“Then I got the small black box, and I did know what to do...”
Anybody who has a keen interest in the collaborations of Bowie/Eno, will be well aware of the pair’s fondness for the Eno/Schmidt-conceived Oblique Strategies (subtitled Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas).
Indeed, Bowie's original set of cards is pictured here, looking like they have been consulted on more than one occasion.
Anyway, on Thursday June 13th at 11:30am, BBC Radio 4 sets out to tell the story of the Oblique Strategies cards with the help of British poet Simon Armitage.
Here’s the Radio 4 blurb:
'Infinitesimal gradations', 'Repetition is a form of change', 'Bridges-build-burn' - just three of the gnomic aphorisms contained in the Oblique Strategies cards devised in the early 1970s by artists Peter Schmidt and Brian Eno. The cards were aimed at providing a creative jolt to artists who were either stuck or searching for new directions for their work. Most famously, Eno and David Bowie used the cards during the making of the now infamous set of albums known as the Berlin trilogy.
Simon Armitage first came across them as a student, but has never actually owned or used a pack himself. Now he sets out to tell the story of the cards, talk to some of those who've used them (across the fields of music, writing, cooking, business and more) and also find out whether the cards will take his own writing in a new direction. Among those he'll speak with are Carlos Alomar (the guitarist on those Bowie albums), user Paul Morley, chef Ian Knauer and creativity guru Professor Tudor Rickards. He'll also use the cards to try and help him track down the elusive Brian Eno himself.
Oblique Strategies is well represented online, not least of all via this site where you can peruse the cards and this one which covers the history of the set.
Thanks to Karen Banwell for the pointer to the Radio 4 broadcast.