View source for Oblique Strategies

{{Short description|Set of cards intended to promote creativity}}
{{Use dmy|date=September 2025}}
[[File:Oblique Strategies deck, PO Box, The Barbican, London, UK.jpg|thumb|Packaging of Oblique Strategies]]
'''Oblique Strategies''' (subtitled '''''Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas''''') is a card-based method for promoting creativity jointly created by musician/artist [[Brian Eno]] and multimedia artist [[Peter Schmidt (artist)|Peter Schmidt]], first published in 1975. Physically, it takes the form of a deck of {{convert|7|x|9|cm|in|adj=on}} printed cards in a black box.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://productionadvice.co.uk/oblique-strategies/ |title=Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies – the Ultimate Music Production Tool |website=Production Advice |date=2009-04-29 |access-date=2013-09-20 |last=Shepherd |first=Ian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090503015536/http://productionadvice.co.uk/oblique-strategies/ |archive-date=3 May 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Ambient Genius">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/07/07/ambient-genius|title=Ambient Genius – The working life of Brian Eno |last=Frere-Jones |first=Sasha |author-link=Sasha Frere-Jones |date=July 7, 2014|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|access-date=5 January 2018}}</ref> Each card offers a challenging constraint intended to help artists (particularly musicians) break [[writer's block]] by encouraging [[lateral thinking]].

== Origin and history ==
In 1970, [[Peter Schmidt (artist)|Peter Schmidt]] created "The Thoughts Behind the Thoughts",<ref>{{cite web|last=Emr |first=John |url=https://peterschmidtweb.blogspot.com/2010/03/thoughts-behind-thoughts.html |title="The Thoughts Behind the Thoughts"...  |website=Peter Schmidt Web Blog |date=2010-03-09 |access-date=2013-09-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921061422/http://peterschmidtweb.blogspot.com/2010/03/thoughts-behind-thoughts.html |archive-date=21 September 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> a box containing 55 sentences [[Letterpress printing|letterpress]] printed 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 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). 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]]''. 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 a [[limited edition]] of 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/OSintro.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240708195829/http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/OSintro.html|archive-date=2024-07-08|url-status=dead|title=A Primer On Oblique Strategizing |website=Gregory Taylor's Virtual Campsite |access-date=2013-09-20}}</ref>

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

== Design and use ==
Each card contains a [[Gnomic aspect|gnomic 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:
{{blockquote|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 ==
[[File:Oblique Strategies, Shoreditch Style May 2, 2019.jpg|thumb|A truck with advice inspired from Oblique Strategies]]
References to Oblique Strategies exist in popular culture, notably in the film ''[[Slacker (film)|Slacker]]'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1058-slacker-s-oblique-strategy |title=Slacker's Oblique Strategy|website=The Criterion Collection|access-date=2013-09-20 |last=Rosenbaum |first=Ron |date=13 September 2004 |author-link=Ron Rosenbaum}}</ref> 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?]]" by [[R.E.M.]], who also mentioned Oblique Strategies in their 1998 song "Diminished" from the album ''[[Up (R.E.M. album)|Up]]''. The Oblique Strategies are also referenced in comic 1018, "Oblique Angles", of popular web comic ''[[Questionable Content]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1018|title=Number 1018: Oblique Angles|website=[[Questionable Content]]|year=2007}}</ref>

