Interface as Inverted Divination: The Modes of Yijing, L. Tolstoy and J. Cage

Abstract

An interface is like a crossroad in a person’s thinking, it’s cross-section at the point where a certain level of tension accumulates. Such crossroads are usually perfectly realized by the subject, and it is precisely this kind of situation that leads people to divination and various fortune-telling practices. This article examines the analogy of divination and interface, seeking to clarify the essence of these two phenomena through their comparison. We use the modes of interaction with divination as they exist in the reception of the Yijing in Europe, from Leibniz with his binary code that was fundamental to the creation of the digital interface, to the playful, artistic adaptation of the Yijing by J. Cage, and the deconstruction of mantics in the ethicist-religious project by L. Tolstoy in his late period. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the logic of inverting the interface in relation to divination and vice versa. This allows us to rethink many cultural categories, since mantics is the basis of archaic thinking, and therefore the current foundation of modern human consciousness. It also provides tools for an in-depth cultural analysis of interfaces, as well as the laws of their adequate implementation. Interfaces are often thought of as being unaffected by cultural differences, as if existing independently of the words on screen, which are located as explanations on, and of, the elements of the interface. But this is just another Eurocentric illusion, which can also be exposed by linking the interface to deep civilizational differences, in particular, through a comparison with divination. This article is intended for media analysts, specialists in cultural studies, sinologists, techno-archaeologists and specialists interested in the personalities involved in this analysis.