text-based proposal

The Glass Bead Game:

a proposal for the game of games

(download .doc file here)
Lee Batchelor
10/21/07

Abstract
This is a proposal for the creation of Hermann Hesse’s “Glass Bead Game”. While many games, such as chess, exemplify the virtues of war—diligence, foresight, prudence, wisdom—games based on the Glass Bead Game would exemplify the virtues, and illustrate the process of meditation. In a form like that of music making and art, players would wield ideas as game pieces, associating them, finding connections between them, and ultimately discovering their root, common denominator, or meaning.
The goal of this project is to invent such a game.

In the Heaven of Indra, there is said to be a network of pearls, so arranged that if you look at one you see all the others reflected in it. In the same way each object in the world is not merely itself but involves every other object and in fact is everything else.
~Sir Charles Eliot


Why this game is needed
We live in an age of fear and confusion, where there is an abundance of different mantras and beliefs that seem diametrically opposed to one another. Specialization and individualism have cut us off from each other and our world, and our discomfort with this is buried by stuff: cloths, sports cars, friends, shoes, over-sized summer homes, numerous doctorate degrees, food, celebrity trivia, etc. It does not seem to matter that these remedies do not fix our problems; it does not seem to matter that we know these remedies will never fix anything. But it is not enough to know; we suffer from a psychosis. We feel isolated, and because we feel so isolated, we feel the need to acquire stuff to cheer our little isolated nook. In order to cure this psychosis we have to know an alternative.

The game, featured in Hesse’s book “Das Glasperlenspiel” or “The Glass Bead Game”, is depicted as a game played by an elite class of scholars who serve as the intellectual backbone of their future society. The exact game-play is left to the reader’s imagination, and while interpreting the game might be intriguing on it’s own, the real purpose in creating this game is to address the very issue Hesse saw developing, and predicted (correctly) would become more apparent in “The Age of Feuilleton”. This is the term he uses for an age of information superabundance and debasement, of war and suffering—an age in which we currently live, according to the book’s timeline. As the story goes, the game contributes to and marks the end of this era, ushering in a more harmonious age.


Where this problem occurs
Hesse was likely considering new forms of communication such as the radio and television, little could he have known that the Internet would trivialize those feuilleton vehicles exponentially, succeeding television as the supreme perpetuator of crap. But the very nature of the Internet makes it simultaneously the perpetuator and the most viable tool for a solution. Already, within the chaos of the web, new systems of consolidation and organization are forming in directly opposing ways, using the tools inherent to the medium. Wikipedia, for instance, is like an encyclopedia form of the Glass Bead Game, with an emphasis on respective pieces of information rather than the connections between pieces. It still suffers from the effects of limitless contributors, but there is a constant upkeep that counterbalances these effects. This emergence is a step in the right direction, but as a bead game it lacks the power to connect information in a meaningful way.

Needless to say, the Internet is not the only place where mediocrity and excess are the ruling class of information; it acts more like a mirror to what has existed for quite some time. Game shows like Jeopardy champion those with vast memories for trivia, albeit a sort of “high” trivia, and no other virtues. Magazines tout juicy, made up gossip about celebrities, reflecting our love for aberration, which only displays our own seemingly incurable psychosis.

Popular topics of interest have degraded over the years, at least in the media. It may have something to do with the increasing ease of publication—essentially, while it was still difficult to publish and distribute material, the media consisted of thoughtful, astute observations and revelations. Then, as it became easier and faster, less savory topics, more in the realm of harmless entertaining trivia, started to spring up: Learn how Albert Einstein made spaghetti! and Martha Stewart reveals the meaning of the Universe! might have been articles of interest in this stage. Down the road, any pretense of a topic worthy of contemplation inevitably evaporates: What kind of underwear does Michael Jordan really wear? and What is Brad Pitt’s preferred method of washing his scrotum? Of course this oversteps our currently acceptable articles of interest, but the pattern of degradation, then the descent into utter banality, is predictable—and illustrative.


