From: Joe McMahon
Subject: Obliquity
I herewith post a wonderful summary of the history of the Oblique Strategies,
the Strategies themselves, and a painstaking analysis of the different
editions.
--- Joe M.
>From gtaylor@msn.fullfeed.com Fri Mar 3 12:35:55 EST 1995
Here is an updated and fleshed-out repost on Brian Eno/Peter Schmidt's
"Oblique Strategies." This version includes a brief interview fragment
in which Eno discusses the cards' origin and use together with an
appreciation of the late Peter Schmidt.
There is currently a project in the works to produce an edition of
Strategies produced by internet artists and musicians, provisionally
entitled "Acute Strategies." Watch this space for more information on
the project. This material will also appear soon on the Eno WWW pages
under the care of the estimable Malcolm Humes.
If you wish to use or quote from this material, I'd appreciate being
contacted about it (gtaylor@fullfeed.com). There is more to come.
___________
The More-Or-Less Complete and True History of the Oblique Strategies
copyright 1995, Gregory Taylor
NOTE: the Oblique Strategies are copyright B. Eno and P. Schmidt 1975,'78,'79
1. What are the Oblique Strategies?
They are a deck of cards. The cards measure about 2-3/4" x
3-3/4". They come in a small black box which says "OBLIQUE STRATEGIES"
on one on the top's long sides and "BRIAN ENO/PETER SCHMIDT" on the
other side. The cards are solid black on one side, and have the
aphorisms printed in a 10-point sans serif face on the other.
2. What is the origin of the Oblique Strategies?
The deck itself had its origins in the 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. They
could also be acquired through EG records for a brief period of time,
as well] 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.
It's not clear from the text below or any other sources I've so far
run across whether the cards were explicitly intended to be oracular
at the outset [that is, whether or not Peter Schmidt and Eno
necessarily saw them exclusively as a "single instruction/single
response" kind of "game"]. The introductory cards included in all
three versions of the Oblique Strategies suggest otherwise. It seems
clear, also, that the deck was not conceived of as a set of "fixed"
instructions, but rather a group of ideas to be added to or modified
over time; each of the three decks included 4 or 5 blank cards,
intended to be filled and used as needed. (as a side note, I've not
met very many people who actually *owned* a real deck who actually
*did* write on the cards. For me, the problem involved coming up with
bits of advice I actually trusted enough to commit to the small stock
of blank cards I had. I settled on two: "Think of a terraced garden"
and "Gradually overwhelmed, like Venice."
Eno seems to discuss the Oblique Strategies at greatest length in an
interview with Charles Amirkhanian, conducted at KPFA in Berkeley in
early 1980:
These cards evolved from our separate working procedures. It was one of
the many cases during the friendship that he [Peter Schmidt] and I had
where we arrived at a working position at almost exactly the same time
and almost in exactly the same words. There were times when we hadn't
seen each other for a few months at a time sometimes, and upon
remeeting or exchanging letters, we would find that we were in the same
intellectual position - which was quite different from the one we'd been
in prior to that. The Oblique Strategies evolved from me being in a
number of working sitautions 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 probjems that were in many senses more interesting than the
direct head-on approach. If you're in a panic, you tend to take the
head-on approach because it seems to be the one that's going to yield
the best results Of course, that often isn't the case - it's just the
most obvious and - apparently - reliable method. 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." The first Oblique Strategy said
"Honour thy error as a hidden intention." And, in fact, Peter's first
Oblique Strategy - done quite independently and before either of us
had become conscious that the other was doing that - was ...I think
it was "Was it really a mistake?" which was, of course, much the same kind
of message. Well, I collected about fifteen or twenty of these and then I
put them onto cards. At the same time, Peter had been keeping a little
book of messages to himself as regards painting, and he'd kept those in
a notebook. We were both very suprised to find the other not only using
a similar system but also many of the messages being absolutely overlapping,
you know...there was a complete correspondence between the messages. So
subsequently we decided to try to work out a way of making that system
available to other people, which we did; we published them as a pack of
cards, and they're now used by quite a lot of different people, I think.
