Hexen 2.0
Intro Bit
So this journal post has been written and rewritten several times. The problem is that the subject matter is too wide, too branching , too full of rabbit holes to fall into. How do you compress the work of Suzanne Treister into a journal post ? I stare at the dense web of her website and decide, in true Treister fashion, a bit of machine whispering is called for. I enlist an A.I.to map it out for me.
Aesthetically pleasing... but not overly helpful. Back to basics then
Who is Suzanne Treister ?
Wikipedia describes Suzanne Treister as a "para-disciplinary contemporary artist" . A nice soundbite but what does that mean exactly ?. Her own website states Suzanne is
"a pioneer in the field of new media since 1989, Suzanne Treister works on the permeable boundary that separates the limits of scientific research from mystical revelations” … her work “interrogates the relationship between emerging technologies, society, and alternative belief systems to suggest invisible forces that shape our current reality and have implications for the future we are only just beginning to understand.”
I won’t go on to quote the site verbatim , you need to go look at it and tumble down its various wonderful rabbit holes yourself.
Articles in the 1990s refer to her as a "Post-Internet Artist". A term that seems rather redundant nowadays , it refers to an art movement that focuses “on works derived from the internet and its influences. Treister suggested she prefers the term “Post-Surveillance Art”, which feels far more apt for the age of data capture and algorithmic omniscience.
Gods you learn so much reading my blog.
To sum up Suzanne Treister is a an amazing artist whose work encompassing the occult , para-psychology , the military industrial complex, state surveillance programs and time travel.
For brevity, sanity and time constraints I’m going to focus on a single project of hers ;
Tarot - Origins & Afterlives
I first encountered Suzanne Treister's work at the Warburg Institute in London as part of the “Tarot - Origins & Afterlives" exhibition in early 2025. The exhibition included a series of prints from her Hexen 2.0 deck. A set of cards that, to me, brought the various portents, meanings & associations of the tarot into the "modern" world. I’ll pick my three favourites ;
Queen of Chalices
The first card I noticed was Ada Lovelace as the Queen of Chalices. You know Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord & Lady Byron. Ada, who in mid 1800s worked with Charles Babbage on his “Analytical Engine” (a very early computer design). Ada Lovelace, often referred to as the first computer programmer. That Ada Lovelace. Darling of, and inspiration for, steampunks everywhere.
The Queen of Chalices are in Tarot can be taken to represent someone who seeks to uncover the deeper layers of meaning in every situation, intuitive, insightful, and emotionally attuned. Which all fits wonderfully with Ada’s description of herself as as “poetic scientist”, blending logic with imagination.
But there’s more. The inscription on the card includes "ADA Trademark Programming Language developed by the US Department of Defence" . I'm thinking "Is that a thing" an immediately started making notes of things I needed to look up (and it is indeed a real language for coding "large-scale and real-time defense systems"). I bet A.I does most of it nowadays.
The Tower
The Tower in tarot traditionally represents sudden upheaval, revelation, and the collapse of established structures.
Tresiter’s Tower shows the data mining carried out by National Security Agency with their "Total Information Awareness program". In the context of this card this can be seen as referring to the collapse of privacy, the exposure of the hidden. The tower collapsing , not being hit by divine lighting as is the traditional representation, but from the amount of data contained within. After all server farms and data centres dont have infinite space for growth even when they’re the size of a small town.
Anyways back to the “Total Information Project”. I bet that’s real I thought (again). Yes it is... thats scary. Incidentally it was renamed to the Terrorism Information Awareness in 2003 , presumably to make people less likely to think it was looking "ordinary folk" and purely bad guys.
Apparently TIA is based on the concept of predictive policing. Do you remember the 2002 film starring Tom Cruise, "Minority Report" ? (loosely based on Philip K. Dik’s 1956 novel of the same name). It centres around the concept of a “pre-crime” unit. In the film the police use clairvoyant humans(rather social media algorithms and surveillance systems ) to assess the likelihood of future crimes being committed.