What I propose
So what is the solution to this problem? Well, there is no solution, or rather there is a solution, but it will come of its own accord. Every action (and one can apply this formula to the trends of a culture) meets an equal and opposite reaction. Presently, our culture feels about near one edge of the pendulum arc, and already there are signs of slowing down and turning back. But there are shades to the nature of each swing; variation is possible within the general nature of an era. And within this variable we can attempt to nudge things.

The idea is to create a game, one that can be expanded into a whole game genre, that does several things differently than most other games. Games like “World of Warcraft” are fun, or should I say comfortable, because they massage and affirm our current psychosis. “World of Warcraft” is all about growing your character and acquiring items that make your character better—in a very direct and literal way. It’s also about pitting two sides against each other in irresolvable conflict. And killing every living creature throughout the land...

Now, lets continue this “World of Warcraft” exposé, which so illustrates our culture’s psychosis, with an exercise that uses it as an example of how any game could evolve into more of a “Glass Bead Game” of sorts?

Changes to be made:
· No more killing of 1,000s of animals for a pittance of a reward. This only affirms our tendency to eliminate rather than incorporate.
· Acquiring items cannot be the ultimate focus of the game. Our sense of self is already derived too heavily on what we own.
· Character classes such as mage, warrior, rogue, etc. are too defining of the character in play, which serves to affirm the notion that we are something definable and static, that our individuality is dependant on something.
· There is no possibility of the horde and alliance resolving their conflict—they cannot even speak to one another. This aspect of the game would need to be altered; it illustrates and affirms our tendency to hate rather than understand.
· Bosses are invariably evil or possessed by evil, which is ludicrously implausible. While destruction is certainly a necessary counterpart to creation, it is telling that the only solutions you find in the game are based in destruction.
· The gameplay is ultimately repetitive and formulaic, making the game an unthoughtful exercise. Basic puzzles are presented, and strategies are implemented, but most players need not participate in these challenges, and usually do not, due to the ease of simply looking up the solutions or following commands.

There are undoubtedly more aspects of the game in need of alteration, though this list should suffice to underline some of the virtues of a glass bead game. Interestingly enough, these virtues are distinctly analogous to the virtues applied to, and developed in, the process of meditation.

In light of this point, it is not surprising that Hermann Hesse, the writer of the “Glass Bead Game”, was heavily influenced by eastern culture and philosophy. Vipassana meditation is particularly analogous to Hesse’s bead game. The object of Vipassana meditation is to see the world as it truly is, that is to achieve liberation or enlightenment. This process involves finding the connections between things in one’s world, and eventually realizing that everything is one and the same. This is the primary essence of the game, finding connections and patterns. In meditation this takes a lifetime or more. In a game this might mean an analogy of the process, or an introductory lesson in the process—ideally both.
The Game itself
There are a few aspects in Hesse’s book that would need to be implemented in the effort to create a more accurate interpretation of the game; these are, in my estimation, the essential pieces of the game described within the book:

· Scalability: The game can be played alone, informally, and it can be played with many players, in a formal spectacle.
· Symbolic language: There is a symbolic language used in the game that translates all forms of communication—mathematics, science, choreography, language, music, etc.—into a common notation. This notation is represented with hieroglyphs, which are the game pieces.
· Forms: Games are usually constructed to have a predetermined form or path, especially in formal games.
· Moves: The basic “move” in the game is the association of something to another. There are certain rules that distinguish a good move from a bad move.

These would be the core parameters of a faithful interpretation of Hesse’s game, which I intend to follow. However, these parameters leave a lot of room for variation, which has led me to the partial creation of quite a number of versions.

One such version, which is the front-runner in my lot, is one whose interface would have a synesthetic connection to the processes of the game itself, an interface of pattern and music manipulation. In this way, there would be a direct aesthetic response of the interface itself, to “good” or “bad” moves. In other words, players would determine the definition of a good or bad move by their subjective and respective responses. This interface highlights the core theme of finding connections between different things—in this case, visual patterns relate to music. Ideally, there would eventually end up being more interfaces, ones that interpret the moves as mathematics, or physics, or poetry. These interpolations may be out of the scope of this phase of the project however, and as visual and auditory stimulants are what humans respond to with the most acuity—not to mention that these to elements were the first to enter the Glass Bead Game according to Hesse’s account of its history—it only makes sense to start with them.

