Lesson #1

In 1975 Brian Eno and the artist Peter Schmidt came out with a deck of cards designed to help artists and musicians push through creative blocks by offering alternative scenarios, methods, and perspectives. They called the set Oblique Strategies.  In an 1980 interview, Mr. Eno had this to say about it: “The Oblique Strategies evolved from me being in a number of working situations when the panic of the situation - particularly in studios - tended to make me quickly forget that there were others ways of working and that there were tangential ways of attacking problems that were in many senses more interesting than the direct head-on approach.   The function of the Oblique Strategies was, initially, to serve as a series of prompts which said, "Don't forget that you could adopt *this* attitude," or "Don't forget you could adopt *that* attitude." Some examples of the content are as follows: "Honor thy error as a hidden intention"; "Not building a wall, but making a brick"; "What are the sections sections of?"; "Always first steps"; "Idiot glee", or indeed, "Short-circuit principle – a man eating peas in the belief that they will improve virility shovels them straight into his lap."

In 2013, Los Angeles writer and author Guy Horton, proposed a similarly based Oblique Strategies deck written specifically for architects.  His examples included: "Work in a different medium"; "Pixelate it"; "Print and draw over by hand"; "Go outside"; "Be more playful"; "Consult someone in your office who is not in your age group"; "Do something you would like to see"; "Intensify the experience of place".

What would your Oblique Strategies prompts be for your particular creative effort? Would any of these strategies compel you to make a change in the way you think through solving a problem or coming to a solution?