This interactive installation and mobile website connect histories of computers, games, and divination to reimagine possible futures. Participants are invited to play an active role in future forecasting. Beyond offering a curious and playful interface, the aim is to provoke participants to think about how futures are predicted, monetised, and realised, and to consider the role of games in these processes.
The installation juxtaposes a replica of a 1978 Apple 1 computer with a wooden Weiqi game board. The electronic screen of the Apple computer displays a scannable QR code, while the playing stones arranged on the Weiqi board also present a scannable QR code. Scanning the codes directs users to a website where they are given a divinatory fortune and an explanation of the artwork, revealing the histories of computation and divination on which the work is based. After reading the randomly assigned futures, participants are invited to contribute their own future scenarios to the mobile website.
This work is the second in a trilogy of game works exploring divination games and inviting audiences to engage with future thinking, rather than leaving such processes in the hands of the digital and the powerful. The key element of the installation is the Weiqi board which – in different historical eras – has operated as an abacus, a divinatory device, a game, a computer, and the inspiration for the QR code. By illustrating the evolution from the Weiqi board to the abacus to the computer, the installation underscores the shared cultural heritage of games as tools for imagining and calculating futures.