The MIT Major Arcana
a collaborative art project
The Major Arcana of the Rider-Waite Tarot begins with 0: The Fool, followed by the 21 trump cards, ranging from I: The Magician to XXI: The World.
Each MIT undergraduate is either Undeclared, or majors in one of the 21 numbered courses, from 1: Civil and Environmental Engineering to 24: Linguistics and Philosophy. (With the exception of CMS, which the registrar calls XXI-CMS, and STS, which has no primary majors right now.)
This is not a coincidence because nothing is ever a coincidence!
I've written some descriptions for how each card can be matched to a course, and I want to commission MIT artists to make art!
Guidelines
The cards will probably look like this. Imagine the yellow rectangle is your art:
- Here's a moodboard for inspiration. These are all super quality lol, I'm not expecting anything as polished as these.
- Cards should have more than line art, I want to have colors.
- Use your personal style! I want to see lots of variation; the cards should be as eclectic as MIT is.
- Try to depict real research/coursework. Embellish and exaggerate as much as you want, but it's cool if everything's based on something that the course actually does.
- Size: 2.75" × 4.75" with 0.125" bleed.
- Resolution: 825 px × 1425 px (or a multiple), so we can print at 300 ppi.
- The card art shouldn't have borders, it should stretch from top to bottom. I'll put the card number, card name, and artist name myself on top of the art, in either black or white, depending on contrast, so leave some space around that area. It'll be small, 0.4" tall max.
Terms
The deadline for submitting a card is May 24.
I value people's time, and it's finals season, so I'm willing to pay $20 for an accepted card.
This is out-of-pocket, and I'm not making money off of this. I just really want to see this happen. The accepted thing is so that I don't get scribbles like my example above lol. I imagine I'll accept all cards in practice. I can look at drafts and comment if you send them over email/DM/whatever.
I want to use the cards for a blog post on MIT Admissions, at minimum. I might also print a copy for my personal use. If there's enough interest, someone could organize a print run, provided that the cards are unaltered and no profit is made. You'd keep all other rights.
Because I want to feature as many artists as possible, you can get this payment for one card max. Ideally we'd have different artists for every card. Tell your artist friends to sign up, please. Imagine this as a huge collab! I just don't know how to organize shit lol.
If you're interested, you should claim one card on The MIT Major Arcana by putting your name, email, and a rough description of your idea.
The email is so I can follow up with you. The description is so we can avoid cards that are too similar. We don't want too many cards with a person wearing a lab coat using a pipette, or a person writing things on a chalkboard.
Cards
While the correspondence for which card is which major is fixed, the content isn't. Possible ideas for cards follow, but if you have your own "tarot-y" idea you should pursue it.
Please add your own ideas, whether or not you're making art, especially if you're majoring in that course. And get your friends to help—I don't know a whole lot about other majors.
0: The Fool / 0: Undeclared
The Fool represents beginnings and spontaneity, and is set apart from the rest of the Major Arcana by being unnumbered. A first-year student begins MIT undeclared, ready to embrace the unfamiliar.
- frosh lugging suitcase. killian court, the dome
- cpw, rex, exploring dorms
- psetting, being in lecture
I: The Magician / 3: Materials Science and Engineering
The Magician taps the forces of the universe to create things, like how people in the Glass Lab or Metal Lab reshape material objects according to their will.
- glassblowing
- metalworking
- "magical" effect coming from the work, like sparkles or whatever idk
II: The High Priestess / 24: Linguistics and Philosophy
The High Priestess guards the inner structures of our thoughts, the objects that philosophers study. It represents infinite potential, like how languages have infinite utterances.
- person sitting behind a desk, syntax trees and words on either side? lol idk
- This is a wug
III: The Empress / 7: Biology
The Empress is seated in the realm of nature, the setting for the life sciences.
- Person studying plants in nature?
IV: The Emperor / 8: Physics
The Emperor is about rules. Physicists seek to enumerate the rules of the universe.
- Person playing with lasers
V: The Hierophant / 18: Mathematics
The Hierophant represents formal systems and the pursuit of knowledge. Many mathematicians find math intrinsically worthy of pursuit, and a lot of math is working in these formal systems of rules.
- typical chalkboard math equation shot lol
VI: The Lovers / 21: Humanities
The Lovers is about relationships and values. These are explored under the many departments of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.
