‘pig in the sandpit’ phase, full of trial and errors, manual brute force, making up for lack of intelligent coding with hours and hours of labour. The swords took a more methodical approach, following along with Daniel Shifman’s Coding Train (the YouTube link to tutorials is included in many of these cards, as small tribute - another homage here). The cups phase is learning by wandering through, using intuition more by now. Finally, the wands bring in replication and cultural association.
The cards and their code are a kind of Code Brut, raw code or naive code. The structure of code (trial, error, error, revelation) opens up space for creative expression and exploration, generating outcomes somewhere between unmet plans, random surprise, and incremental control.
