Brian Eno & Peter Schmidt's
OBLIQUE STRATEGIES.

A short history of this program.

The list of « Oblique Strategies » has been around the world through the Net for years now. It's been a few years since I got it from Alan Kerr, who got a posting from John Lorch with the following:

    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 describes 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. "

The posting also contained the following notice:

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

And finally, there's me. I first created a Windows 3.1 tool that would permit a musician to pop up a « card » rapidly or the whole list of cards at his or her convenience. I revamped it for Win95 with dramatic changes (see Versions history).

Included in his posting was that « little bit » John talks about, the basic ideas behind these cards. I hope this program respects the letter and the spirit of them.