Tarot Cultures

What does tarot do for you?

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11-13 June 2026

Goldsmiths, University of London

** Please note: this is an in-person conference **

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.

Tickets

Full price ticket (including Thursday night opening event) : £80
Concession price ticket (including Thursday night opening event) : £40

Full price one-day ticket (Friday or Saturday) : £40
Concession one-day ticket (Friday or Saturday) : £20

Thursday night opening event only : £10

Tickets available HERE

Please note that this is an in-person conference at Goldsmiths and, unfortunately, we are unable to offer hybrid attendance.
Recordings of the keynote talks will be available after the event. Please join BADS to be informed when these are available to watch.

Thursday 11 June, 6.00 pm - 9.00 pm, PSH Atrium

“Meet the Deck” and Tarot Cultures Exhibition Launch

Please join us on the opening night of the conference for Meet the Deck, the launch of the Tarot Cultures interactive exhibition celebrating traditional and contemporary tarot practice, and performances by Plastic Fantastic and Lex Urray.

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.

More details forthcoming…

Friday 12 June, 9.30 am - 6.00 pm

Registration at 9.30 am, PSH Atrium

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, 9.00 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.

Download Full (Provisional) Programme (PDF)

Contact Us

Please email j.gossling@gold.ac.uk and v.goblot@gold.ac.uk with any queries about Tarot Cultures.

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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.