The Oblique Strategies...

[blueerica]

http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/

The deck itself had its origins in the discovery by Brian Eno that both he and his friend Peter Schmidt (a British painter whose works grace the cover of "Evening Star" and whose watercolours decorated the back LP cover of Eno's "Before and After Science" and also appeared as full-size prints in a small number of the original releases) tended to keep a set of basic working principles which guided them through the kinds of moments of pressure - either working through a heavy painting session or watching the clock tick while you're running up a big buck studio bill. Both Schmidt and Eno realized that the pressures of time tended to steer them away from the ways of thinking they found most productive when the pressure was off. The Strategies were, then, a way to remind themselves of those habits of thinking - to jog the mind.

I'm quite fascinated with this at the moment, though I'm too headachy and bogged down to do much with it. You're supposed to use them when you're in a creative block. They even have an online link to a 'virtual' deck. http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/Consult.html

Anyhow, I'm just posting this on here in case anyone knows anything else about them, or has seen or used them before. Curiosity and all. Seems like a cool thing to have, at any rate.

[blueerica]

Ahh, here's the Wikipedia entry on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblique_Strategies

[€uroMeinke]

Ack - you've uncovered one of my secret desires. For the longest time Brian Eno has been one of my main musical/creative heros. I saw a deck of these cards back in the late 70's early 80's at either the Tower Records or Licorice Pizza on Sunset and wanted them immediately.

They of course vanish from circulation, though occasionally appear on Ebay for extortionist prices. I do have a virtual version that will draw random cards for me, but I really want the real deal. I love the concept behind them and the bizzar collection of experiments that came from Brian Eno's Obscure Records at that time.

Sigh

[blueerica]

Yes, I've been doing a bit of research on him lately, and I'm finding him most difficult to organize into a cohesive article. I'm going to re-read what I've gotten and reorganize it tomorrow. I may even seek a bit of advice from you come Monday. His entry isn't exactly the lengthiest things I've written... just hard to grasp it all. Vaporous. (<-- is that a word?)

[Not Afraid]

He's a Renaissance Enigma.