-Brian Eno, interview with Charles Amirkhanian, KPFA-FM Berkeley, 2/1/80
3. How does the deck label and describe itself?
(card one)
OBLIQUE STRATEGIES
Over one hundred worthwhile dilemmas
by BRIAN ENO and PETER SCHMIDT
(signatures, if your copy is signed)
Printed January 1975 in an edition of 500
of which this is number (your number, circled)
(note: later versions note that the deck has been revised, and include
the date of publication - either 1978 for edition two, or 1979 for
edition three)
(card two)
These cards evolved from our separate observations on the principles
underlying what we were doing. Sometimes they were recognized 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 (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.
4. A word of acknowledgement to those who have gone before
A number of us over the years (John Lorch, Rob Stanzel, Mike Metlay,
John Drukman, Dan Maghrak, and others) have entered and puzzled over
the contents of the decks. Unsurprisingly, queries for the contents of
the Oblique Strategies decks have been a perennial feature of net.life
- spread over countless newsgroups and mailing lists [and now, the
Web]. What's usually wound up happening is that the list that one of
us transcribed for posting some great age ago shows up again & again -
often with stuff missing or altered. Mike Metlay was bright enough
sometime in the 80s to alightly alter the contents of the cards so
that they'd fit on a single line for CRT users, but he was careful to
point out that he'd left off the occasional attribution - which this
listing restores, incidentally. But when the stuff got reposted, the
disclaimers got hacked off [understandable, given that some folks
didn't want to bother with anything but the words on the cards].
There were also some interesting missteps in the dreary and grueling
business of actually typing in the content of a deck, too; one version
of the deck published includes the aphorism, "Is the information
correct?" instead of "Is the intonation correct?" So, this particular
posting is an attempt to actually put together a more-or-less
definitive and complete listing of the Oblique Strategies cards - all
three versions of them. As far as any of us are aware, I'm the first one
in net.history to actually find myself in a position to sit down and go
over all three versions. I am grateful to Hal Sundt for his help in
letting me finally sit down with a copy of deck one - the final bit of
the puzzle that had eluded us for all these years (a decade by my count,
perhaps longer). Having said that, onward.
5. What are the contents of the Oblique Strategies decks?
Each of the three versions of the Oblique Strategies decks varies
slightly, as suggested by the introductory blurb which comes with the
deck. And that is the case - each subsequent version of the deck added
cards, dropped some, and reworded or edited existing Strategies.
The untimely death of Peter Schmidt while on holiday in Spain in 1980
meant that no later versions of the Oblique Strategies could be made
as a collaborative activity between Eno and his friend and teacher.
In the event that a fourth edition of the Oblique Strategies is
ever undertaken, it will be Eno alone who does it.
Eno offered the following appreciation of his friend Peter Schmidt:
Looking back now at Peter Schmidt's work, I find myself thinking "This
looks very contemporary" and "How did he cover this much territory this
quickly?" And, inevitably, I ask "Why didn't anyone really notice?"
Well, I know that the 'neglected genius' is a mythical character. It's
very unusual for real talent to be completely ignored. Peter was a real
talent, and he was not completely ignored. Instead, he was regarded as
something of an interesting curiosity, even a gifted eccentric, but
certainly somebody at the margins of culture rather than at its centre.
However, even in the few years since his death, there has been a major
shift of values in the painting world. One of the results of this has
been, in my opinion, to relocate Peter's work: it now looks very prophetic.
Perhaps this reassessment wouldn't have made much difference to Peter
anyway. For someone who watched many conspicuously lesser talents rise
to positions of respect and influence, he was remarkably free of envy.
His work was very much a personal inquiry, a continuous questioning of
deeper and deeper assumptions, a delight in finding himself in new
territory without answers, and thus innocent. We are always innocent,
unless, from laziness or for convenience, we decide to overlook the
novelty of the moment, this particular now. It seemed to me that
Peter was more capable than anybody else I have ever known of following
that understanding through in his actions. He was always alert to those
little byways of thought that might open out onto whole new vistas, and
he followed them with a quiet kind of courage and with the very minimum
of self-glorifying drama.