This limitation touches on one very central aspect of the game, which is impossible to create within any sort of time constraint, and that is the symbolic language. A truly encompassing, universal, and understandable symbolic system would be a lifelong endeavor with a high chance for failure. In the book, the game created this language on its own accord, so that is the direction this game should take.

In the spirit of creating a new, all encompassing language, my version of the game would accommodate the induction of new game pieces, new ideas or hieroglyphs, which would allow the game to become as complex or as simple as desired. The “Form” of the game could be simply the game pieces, or ideas, allowed in a respective game. Initially, the set of ideas available would be so simple as to be absurd. The ability to expand and elaborate on these initial ideas will be essential.


When I’ll have it done
Assuming all goes swimmingly, I’ll have this bad-boy done by...when are these due? Whenever these projects are due, that’s when this project will be “done.” But until then, here is a timeline that will give a sense of when certain parts of this project should be complete:

· 11/22/07: The concept should be sufficiently fleshed out to begin working on prototypes
· 12/01/07: If any parts of the concept are outside of my personal expertise, then I should have established collaborators to work with on those bits that are out of my range. This may include programmers, or proclaimed experts in design.
· 12/20/07: By this time, a prototype of the game should be completed to begin testing.
· 12/20/07-01/14/08: During this period, prototype testing should be complete and feedback given.
· 02/21/08: Beta version of game should be complete.
· 02/21/08-03/17/08: During this period, beta testing should be complete and feedback given.
· 04/01/08: Public launch
· 04/01/08-05/05/08: Promotion and advertisement of game
· 05/09/08: Evaluate level of success

Potential Collaborators
So far I have one programmer on board with this project. Should the need arise for other tasks that are outside my range, or should I become incapacitated by mind-numbing depression during the course of this project, I have several potential helpers who exceed my own creative and technical capacities.


Expenses
Until the concept of the game is more fully fleshed out, this budget should be considered, at best, dubious in its accuracy.

Hardware
Computer: | $2,300.00|[covered]
Game board: |$10.00|
Game pieces: |$50.00|
Software
Adobe Photoshop:|$849.00|[covered]
Audio software: |$139.00|[covered]
Programming: |200hrs at $40 dollars an hour: $8,000.00|
Other Expenses
Testers: |food and false promises|
Lawsuits: |escape from coutry|
Total
$11,348 [$3288 of total is covered]

meditation

I decided since Hermann Hesse was influenced a lot by eastern philosophy, and because the "Glass Bead Game" talks a whole lot about meditation, that I would read up on the subject.

So I've been practicing this Vipassana meditation for a few days. The first time I tried it I made very little progress, but it has been getting easier and better. Today I experienced the scale of the universe approach infinite proportions, nothing new there really, I experience the same sensation sometimes while listening to a particularly dull lecture (sort of a "zooming in" sensation). I also succeeded in concentrating while the world seemed to tip me into a horizontal position, then left me there. I have a tendency to sabotage my concentration with incessant thoughts to the effect of "I should be concentrating," so far if I start getting those thoughts I can't stop them.

The result of years of meditation practice seems pretty extraordinary. In talking about meditation and "mindfulness", the author of the linked-to book describes a complete control over one's thoughts. But this control is external, the brain has become a sort of hierarchy with a ruling sector that encapsulates the original, unfocused portion of the brain--and eventually even this portion is organized and completely under control.

The theory behind this form of meditation is stunningly identical to the theory of the glass bead game. It is essentially a game of the mind, where connections are drawn between things to the point where everything is organized, connected, and made one.

del.icio.us #5: musicovery

the site

This is a web radio that essentially takes parameters such as how "dark" or "positive" and "calm" or "energetic" the music you want to listen to is. There are a few other ways to narrow the selection such as era, whether it was a hit or not, and tempo, and genre.

This is an interesting way to break out of the typical genre-based system of selection, and fairly effective in my brief experience.

While this has pretty much no bearing on my particular project, it is still a nice site for my own personal enjoyment, so thanks to whoever linked it to me.

del.icio.us site review #4

approximate link

This is another wikipedia thingy-doo. It analyzes the history of a particular article and represents it visually as a sort of mutating smudge of grease (well, that's what it looks like to me).