Other musicians inspired by Oblique Strategies include the British band [[Coldplay]], said to have used the cards when recording their 2008 [[Brian Eno]]-produced album ''[[Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends]]'' and French band [[Phoenix (French band)|Phoenix]], who used the cards when recording their 2009 album ''[[Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix]]''.<ref>{{Cite interview |first=Thomas |last=Mars |title=Phoenix (interview with Thomas Mars) |url=http://earfarm.com/band-of-the-week/3020 |website=Ear Farm |date=2009-04-29 |subject-link=Thomas Mars |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090507152238/http://earfarm.com/band-of-the-week/3020 |archive-date=2009-05-07 |url-status=dead |interviewer-last=Grimes |interviewer-first=Mike}}</ref> German musician/composer [[Blixa Bargeld]] has a similar navigation system, called Dave. In response to their song "Brian Eno", from their album ''[[Congratulations (album)|Congratulations]]'', [[MGMT]] has said they had a deck of Oblique Strategies in the studio, but they "don't know if [they] used them correctly." The band [[Bauhaus (band)|Bauhaus]] have used the cards for the composition of their songs.<ref>{{cite web |last=Prato |first=Greg |title=Bauhaus' Daniel Ash: "I don't really pick out guitar players in bands – I listen to something for the whole package" |url=https://www.guitarworld.com/features/bauhaus-daniel-ash-drink-the-new-wine |website=[[Guitar World]] |publisher=Future Publishing Limited Quay House |access-date=4 December 2022 |date=May 9, 2022 |quote=Interviewer: "What other avant-garde composition techniques have the band employed?" Ash: "We've used Eno Cards [also known as Oblique Strategies]. I know David had those first, and then I actually went and bought a pack."}}</ref> [[The B-52's]] used them in the studio when recording their [[The B-52's (album)|first album]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Runtagh |first=Jordan |date=May 29, 2018 |title=The B-52s at 40: An Oral History of Their Awesomely Bizarre Beach Party Breakthrough 'Rock Lobster' |url=https://people.com/music/the-b-52s-rock-lobster-oral-history/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=[[People (magazine)|People]]}}</ref> They were also used by [[LCD Soundsystem]] during the recording of their album ''[[This Is Happening|This is Happening]].''<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9T3TmRptdc |title=LCD Soundsystem: The Making Of This Is Happening |date=2019-09-07 |last=Mark Lombard |access-date=2025-12-16 |via=YouTube}}</ref>

They were most famously used by Eno during the recording of [[David Bowie]]'s [[Berlin Trilogy|Berlin triptych of albums]] (''[[Low (David Bowie album)|Low]], [["Heroes" (David Bowie album)|"Heroes"]], [[Lodger (album)|Lodger]]''). Stories suggest they were used during the recording of instrumentals on ''"Heroes"'' such as "[[Sense of Doubt]]" and were used more extensively on ''Lodger'' ("[[Fantastic Voyage (David Bowie song)|Fantastic Voyage]]", "[[Boys Keep Swinging]]", "Red Money"). They were used again on Bowie's 1995 album ''[[Outside (David Bowie album)|Outside]]'', 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 the [[Stevens 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".<ref>{{Cite interview |title=Carlos Alomar's Golden Years with David Bowie |last=Alomar |first=Carlos |url=http://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2016/02/08/david-bowie-carlos-alomar-interview-golden-years |date=2016-02-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213015838/http://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2016/02/08/david-bowie-carlos-alomar-interview-golden-years/ |archive-date=2016-02-13 |url-status=dead |work=Rock Cellar Magazine |interviewer-last=Slate |interviewer-first=Jeff}}</ref> 

The Oblique Strategies cards deck is featured in Italian comics artist [[Igort]]'s work ''Japanese Notebooks: A Journey to the Empire of Signs.''

The football club A.S. Velasca used the Oblique Strategies during an official football match.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.asvelasca.it/download/press/Journal_Sport-The_Sunday_Times-May_7_2023.pdf|title=The team using a pack of cards and not folding like Chelsea |last=Martin Samuel |author-link=Martin Samuel |date=May 7, 2023|magazine=[[The Sunday Times]]|access-date=7 May 2023}}</ref> [[These Football Times]] referred to the club, founded by French visual artist Wolfgang Natlacen, by the german word Gesamtkunstwerk, which means "total work of art."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://thesefootballtimes.co/2016/10/24/the-new-order-as-velasca-art-and-calcio/ | title=The new order: A.S. Velasca, art and football | date=24 October 2016 }}</ref>

