Marshall McLuhan’s 1969 Deck of Cards, Designed For Out-of-the-Box Thinkingīrian Eno on Creating Music and Art As Imaginary Landscapes (1989)īased in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Burroughs’ Cut-Up Method and Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies How Jim Jarmusch Gets Creative Ideas from William S. Jump Start Your Creative Process with Brian Eno’s “Oblique Strategies” Deck of Cards (1975) The total package of Oblique Strategies may have grown more refined over the years, but this handmade first set does have a certain immediacy, and also, in a sense, the imprimatur of history: after all, they worked for Brian Eno. Written in Eno’s own hand, sometimes cursive and sometimes block, on cards with a wooden-looking texture and without the rounded corners that characterize the commercial version, these first Oblique Strategies include “Don’t be frightened to display your talents,” “If a thing can be said, it can be said simply,” and “Do we need holes?” Those who have followed Eno’s work will surely appreciate in particular the card that says to “use non-musicians,” “non-musician” being one of Eno’s preferred titles for himself, especially when working in a musical capacity. In 2013 a limited 6th edition of 500 numbered sets were available but quickly sold out.” At this moment, you can find one imported set on Amazon.īut it seems that the very first set of Oblique Strategies, featured in Schneider’s post, is unavailable at any price. The 5th edition is currently available from Eno’s website for £30 (about $50).
“The first four editions are out of print and collector’s items ( and priced to match). Use the links above to learn more.Having first come on the market in the 1970s, Oblique Strategies has gone through several different production runs, usually packaged in handsome boxes with the deck’s name emblazoned in gold. The first card I pulled from the deck was, “Do we need holes?” For what I was working on at the time – the concept was break-through. Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas by Brian Eno and Peter SchmidtIn 1975, Peter Schmidt and Brian Eno created the original pack of Oblique Strategies cards. Each card has a thought or concept that is designed to move our thinking – laterally. Lateral thinking, or a lateral strategy, is one that basically picks one up and suggests a new start. Education teaches us to problem solve by digging deeper into a subject. These were developed by two artists ( Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt) in 1975 to facilitate what is called lateral thinking.
This summer I was introduced to a very special deck of cards, Oblique Strategy cards. As we have found many wrong ways to run trials, we have developed techniques for when things are not going well. Failure is a big part of our world, and learning from these failures is how we capture value from the activity. We run trials of one kind or another almost every day. In 1975, Peter Schmidt and Brian Eno created the first edition of 'Oblique Strategies' cards, through thinking about approaches to their own work as artist and musician.
Problem solving, however, is not without rules. This is the 3rd edition of 1000 copies - the final edition produced before Peter Schmidts death. At Micrex, we eschew creativity enhancement programs, inspiration tools and their ilk. I am a big believer in Edison’s “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration”.