BOREDOM KILLING YOUR CREATIVITY? TRY OBLIQUE STATEGIES

 Listening to the podcast #7 Bowie, Jazz and the Unplayable Piano, I was introduced to the character called Eno. He is British musician that was described as working with David Bowie in Berlin, and he had a pack of cards that motivated inspiration (mostly about making music, but many can be used for any creative process). The cards were used with two simple rules: Pick one. Do it. (No exchanges).

Tim Harford makes the argument that limits inspire creativity. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention!

Here is a list from Carine L'Allemand.

Abandon normal instruments 

Accept advice 

Accretion 

A line has two sides 

Allow an easement (an easement is the abandonment of a stricture) 

Are there sections? Consider transitions

Ask people to work against their better judgement

Ask your body

Assemble some of the instruments in a group and treat the group 

Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle 

Be dirty 

Breathe more deeply 

Bridges -build -burn 

Cascades 

Change instrument roles 

Change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency

Children's voices -speaking -singing 

Cluster analysis 

Consider different fading systems 

Consult other sources -promising -unpromising 

Convert a melodic element into a rhythmic element 

Courage! 

Cut a vital connection 

Decorate, decorate 

Define an area as `safe' and use it as an anchor 

Destroy -nothing -the most important thing 

Discard an axiom 

Disconnect from desire 

Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them 

Distorting time 

Do nothing for as long as possible 

Don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do 

Don't be frightened of cliches 

Don't be frightened to display your talents 

Don't break the silence 

Don't stress one thing more than another 

Do something boring 

Do the washing up 

Do the words need changing? 

Do we need holes? 

Emphasize differences 

Emphasize repetitions 

Emphasize the flaws 

Faced with a choice, do both (given by Dieter Rot) 

Feedback recordings into an acoustic situation 

Fill every beat with something 

Get your neck massaged 

Ghost echoes 

Give the game away 

Give way to your worst impulse 

Go slowly all the way round the outside 

Honor thy error as a hidden intention 

How would you have done it? 

Humanize something free of error 

Imagine the music as a moving chain or caterpillar 

Imagine the music as a set of disconnected events 

Infinitesimal gradations 

Intentions -credibility of -nobility of -humility of

Into the impossible

Is it finished?

Is there something missing?

Is the tuning appropriate?

Just carry on
Left channel, right channel, centre channel
Listen in total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly
Listen to the quiet voice
Look at a very small object, look at its centre
Look at the order in which you do things
Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify them Lowest common denominator check -single beat -single note -single riff
Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame
Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the last thing on the list
Make a sudden, destructive unpredictable action; incorporate Mechanicalize something idiosyncratic
Mute and continue
Only one element of each kind
(Organic) machinery
Overtly resist change
Put in earplugs
Remember those quiet evenings
Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics
Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities
Repetition is a form of change
Reverse
Short circuit (example: a man eating peas with the idea that they will improve his virility shovels them straight into his lap)
Shut the door and listen from outside
Simple subtraction
Spectrum analysis
Take a break
Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance
Tape your mouth (given by Ritva Saarikko)
The inconsistency principle
The tape is now the music
Think of the radio
Tidy up
Trust in the you of now
Turn it upside down
Twist the spine
Use an old idea
Use an unacceptable color
Use fewer notes
Use filters
Use `unqualified' people
Water
What are you really thinking about just now? Incorporate
What is the reality of the situation?
What mistakes did you make last time?
What would your closest friend do?
What wouldn't you do?
Work at a different speed
You are an engineer
You can only make one dot at a time
You don't have to be ashamed of using your own ideas
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OBLIQUE STRATEGIES © 1975, 1978, and 1979 Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt (Formatted from Gregory Taylor’s web site. Composers please note: individual results may vary.)