He wrote to me once, "In a roomful of shouting people, the one who
whispers becomes interesting." By the mid to late seventies, voices were
being raised. The streamlining of the art-world's selling machinery and
the general Schnabelization of artistic behaviour was in full cry.
Paintings and artistic egos were growing by the acre, and the business
of marketing them had crossed over into real estate.
Peter seemed to pay very little attention to this cacophony. His work
was changing too, becoming smaller, crisper, more alive. And as
everyone else seemed to be switching back to oils and canvas (the
guarantee of "real art.'), Peter became fascinated by watercolours and
paper (a certain sign of dilettantism). In the short term, such an
unfashionable decision firmly located Peter among the Sunday painters.
>From today's perspective, that assessment seems about 180 degrees off:
his work is full of seeds, any one of which could form the basis of a
healthy artistic career (and many of which probably have).
As with many good artists, one's admiration for Peter's work increases
with familiarity. To follow the threads that are woven through his work,
to watch the way that they cross and mesh with new threads and with older
ones picked up again is to see a graceful and brilliant dance in motion.
That this same pace and brilliance characterised his everyday life came,
at first, as something of a surprise. He never raised his voice.
-Brian Eno, May 1987 (printed in "Opal Information #5)
The purpose of this document is to provide a listing of the complete
contents of all three versions of the Oblique Strategies. While my
interest in doing so is scholarly, readers may be interested in
constructing their own "meta-set" of all three editions of the decks,
or in looking at what is added or deleted. You're free, of course, to
simply go through and strip out all the accompanying prose and put the
stuff into a "fortune"-type program. As a courtesy, I'd appreciate it
if you credited my work in assembling this list. The next portion of
this project for me will be putting together a nice Hypercard stack
whose cards actually typographically reflect the real cards, includes
some background information, and will allow you to select from any of
the three editions for your own use. It seems like the sort of
shareware that should be done and might be pretty classy, but my
current work schedule is such that I probably won't get it done next
week.
For the sake of clarity and convenience, I have broken up the
description of the Oblique Strategies decks into the following
sections:
A. The "core" Oblique Strategies.
These cards occur in all three versions of the Oblique Strategies
decks. I'm not making any notes about typos here (e.g. Diter vs.
Dieter Rot) These cards remain unchanged through all three printings.
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
Go slowly all the way round the outside
A line has two sides
Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the
last thing on the list
Into the impossible
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
Don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do
Don't be frightened to display your talents
Breathe more deeply
Honor thy error as a hidden intention
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
You don't have to be ashamed of using your own ideas
Tidy up
Do the words need changing?
Ask your body
Water
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
What wouldn't you do?
Decorate, decorate
Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle
Listen to the quiet voice
Is it finished?
Put in earplugs
Give the game away
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
What would your closest friend do?
Distorting time
Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame
[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
Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them
Cascades
Courage!
What mistakes did you make last time?
Consider different fading systems
Mute and continue
It is quite possible (after all)
Don't stress one thing more than another
You are an engineer
Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics
Look at the order in which you do things
Go outside. Shut the door.
Do we need holes?
Cluster analysis
Cut a vital connection
Do something boring
Define an area as `safe' and use it as an anchor
Overtly resist change
Accept advice
Work at a different speed
Look closely at the most embarrassing details and 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)
Use an old idea
Destroy -nothing -the most important thing
Change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency
The tape is now the music
B. Cards which are unique to the first edition:
Each of the three editions of the Oblique Strategies contains a number
of cards which appear only in a particular version of the deck. In the
case of the first edition, there is really only *one* Oblique Strategy
which doesn't reappear in some form or other later on - the rest of
the unique cards for the first edition are modified by being rewritten
in some way for inclusion in later editions. Two cards from the first
edition deck actually disappear from the second edition entirely and
reappear in a more generalized form in the third and final
edition. These cards are described in section C below:
Be dirty
C. Cards which are modified for the second and third editions:
In addition to the addition of the new Strategies, the second printing
also revises some of the aphorisms in ways which seem to render the
oracular advice in a way which seems more or less specific. The
listing of these cards will describe the original first edition
version and the modification.