- Person painting something
- two people arguing over a paper
- 21 is mega interdisciplinary (Anthropology, Global Lang, History, Lit, Music/Theatre, Writing) , maybe some sort of cooperation/polycule situation?
VII: The Chariot / 2: Mechanical Engineering
The Chariot represents the willpower necessary for an undergrad to take 2.009. It's also literally a chariot, which Course 2s build.
- Person building a robot
- ec rollercoaster build shot
VIII: Strength / 15: Management
Strength encompasses patience, tolerance, and compassion, person-oriented skills that go a long way in the world of business.
- a person at the head of a meeting table in a business room? the other "people" seated are like lions or dragons or snakes or whatever, but the person is triumphantly asserting their presence, perhaps while giving a presentation
IX: The Hermit / 10: Chemical Engineering
The Hermit gives up outside distractions to focus on the worker. ChemE undergrads have nicknamed their course lounge “The Bunker”.
- A sad Person in front of a large chemical processing machine
X: Wheel of Fortune / 14: Economics
The Wheel of Fortune is a vision of the world's systems working in harmony, which economists seek to create through policy and social programming.
- Stonks (it’s UEA’s logo lmafao)
XI: Justice / 11: Urban Studies and Planning
Justice across services like housing and transportation is one of DUSP's goals, achieved through a deep understanding of cause and effect, another aspect of Justice.
- a balance scale with houses on both sides, a person holds it with one hand and is poised to add more housing on one side, blindfold hangs loose from their ears (inverts the usual "blindfolded justice", because things like housing justice can only be achieved by being aware of these things in the first place)
XII: The Hanged Man / 1: Civil and Environmental Engineering
The Hanged Man looks defeated or lost, but finds success by acknowledging his situation. The climate crisis is discouraging, but CEE is working to solve it.
- any drawing where you have someone upside-down fits the hanged man. like you could take a normal shot and flip it upside-down and that would fit the vibes already
- person fixing a wind turbine while hanging upside-down
XIII: Death / 5: Chemistry
Death isn't about death, but about inexorable change, and shedding the superficial, much like the difference between the chemical and the merely physical.
- Person playing with poison flasks
XIV: Temperance / 20: Biological Engineering
Temperance is about balance and health, factors that come into play when engineering biology to benefit humanity.
- person using a pipette or a test tube or something, a la the temperance card having an angel mixing liquids idk
- temperance is about combining, you know what else combines? recombinant dna
XV: The Devil / 6: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The Devil represents material wealth and ignorance. Do any of us fully understand the consequences of the technologies we wrought upon the world?
- hands typing on keyboard, underneath monitor with program. one hand has a brass rat. handcuffs join them
- oh what if a person's shadow has horns but they don't
- open door but it’s a computer screen (sartrean no exit)
XVI: The Tower / 4: Architecture
The Tower is hit by fire and lightning, and yet it stands, as an architect designs a building with these challenges in mind.
- Gruilding
XVII: The Star / 22: Nuclear Science and Engineering
The Star shines with hope for the future, like how nuclear science shines with the promise of clean energy.
- https://puffin.mit.edu/ looks pretty cool
- idk what course 22s do but you can do random atoms or whatever
- have a huge radioactive symbol as "the star"
XVIII: The Moon / 16: Aeronautics and Astronautics
The Moon is the triumph of imagination over fear. Boundless imagination flew us to the moon despite fears of falling.
- wright brothers wind tunnel; on a wall is a prominent poster of the moon
XIX: The Sun / 12: Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
The Sun drives the Earth's weather and climate.
- TODO
XX: Judgement / 9: Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Judgement is about discernment and reckoning, examples of cognition. BCS seeks to understand our mind, which all judgement ultimately comes from.
- an mri scan. idk
XXI: The World / 17: Political Science
The World represents integration and involvement in society at large. Political Science focuses on global understanding.
- Model UN
- honestly just take a world map with someone adding yarn or strings or whatever connecting various locations lol idk
- preferably not forensic science vibes though heh
- idk what fieldwork polisci does but that would be cool
- board game energy? think Risk or Diplomacy
- a board laid out w small pieces in the shape of MIT related things
- one small game piece representing each of economy, health, society, governance, environment, defense, etc
- crossroads signs are always a cool vibe, like the image on this page but ideally something nowhere near as corny