Something like this could serve my purposes. As I mentioned, the game (in the book) utilizes a "library" of "symbols" which are used in the game to represent specific subjects. While I don't need to represent the history of articles, perhaps a system that could visually represented, say, broader-categories-of-thought would lay the foundation for these "symbols"

del.icio.us site review #3

I believe this is the topic, I had to approximate the actual link since it was 404'd

This is another wikipedia thingy. It allows one to search for edits from specific public IP addresses (i.e. corporations, government agencies, and other organizations), revealing embarrassing...things.

As I said before, this type of thing could work its way into my version of the Glass Bead Game, using wikipedia as a sort of on-demand "library."

del.icio.us site review #2

the site

This story talks about this, which is a system that analyzes wiki contributions and highlights their "trustworthiness" based on the specific contributor's past contributions. If a contributor adds something that is later deleted, then that contributor's reputation drops; conversely, if a contributor adds something that lasts, then their reputation increases.

A system that utilizes wikipedia might be something to look into for me; specifically, a system that would take information from wikipedia as needed, integrating it with the bead game--The Glass Bead Game has, in the book, a "library" which documents the many symbols and symbolic systems that the game uses...

re-reading, pondering, exploring

I've been carrying out the task I set for myself, which was to re-read and take notes on parts of the book that reference the bead game. One such reference was that of the last glass bead game player, a poem, which described an old man crafting a game in the sand. It noted that there were real glass beads, and that they were different sizes and each represented something symbolically, and that they were arranged in a circle.

I only elaborate on this because it led me to realize another possible direction of the game--as if I needed to add more possible directions.

I was playing with some beads of my own and trying out a bunch of stupid little games with them, with no intention of discovering anything. What I did discover, however useful I'm not so sure, was an analogy to this bead game. While playing with the beads I ended up simply throwing them around each other, made them orbit and weave around each other, came up with ways they could be juggled and ways to create patterns out of their movements. I imagine if these beads represented anything, as they do in the real game (I'm guessing), then essentially I was playing the glass bead game, albeit informal, because in a sense the game is like a complicated dance, whose participants are the separated schools of thought.

course of action

1.) I must document all references to the gameplay of the Glass Bead Game within the book. This, I think, will limit and clarify the scope of my project

2.) Continue on the path of the quilt interface, which has made some progress since the last blog on that subject.

quilt interface progress:
-the inmost four squares may serve as a different type of control, while the rest of the grid continues to use those four squares for its own purposes. This could create an interesting conflicting dynamic between the different types of controls: i.e. the user arranges the inner four squares to augment the audio in some way, but some other controls, which overlap into the inner four squares, are altered as a result.
-ways in which a fugue "develops" a subject, or musical idea, could be the augmentations the pattern variations represent.

more patterns

Here's another nabulous idea for an interface:



well, anyway, those are the shapes that the patterns would be made from. I actually just remembered how I used to play with blocks that were shaped like the image above; the design possibilities are varied and interesting, and tend, not surprisingly, to create images with the number 4 at the root of things (which might be handy, musically).

As for how these designs would act to create music, I haven't thought of anything very inspiring. Perhaps this idea would mix with the quilt pattern idea as another dimension to that idea...

modified abacus

Another potential route for the interface of this game is in the abacus. The book describes how a modified abacus was one of the first iterations of what was to become the glass bead game.

The concept behind this is to transcode math into music, and music into math; this process of transcoding one field into another is essentially the game.

There are only two issues I see in this strategy: one is that no one around here probably knows how to use an abacus, and two is that no solution on how to turn an abacus into music notation leaps to mind.

I'll pose this question later in the q/a folder to see if anyone has an idea.

quilt geometry?

quilt geometry.

An interface that looks like quilt geometry, that's what I'm going for. It's basically simple, but intriguing and fun to explore--a good control interface if you ask me.

