Tarot Cultures

What does tarot do for you?

 *****

12-13 June 2026

COLAB Tower

** Please note: this is a SOLD OUT in-person conference.**

Due to overwhelming demand, we are no longer taking names for the waitlist.
Please join BADS to be informed of any tarot events in the future. Thank you for your support.

Tarot Cultures celebrates the tarot as living art – an instrument of intuition, design, and excess. Neither museum piece nor mystical novelty, the tarot is a space of speculation: a design object, a creative method, and a mirror for contemporary identity.

In an age when the future feels uncertain and the self is digitally mediated, the tarot is being reimagined. Today it circulates as a tool for self-understanding as well as fortune-telling and magical practice, a resource for creative blocks and new paths as well as predictions. Artists, designers, and researchers are using the deck to unlock visual modes, remix archetypes, and project collective imaginaries – from meme-friendly decks to works that map the scientific method onto the arcana. This is not a return to mysticism, but an exploration of practice: tarot as a technology of imagination, critique, and connection.

This interdisciplinary conference brings together artists, scholars, and practitioners to consider how tarot circulates through today’s visual, digital, and performative cultures. Across three days of panels, readings, screenings, and workshops, we ask what tarot does – as a design method, a storytelling system, a collaborative speculation, and a system of meaning designed for the now.

***** Online Exhibition Catalogue ******

***** Revised Programme (12-13 June) *****

***** Abstracts and Biographies *****

Friday 12 June, 9.30 am - 5.45 pm

Registration at 9.30 am, COLAB Tower

Opening with a keynote on tarot as a technology of desire by Dr Giovanna Parmigiani, Day One explores tarot through art, performance, politics, and living practice across panels and workshops.

Saturday 13 June, 9.30 am - 6.30 pm  

From storytelling and digital cultures to ethnography and living traditions, Day Two reflects on tarot’s contemporary forms and afterlives, culminating in a roundtable discussion.

Saturday 7.00 pm - 10.00 pm, Gold Bar, COLAB Tower

“Meet the Deck” and Tarot Cultures Exhibition

Please join us for Meet the Deck and to view the Tarot Cultures exhibition celebrating traditional and contemporary tarot practice.

At Meet the Deck, you’ll have the chance to encounter a curated selection of artists and makers, each presenting their own distinctive and unusual tarot decks. As you move around the space, you can explore each deck up close, hear directly from its creator about their process and inspirations, and experience short, informal “speed readings” along the way. This is an opportunity to “meet” as many decks as possible in a relaxed, social setting that is part exhibition, part conversation, and part hands-on engagement with tarot as a living, evolving art form.

Many of the artists and makers will also have their decks available for purchase. Please note that exhibitors will manage their own sales and payment methods.

(This evening event is also SOLD OUT.)

Venue Update

Due to indefinite strike action at Goldsmiths, University of London, Tarot Cultures will now take place at COLAB Tower, an immersive arts venue near London Bridge.

All events will continue as planned, including panels, workshops, the exhibition, wine reception, and Meet the Deck. The venue’s creative and experimental character makes it a fitting new home for the conference.

We are very grateful to our friends at COLAB Theatre for their generous support in hosting us at short notice and helping ensure the event can go ahead.

Further venue details and travel information can be found on their website.

Directions to COLAB Tower

To get to the COLAB Tower it is easier to type in 54 Park Street, London, SE1 9EA as the entrance is opposite that address. If you go to 22 Southwark Street, you will have gone to the Ground floor and you need to make your way to the lower ground floor of the building by descending the steps on Southwark Bridge. Either way, there will be plenty of signage when you arrive to fear not! You’ll find us and one of our Tarot team will be there to meet you.

Contact Us

To keep updated about all BADS conferences, please join our mailing list.

Join the Mailing List ▸

Co-organised by the Decadence, Magic(k), and Occult Network and the Magic Network at Goldsmiths.

With thanks to the Decadence Research Centre and BADS.