Total Information Awareness
So I’ve only just made it through the second card and I've already had to stop myself going off on several (hundred) thought provoking tangents. Im so glad I decied not to try and include the Hexen 3 project & the time travelling Rosalind Brodsky.
I blame Suzanne Treister for my rambling. The problem is she's produced so much thought provoking, fascinating work it’s hard to know where to start. Also even typing her name can summon black helicopters and phone taps so one has to be a little careful.
Ok I need to pick another card (pick a card, any card) .
The Queen of Pentacles
In traditional tarot, the Queen of Pentacles represents stability, practicality, material and security. A nurturing figure who balances the physical and emotional worlds. She’s resourceful, grounded, attuned to the rhythms of daily life.
Treister’s Queen of Pentacles has a far more sinister feel, Im guessing it relates more to the reversed reading of the card. Her focus on the material becomes corrupted, making her greedy, detached, and disconnected from any sense of empathy or responsibility.
The card depicts a dark tunnel that we've found ourselves immersed in , its walls made of various incantations of data tracking , spyware, and surveillance. We’re blindly walking deeper and deeper inside. Or maybe the inscriptions are like witch marks, charms to protect us from the very things they describe.
Again the mentions of a shadowy espionage program, this time the FBI's "Going Dark". Before I google it shall we take bets if it exists or if its a fictional updated version of George Orwell's 1984 thought police ?.
I was looking at one interview with her where the interviewer states "your work leaves the viewer uncertain about where fact stops and fiction starts". Very much the case , although I'd suggest where it is fiction its pretty close to what you can imagine as real. If I’m reading it correctly Tresiter pretty much implies that part of this intentional blurring is so she doesn’t get a 2am knock on the door by the men in black.
I looked online (not too deeply , I have a healthy sense of paranoia) and couldn’t find any specific mentions of a “Going Dark” program.
I was looking at one interview with her where the interviewer states "your work leaves the viewer uncertain about where fact stops and fiction starts". Very much the case , although I'd suggest where it is fiction its pretty close to what you can imagine as real. If I’m reading it correctly Tresiter pretty much implies that part of this intentional blurring is so she doesn’t get a 2am knock on the door by the men in black.
I looked online (not too deeply , I have a healthy sense of paranoia) and couldn’t find any specific mentions of a “Going Dark” program.
Bonus Card - Queen of Swords
I know I said my three favourite cards , I lied ok , there’s a fourth ;
I love drones (obviously not the bad sort that bring death and destruction). I love the idea and fictional representation of drones. Im terrible at flying my own and seriously need some more “sick time” as the drone nerds say.
In some ways drones have democarised surveilence. At an “affordable” price point anyone can buy a drone. What was once the domain of the military or state intelligence has trickled down into consumer culture. They’ve become tools for homemade journalism and creative documentation.
Technology can simultaneously liberate and control us. The surveillance apparatus is no longer purely the powerful watching the powerless, we’ve all become participants in the network.
Anyways where was I ….Queen of Swords. Again , imo this represents the reversed reading
care becomes control. The Queen’s instinct to protect can transformed into a need to monitor. To preserve order by watching over everything.
Closing Thoughts
It struck me that Treister may not have intended her cards to have direct correlations to the original tarot, but rather to offer new meanings more fitting for the times we live in.
There’s that age-old question: if you add meaning to an artist’s work that wasn’t originally intended, is it any less valid? I wonder — if I emailed her a link to this article, would she comment? She’s probably already addressed the question elsewhere. I don’t pretend I’ve done anything but scratch the surface of her work.
Written under the influence of A.I., too much coffee, and nowhere near enough sleep. Suzanne would probably approve.
Further Reading
https://www.suzannetreister.net
https://apollo-magazine.com/post-surveillance-suzanne-treisters-riposte-post-internet-art/