== Editions and variations ==

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+Publication history of Oblique Strategies
|-
!scope="col"| Edition
!scope="col"| Year
!scope="col"| Number of cards
!scope="col"| Copies
!scope="col"| Notes
|-
!scope="row"| Original
| 1975 || 113 || 500 || Individually numbered, and signed by Eno and Schmidt<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/ |title=The Oblique Strategies Web Site |website=Gregory Taylor's Virtual Campsite |access-date=2013-09-20}}</ref>
|-
!scope="row"| Second
| 1978 || 128 || 1,000 || Available through Eno's record label at the time, Opal Records<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gruntose.com/Info/Magick/oblique_strategies.txt |title=Oblique Strategies |website=Gruntose |access-date=2014-09-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921061040/http://www.gruntose.com/Info/Magick/oblique_strategies.txt |archive-date=2013-09-21 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/Ed2.html |title=Edition 2 (1978) |website=Gregory Taylor's Virtual Campsite |access-date=2013-09-20}}</ref>
|-
!scope="row"| Third
| 1979 || 123 || 1,000 || Advertised for sale in the [[E.G. Records|EG]] Newsletter<ref>personal collection</ref> and elsewhere<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/Ed3.html |title=Edition 3 (1979) |website=Gregory Taylor's Virtual Campsite |access-date=2013-09-20}}</ref>
|-
!scope="row"| Fourth
| 1996 || 100 || 4,000 || Produced by the [[Peter Norton]] family with Brian Eno as Christmas gifts for his friends and colleagues (i.e. not for commercial sale).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/Ed4.html |title=Edition 4 (1996) |website=Gregory Taylor's Virtual Campsite |access-date=2013-09-20}}</ref> Unlike other editions, the cards feature translations into the five other most common languages (Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, Russian and Arabic),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/Edition4.html |title=A New Edition Appears (in a limited way) |website=Gregory Taylor's Virtual Campsite |access-date=2013-09-20}}</ref> include artwork (by [[Pae White]]) on the cards, and come in a molded white plastic container.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/Sample4.html |title=Some Cards From Edition 4 |website=Gregory Taylor's Virtual Campsite |access-date=2013-09-20}}</ref> A handful of the cards are by new contributors ([[Arto Lindsay]], Ritva Saarikko, [[Dieter Roth|Dieter Rot]], and [[Stewart Brand]]).
|-
!scope="row"| Fifth
| 2001 || 103 + 2 informational || unlimited || {{As of|2025|09}}, currently on sale<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.enoshop.co.uk/shop/oblique-strategies|title=Eno Shop Oblique Strategies|website=www.enoshop.co.uk}}</ref>
|-
!scope="row"| Sixth
| 2013 || 106 + 2 informational || 500 || A [[limited edition]] in a burgundy case<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.enoshop.co.uk/product/oblique_strategies_limited_numbered_edition |title=Oblique Strategies Limited Numbered Edition |publisher=Enoshop.co.uk |access-date=2013-09-20 |archive-date=2013-06-24 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130624204634/http://www.enoshop.co.uk/product/oblique_strategies_limited_numbered_edition |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|}

== See also ==
* [[Aleatoric music]]
* {{section link|Fluxus|Event score}}
* [[I Ching]]
* [[Lateral thinking]]
* [[The Lookout (album)|''The Lookout'' (album)]], written in part with a similar process to Oblique Strategies
* [[Water Yam (artist's book)|''Water Yam'' (artist's book)]]
* ''[[More Dark Than Shark]]''
* [[Creativity techniques]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==

{{refbegin}}

* {{Cite book |last1=Sheppard |first1=David |title=On Some Faraway Beach: The Life and Times of Brian Eno |date=2009 |url=http://archive.org/details/onsomefarawaybea0000shep |language=en |isbn=978-1-55652-942-9 |publisher=Chicago Review Press |df=mdy-all }}

{{refend}}

== External links ==
* [http://stoney.sb.org/eno/oblique.html Online version]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jarviscocker/2010/11/jarvis-talks-to-brian-eno-abou.shtml Brian Eno explains Oblique Strategies] on [[Jarvis Cocker]]'s BBC6 Radio show, November 8, 2010

{{Brian Eno}}

[[Category:Brian Eno]]
[[Category:Creativity]]
[[Category:1975 introductions]]