Oblique Strategies

Oblique Strategies(subtitledOver One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas) is a card-based method for promoting creativity jointly created by musician/artistBrian Enoand multimedia artistPeter Schmidt,first published in 1975. Physically, it takes the form of a deck of 7-by-9-centimetre (2.8 in × 3.5 in) printed cards in a black box.Each card offers a challenging constraint intended to help artists (particularly musicians) breakcreative blocksby encouraginglateral thinking.

Origin and history

In 1970,Peter Schmidtcreated "The Thoughts Behind the Thoughts",a box containing 55 sentencesletterpressprinted onto disused prints that accumulated in his studio, which is still in Eno's possession. Eno, who had known Schmidt since the late 1960s, had been pursuing a similar project himself, which he had handwritten onto a number of bamboo cards and given the name "Oblique Strategies" in 1974. There was a significant overlap between the two projects, and so, in late 1974, Schmidt and Eno combined them into a single pack of cards and offered them for general sale. The set went through three limited edition printings before Schmidt suddenly died in early 1980, after which the card decks became rather rare and expensive. Sixteen years later software pioneerPeter Nortonconvinced Eno to let him create a fourth edition as Christmas gifts for his friends (not for sale, although they occasionally come up at auction). Eno's decision to revisit the cards and his collaboration with Norton in revising them is described in detail in his 1996 bookA Year with Swollen Appendices.With public interest in the cards undiminished, in 2001 Eno once again produced a new set of Oblique Strategies cards. The number and content of the cards vary according to the edition. In May 2013 alimited editionof 500 boxes, in burgundy rather than black, was issued.

The story of Oblique Strategies, along with the content of all the cards, exhaustive history and commentary, is documented in a website widely acknowledged as the authoritative source and put together by musician and educator Gregory Alan Taylor.

The text of Schmidt's "The Thoughts Behind the Thoughts" was published by Mindmade Books in 2012.

Design and use

Each card contains agnomic suggestion,aphorism or remark which can be used to break a deadlock or dilemma situation. A few are specific to music composition; others are more general. For example:

• Use an old idea.
• State the problem in words as clearly as possible.
• Only one element of each kind.
• What would your closest friend do?
• What to increase? What to reduce?
• Are there sections? Consider transitions.
• Try faking it!
• Honour thy error as a hidden intention.
• Ask your body.
• Work at a different speed.

From the introduction to the 2001 edition:

These cards evolved from separate observations of the principles underlying what we were doing. Sometimes they were recognised in retrospect (intellect catching up with intuition), sometimes they were identified as they were happening, sometimes they were formulated. They can be used as a pack, or by drawing a single card from the shuffled pack when a dilemma occurs in a working situation. In this case the card is trusted even if its appropriateness is quite unclear...

Cultural impact

References to Oblique Strategies exist in popular culture, notably in the filmSlacker,in which a character offers passers-by cards from a deck. Strategies mentioned include "Honor thy error as a hidden intention", "Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify", "Not building a wall; making a brick", "Repetition is a form of change", and one which came to be seen as a summary of the film's ethos (though it was not part of the official set of Oblique Strategies), "Withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as apathy." This line was quoted in the 1994 song "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"byR.E.M.,who also mentioned Oblique Strategies in their 1998 song "Diminished" from the albumUp.The Oblique Strategies are also referenced in comic 1018, "Oblique Angles",of popular web comicQuestionable Content.

Other musicians inspired by Oblique Strategies include the British bandColdplay,said to have used the cards when recording their 2008Brian Eno-produced albumViva la Vida or Death and All His Friendsand French bandPhoenix,who used the cards when recording their 2009 albumWolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.German musician/composerBlixa Bargeldhas a similar navigation system, called Dave. In response to their song "Brian Eno", from their albumCongratulations,MGMThas said they had a deck of Oblique Strategies in the studio, but they "don't know if [they] used them correctly." The bandBauhaushave used the cards for the composition of their songs.The B-52'sused them in the studio when recording theirfirst album.

