Oblique Strategies

October 06, 2026

In 1975, musician Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt developed Oblique Strategies, a deck of cards designed as a tool for artists, musicians, and writers who were creatively blocked. Each card offers a pithy, sometimes esoteric instruction like “disconnect from desire,” “emphasize differences,” and “remember those quiet evenings.” The deck has become something of a secret weapon among creatives, particularly musicians. Eno himself famously used them when producing three of David Bowie’s albums: Low, Heroes, and Lodger. Others like Damon Albarn, LCD Soundsystem, the B52’s, Bauhaus, and Phoenix have cited its influence on their own creative process.

The deck held in Special Collections & Archives, Oblique Strategies: a more universal edition, is a special limited edition commissioned by Peter Norton (of Norton Antivirus fame) for his 1996 Norton Family Christmas project. Each year, starting in 1988, Peter and his wife, Eileen (a respected and influential collector in her own right) mailed out limited edition art pieces rather than holiday cards to family, friends, and members of the art community. Avid art collectors, they commissioned works from a wide variety of both established and emerging artists such as Kara Walker, Lawrence Weiner, Lorna Simpson, and Ry Rocklen. Although they divorced in 2000, the Christmas project continued through 2018.

This edition of Oblique Strategies strays from the others in a few key ways. Norton condensed the deck from 123 to 100 cards, simplified the language, and introduced a few new contributors (Arto Lindsay, Ritva Saarikko, Dieter Rot, and Stewart Brand). Additionally, the iconic minimalist design of the original deck was ditched in favor of colorful, two-sided designs by artist Pae White. With prompts in six languages (English, Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic), the deck is teeming with color, shapes, and text. The container, in contrast, is sleek and simple, made of white marble-like plastic.  While Norton’s deck could not be more aesthetically different from Eno and Schmidt’s original design, the cards retain their underlying intention and wisdom.
 

Post tagged as: rare books