Imagine the music as a moving chain or caterpillar
(this card reappears in editions 2 and 3 as:
What are the sections sections of? Imagine a caterpillar moving)
Intentions -credibility of -nobility of -humility of
(this card appears in editions 2 and 3 as a reordered list:
Intentions -nobility of -humility of -credibility of)
Imagine the music as a set of disconnected events
(in editions 2 and 3, there is a substitution:
Imagine the piece as a set of disconnected events)
What are you really thinking about just now? Incorporate
(in editions 2 and 3, the command is removed
What are you really thinking about just now?)
Assemble some of the instruments in a group and treat the group
(in editions 2 and 3, this is generalized
Assemble some of the elements in a group and treat the group)
Shut the door and listen from outside
(in editions 2 and 3, this is shortened
Go outside. Shut the door.)
Is the tuning appropriate?
(in editions 2 and 3, this is restated as
Is the intonation correct? )
D. Cards which are modified for the second editions, then vanish:
In addition to the addition of the new Strategies, the second printing
also revises some of the aphorisms in ways which seem to render the
oracular advice in a way which seems more or less specific. The
listing of these cards will describe the original first edition
version and the modification.
Look at a very small object, look at its centre
(this is altered for edition 2 [and omitted from edition 3]
A very small object Its center )
Children's voices -speaking -singing
(this is slightly altered for edition 2 [and omitted from edition 3] to
Children -speaking -singing )
Feedback recordings into an acoustic situation
(this is altered in edition 2 [and omitted in edition 3] to
Feed the recording back out of the medium )
E. Cards added for the second and third editions:
As you can probably tell, the greatest change in the Oblique
Strategies occurred with the release of the second edition of the deck
in 1978. In addition to the rewriting of several of the first edition
cards, eleven completely new cards were added to the deck.
Towards the insignificant
Simply a matter of work
Not building a wall but making a brick
Reevaluation (a warm feeling)
The most important thing is the thing most easily forgotten
Idiot glee (?)
Be extravagant
State the problem in words as clearly as possible
Disciplined self-indulgence
Always first steps
Question the heroic approach
F. Cards added for the second edition and omitted from the third
edition:
Several of the cards added for the second edition only lasted one
generation.
Lost in useless territory
Always give yourself credit for having more than personality
G. Cards in editions one and two which vanish from the third edition:
Faced with a choice, do both (given by Dieter Rot)
Tape your mouth (given by Ritva Saarikko)
Get your neck massaged
Do the washing up
Convert a melodic element into a rhythmic element
Spectrum analysis
Twist the spine
Left channel, right channel, centre channel
H. Cards which "skip" a generation and are modified for the third
edition:
Two Strategies appear in the first edition, are dropped from the
second edition, and then reappear in a slightly modified form in the
third edition.
Lowest common denominator check -single beat -single note -single riff
(this is omitted from edition 2 and reappears in edition 3 as
Lowest common denominator )
Listen in total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly
(this card is omitted from edition 2 and reappears in edition 3 as
In total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly)
I. Cards which appear in the third edition only:
The third and final edition of the Oblique Strategies deck was
published in 1979. This version of the deck adds nine new cards in
addition to the two reformulations listed above.
Would anybody want it?
Retrace your steps
Go to an extreme, move back to a more comfortable place
Once the search is in progress, something will be found
Only a part, not the whole
>From nothing to more than nothing
Be less critical more often
6. Is that all?
Yes, it'll have to do for now. You would, I think, be correct in
seeing the material posted here as being part of a larger project. But
I wanted to get this out in the meantime. I welcome any corrections or
suggestions you might have on the contents or the scheme I've used for
describing the cards. You can feel free to make quotational use of this
posting, but I would prefer to be asked and cited when you do. The same
can, of course, be said for the Strategies themselves.
I'm still gtaylor@fullfeed.com.
As nearly as I can tell [barring attacks of boneheadedness], this
really *is* a definitive listing of the Oblique Strategies - *all* of
them. Thanks for your patience.
With every good wish,
Gregory Taylor