brian eno cards oblique strategies pdf creator

References to Oblique Strategies exist in popular culture, notably in the film Slacker, in which a character offers passers-by cards from a deck. In this case the card is trusted even if its appropriateness is quite unclear. 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. Sometimes they were recognised in retrospect (intellect catching up with intuition), sometimes they were identified as they were happening, sometimes they were formulated.

These cards evolved from separate observations of the principles underlying what we were doing. Honour thy error as a hidden intention.įrom the introduction to the 2001 edition:.Are there sections? Consider transitions.State the problem in words as clearly as possible.A few are specific to music composition others are more general. The text of Schmidt's 'The Thoughts Behind the Thoughts' was published by Mindmade Books in 2012.Įach card contains a gnomic suggestion, aphorism or remark which can be used to break a deadlock or dilemma situation. 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. In May 2013 a limited edition of 500 boxes, in burgundy rather than black, was issued.

The number and content of the cards vary according to the edition. With public interest in the cards undiminished, in 2001 Eno once again produced a new set of Oblique Strategies cards. Eno's decision to revisit the cards and his collaboration with Norton in revising them is described in detail in his 1996 book A Year with Swollen Appendices. Sixteen years later software pioneer Peter Norton convinced Eno to let him create a fourth edition as Christmas gifts for his friends (not for sale, although they occasionally come up at auction). 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. 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. 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. In 1970, Peter Schmidt created 'The Thoughts Behind the Thoughts', a box containing 55 sentences letterpress printed onto disused prints that accumulated in his studio, which is still in Eno's possession.

Brian eno cards oblique strategies pdf creator