They were most famously used by Eno during the recording ofDavid Bowie'sBerlin triptych of albums(Low,"Heroes",Lodger). Stories suggest they were used during the recording of instrumentals on"Heroes"such as "Sense of Doubt"and were used more extensively onLodger( "Fantastic Voyage","Boys Keep Swinging","Red Money "). They were used again on Bowie's 1995 albumOutside,which Eno was involved with as a writer, producer and musician.Carlos Alomar,who worked with Eno and Bowie on all these albums, was a fan of using the cards, later saying "at the Center for Performing Arts at theStevens Institute of Technology,where I teach, on the wall are Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies cards. And when my students get a mental block, I immediately direct them to that wall. "

The Oblique Strategies cards deck is featured in Italian comics artistIgort's workJapanese Notebooks: A Journey to the Empire of Signs(Chronicle Books,2017; original Italian edition:Quaderni giapponesi. Un viaggio nell'impero dei segni,Cononino Press,2015).

The football club A.S. Velasca used the Oblique Strategies during an official football match.These Football Timesreferred to the club, founded by French visual artist Wolfgang Natlacen, by the german word Gesamtkunstwerk, which means "total work of art."

Editions and variations

Publication history of Oblique Strategies

Edition	Year	No. Cards	Edition of	Notes
Original	1975	113	500	Individually numbered, and signed by Eno and Schmidt
Second	1978	128	1,000	Available through Eno's record label at the time, Opal Records
Third	1979	123	1,000	Advertised for sale in theEGNewsletterand elsewhere
French	1979	128	unknown	Alain D'Hooghe translator; produced in association with an exhibition "More Than Nothing" by Schmidt & Enoat thePaul Ide GalleryinBrussels,February 1980
Japanese	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	A rumoured edition. No conclusive evidence has surfaced as to its existence
Serbian	1986	128	3.000	Slobodan Cicmil, Srdjan Vejvoda, Goran Vejvoda translators, Serbian title: Zaobilazne strategije; published by Radionica SIC - Studentski izdavački centar, Belgrade 1986 (Student's publishing Center, Belgrade)
Fourth	1996	100	4,000	Produced by thePeter Nortonfamily (with the blessing of Brian Eno) as Christmas gifts for his friends and colleagues (i.e. not for commercial sale).Unlike other editions, the cards feature translations into the five other most common languages (Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, Russian and Arabic),include artwork (byPae White) on the cards, and come in a molded white plastic container.A handful of the cards are by new contributors (Arto Lindsay,Ritva Saarikko,Dieter Rot,andStewart Brand).
Fifth	2001	103 + 2 informational	unlimited	Currently on sale
Sixth	2013	106 + 2 informational	500	Alimited editionin a burgundy case
Hypertextversion	1995	unknown	n.a.	By Cetacean EnterprisesforMacsoftware
iPhoneversion	unknown	unknown	n.a.	Includes all five versions of Oblique Strategies
Processingversion	2010	110	n.a.	Open-source plugin by David Wicksfor the Processing creative coding environment.
Androidversion	2018	unknown	n.a.	Reproduces the 1975 cards typography and design
Alexa Skill	2018	208	n.a.	Available as an Amazon Alexa News Feed updated hourly.
Web project	2022	213	n.a.	Previously available on the web:https://www.oblique.pouruntemps.comat theWayback Machine(archived November 21, 2022). Made byMaksim Morozovto be used as a tool.
Nintendo Game Boyversion	2022	unknown	n.a.	Available viahttps://nickyflowers.itch.io/osgb.Made by Nicky Flowers

See also

• Aleatoric music
• Fluxus § Event score
• I Ching
• Lateral thinking
• The Lookout(album),written in part with a similar process to Oblique Strategies
• Water Yam(artist's book)
• More Dark Than Shark
• Creativity techniques

Further reading

• Sheppard, David (2009).On Some Faraway Beach: The Life and Times of Brian Eno.Chicago Review Press.ISBN978-1-55652-942-9.

External links

• Online version
• Brian Eno explains Oblique StrategiesonJarvis Cocker's BBC6 Radio show, November 8, 2010