For week 2, I found the readings very intriguing. Western thought had always focused on the observable and quantifiable, and stressed the importance of scientific method in providing an explanation for the world around us. The mention of the I Ching, or the 易经 (as known in China), surprised me quite a bit, because I am very familiar with the piece, and I see it as a counter-approach towards a traditional Western mode of thinking.
I wanted to focus specifically on the hexagrams (卦), which are essentially visual depictions of the patterns of the Dao, or the Way. In Chinese culture, the Dao is a force created by the duality of yin and yang (light and dark). The Dao is not a being, but rather, something akin to an energy that flows through every living thing in the universe. The I Ching describes that the Dao leaves behind patterns in the natural world, which can be shown using trigrams:
During the Zhou Dynasty, Emperor Wen doubled the trigrams into hexagrams, and created a list of all possible combinations of the hexagrams. There are specific readings for each hexagram combination, which can be interpreted many different ways, not unlike a tarot card reading.
Using p5js, I created a quick sketch that allows the user to generate a randomized hexagram pattern. Just how 'random' a computer is in generating output can be debated, but it is interesting to place the versatility of the hexagrams into the hands of a machine.
Link to Sketch (Click play each time to generate new hexagram): https://editor.p5js.org/kdaiii/sketches/s0_OVRWdK