Monday, September 24, 2007
Chaos, Order, Entropy & the Kalimba
More Solitaire - Again!

We could make Solitaire much easier to win if we increased the number of rows into which the cards are dealt out on the field, or if we increased the number of temp spaces up above. But hey - what would be the point? The point is to sweat a bit - to feel as if the forces of chaos and disorder might win, and every little gain of ordering the cards is hard fought. And then, all the little gains of order start to come together and make bigger stretches of order, and then WHOOSH! It's all ordered.

So, it is the hard constraints that make the game a challenge, and the challenge that makes the game feel emotionally real to us.

What are the challenges of kalimba playing? There are no rules per se. But a particular song might have a rule, as in temp, or groove, or a particular rhythm that repeats. Can we throw notes about into this tempo, this groove, this rhythm, such that they fit in some logical way, or that plays upon our emotions in a meaningful way?

When playing the kalimba, we also have the power to relax or tighten the constraints. We can speed up the tempo and make the song harder, or we can slow down the song as we start to learn it.

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