The I-Ching is a classic Chinese divination text used to predict the future. Traditionally, bundles of yarrow stalks are manipulated to produce six sets of random numbers ranging from six to nine. Another method of divination is to flip coins to determine the hexgrams. There are a total of 64 combinations that are possible seen in the hexgrams below.
The method used to randomly generate the hexgrams for this project is similar to the coin method, as a random number generator with 2 possible values is able to signify the flip of a coin. These results are then translated into the hexgrams seen.
Click Me!
John Cage was an extremely influential musician of the twentieth century. One of his most notable works includes Music of Changes, which used the I Ching to randomly generate music. Each of the hexgrams were mapped to a different sound or instrument to create a truly random song. This project is able to employ this by using Tone.js to play a sound based on the hexgram generated.
The website correlated with this project allows you to generate as many hexgrams as you want using the I-Ching, and then will turn it into music, similar to that of how John Cage did. The website is available on my GitHub Pages here.