Date Submitted: 29-Mar-89
Submitted By: John Lorch (ecf_hjl at jhunix dot hcf dot jhu dot edu)

Subject: ENO'S Oblique Strategies

Ok, here's my copy of the posting from some while ago of Brian Eno's oblique strategies cards. Each line was printed on a playing card sized card, black on one side, white on the printed side. They come in a small black box that says "Oblique Strategies" on one side in gold lettering, and the artists names are on the other side. They were developed by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt, who was a painter friend of Eno's (he did the cover for Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy)). The first little bit there descibes the basic ideas behind the cards and their recommended use. I bought my set in 1980 for $11.00. It was a second, unsigned edition. A friend of mine has offered to sell me his first edition, signed by both artists, for $100.00 Those are the only two copies I've ever seen. I have no idea where you might find a copy of the set.

Enjoy.

Here are the ``Oblique Strategies'' cards that have been mentioned/requested: (this first bit is the introductory card)

OBLIQUE STRATEGIES

Over 100 worthwhile dilemmas by Brian Eno & Peter Schmidt

These cards evolved from our separate observations of the principles underlying what we were doing. Sometimes they were recognized in retro- spect (intellect catching up with intuition), sometimes they were formulated. They can be used as a pack (a set of possibilities being continuously reviewed in the mind) 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. They are not final, as new ideas will present themselves, and others will become self-evident.

[First published 1975, slightly revised edition 1978. Unauthorized transcription by Rob Stanzel 1985 of unauthorized transcription by M. Skoner 9/79 (hi, Mark)]

• Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities
• Don't be frightened of cliches
• What is the reality of the situation?
• Are there sections? Consider transitions
• Turn it upside down
• Think of the radio
• Allow an easement (an easement is the abandonment of a stricture)
• Simple subtraction
• Be dirty
• Go slowly all the way round the outside
• A line has two sides
• Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do & do the last thing on the list
• Into the impossible
• Towards the insignificant
• Ask people to work against their better judgement
• Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance
• Infinitesimal gradations
• Change instrument roles
• Accretion
• Disconnect from desire
• Emphasize repetitions
• Faced with a choice, do both (given by Dieter Rot)
• Children -speaking -singing
• Lost in useless territory
• A very small object Its center
• Dont be afraid of things because they're easy to do
• Dont be frightened to display your talents
• Breathe more deeply
• Honor thy error as a hidden intention
• What are the sections sections of? Imagine a caterpillar moving
• Only one element of each kind
• Is there something missing
• Use `unqualified' people
• How would you have done it?
• Emphasize differences
• Do nothing for as long as possible
• Bridges -build -burn
• Always give yourself credit for having more than personality (given by Arto Lindsay)
• You don't have to be ashamed of using your own ideas
• Tidy up
• Do the words need changing?
• Ask your body
• Tape your mouth (given by Ritva Saarikko)
• Water
• Simply a matter of work
• Make a sudden, destructive unpredictable action; incorporate
• Consult other sources -promising -unpromising
• Use an unacceptable color
• Humanize something free of error
• Use filters
• Fill every beat with something
• Discard an axiom
• Not building a wall but making a brick
• What wouldn't you do?
• Lowest common denominator
• Decorate, decorate
• Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle
• Get your neck massaged
• Listen to the quiet voice
• Do the washing up
• Is it finished?
• Put in earplugs
• Reevaluation (a warm feeling)
• Give the name away
• Intentions -nobility of -humility of -credibility of
• Abandon normal instruments
• Use fewer notes
• Repetition is a form of change
• Give way to your worst impulse
• Reverse
• Trust in the you of now
• Imagine the piece as a set of disconnected events
• What would your closest friend do?
• Distorting time
• Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame
• Feed the recording back out of the medium
• Convert a melodic element into a rhythmic element
• The most important thing is the thing most easily forgotten
• [blank white card]
• Ghost echoes
• You can only make one dot at a time
• Just carry on
• (Organic) machinery
• The inconsistency principle
• Don't break the silence
• Idiot glee (?)
• Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them
• Cascades
• Courage!
• Spectrum analysis
• What mistakes did you make last time?
• Consider different fading systems
• Mute and continue
• Be extravagant
• It is quite possible (after all)
• What are you really thinking about just now?
• Don't stress on thing more than another [sic]
• State the problem in words as clearly as possible
• Assemble some of the elements in a group and treat the group
• You are an engineer
• Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics
• Look at the order in which you do things
• Go outside. Shut the door.
• Disciplined self-indulgence
• Do we need holes?
• Cluster analysis
• Always first steps
• Cut a vital conenction
• Do something boring
• Define an area as `safe' and use it as an anchor
• Is the information correct?
• Overtly resist change
• Question the heroic approach
• Accept advice
• Twist the spine
• Work at a different speed
• Look closely at the most embarrassing details & amplify them
• Mechanicalize something idiosyncratic
• Emphasize the flaws
• Remember those quiet evenings
• Take a break
• Short circuit (example; a man eating peas with the idea that they will
• improve his virility shovels them straight into his lap)
• Left channel, right channel, center channel
• Use an old idea
• Destroy -nothing -the most important thing
• Change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency
• The tape is now the music