I am, for the moment, not thinking about the whole of the game; I need something solid to latch on to.

for the sake of having something to write about, I'll propose the already-discarded specifics for an idea for this interface:

The pattern is made up of four rows and four columns (see quilt examples), the internal two-shaded squares would make up the controls. these squares could be rotated, added or taken away from the grid, and switched with adjacent squares (including diagonals). Each square of the grid (not the two-shaded pieces, but the underlying grid squares) would represent a subject, or line of music, which could be manipulated (perhaps in the way a subject is manipulated in a fugue) based on the position and orientation of the imposed two-shaded piece.

Grid squares occupied by a two-shaded piece would be heard, and altered accordingly. Changes made in the pattern would be heard in the next measure.
___________________________________________________________________________________

This idea is far too basic I think. I'm trying think of a way to complicate the process in an "elegant" sort of way.

researches

over the last couple of weeks I've been doing a lot of research into the imaginary history of Hesse's Glass Bead Game. Basically, the roots of the game tend to be in studies or philosophies that focus on mathematics, music, art, religion and science, and especially those that focus on all at once.

"There are hints of it in Pythagoras, for example, and then among Hellenistic Gnostic circles in the late period of classical civilization. We find it equally among the ancient Chinese, then again at the several pinnacles of Arabic-Moorish culture; and the path of its prehistory leads on through Scholasticism and Humanism to the academies of mathematicians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and on to the Romantic philosophies and the runes of Novalis’s hallucinatory visions."

---

More on the history of the game:
The original Glass Bead Game was a modified abacus that was a way to play with musical notation. The wires were the bar lines and different sized beads represented different lengths of notes. The book goes on to describe how the game was translated into other fields of study, and different sets of symbols were set up to accommodate the respective fields. Then there was an effort to combine all the symbols and fields into a universal language of symbols, which resulted, eventually, in the creation of the modern Glass Bead Game, which no longer used glass beads.

The invention of the game marks the transition into a new age. The previous age was noted for it's disordered culture, and excess of shoddy art, music, information, and education. The new age renounces production of new art and instead reflects on the past and plays with it.

---

I think I might start with the beginnings of the Glass Bead Game, since the end result depends on the previous steps. Some small abacus-like device that plays with music through math. Music and math are really the only fields that have their own extensive, standardized notation, therefore extending this game to other fields would be impossible anyway.

Maybe soon I'll actually try an idea.

my head is about to explode.

that feeling of ones head about to explode, it's a good feeling I think.

This Herman Hesse, he must have been wicked smart. I feel like his words have more meaning than they let on, well, the translator's words...it's like he's dancing around me smiling and laughing as I try to keep up with his movements--it's quite embarrassing.

Music feels like this, it rushes forwards and, while I can enjoy the moments of music, I cannot glean any lasting meaning from them, but I know these moments are simply packed full. Every moment is like some microcosm of the universe, but I can't hold onto it; it's meaning slips away as fast as it moves on. I can repeat a line over and over, thinking every time "oh, now I have it", but at the end, each time, I don't.

Only music that I like, or that somehow "resonates" with me, does this. I sit happily thinking "yes, yes yes, oh yes" as if I'm simply agreeing with some obvious statement, but the language I'm hearing makes no real/conscious sense, but I understand it, at the moment, just the same. I’m positive that the reason for this is in the patterns of the music, but that sounds so dry. These patterns aren’t just bland mathematical intrigues for the calculating brain—they are this, but not just this—they are also…something else, I don’t know.

*fart*

Bead Game Flowchart

This is a basic flow chart of a possible implementation of the Bead Game. The "Shape of Song" project raised the question for me of what to do about the actual audio component of music (see del.icio.us (oh how I hate thee) #1 post for details). This flowchart shows that the audio will be created separately, and manipulated by a "composer", presumably through pattern manipulation.

This setup would create a multiplayer environment, which would be appropriate given the roots of this idea (in the book the game is played with many people, and involves a conductor)

del.icio.us #1: shape of song

the link

This project, "The Shape of Song", is an interesting reflection of my own train of thought concerning my own project. What it does is it takes a song and shows the recurring patterns within the given song, in a very pretty way.

What I'm trying to do is the reverse. So, I guess that would make it "The Song of Shape"

One difficulty in the reverse effect is that the pattern (the shape) is not a fully functioning notation of the music, it simply highlights the patterns within the song--what goes on inside these patterns is not represented, an empty shell of music...poetic really