I’ve long admired the “Oblique Strategies” — an infamous deck of creativity cards invented by musician Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt that has a cult following among artists and musicians. It is one part thinking game, one part fortune cookie. They made it as a way to spur them into thinking differently about their current projects, by drawing random lateral thinking triggers from the deck (like “destroy the most important thing” or “give the game away”).
But I’ve always wondered: What would they look like if Eno had been in a Death Metal band instead of Roxy Music? Or if Schmidt were more of an HR Giger?
So, borrowing a page from my book of prompts, Instigation, I rewrote the Oblique Strategies my own way — turning it to the dark side. And I made a web app out of it to “think outside the coffin,” called Diabolique Strategies: Random Provocations into the Dark Side.
Diabolique Strategies is a creative thinking engine. It doesn’t give you ideas, scenarios or story-starters, so much as it bends your approach to any given topic in an offbeat direction. Some call this lateral thinking. I call it BENT thinking. Think of the prompts as redirection cues — turning your thoughts toward the underside of your imagination…the place where surprise lurks and originality dwells. Go to http://diaboliquestrategies.com and crack open your evil fortune cookie whenever you like. There’s over 200 sick little strategies lurking inside and I keep adding more when inspiration strikes.
Please pass news along and share this brand new site with all the strange and creative personalities in your life.
(HINT: Load Diabolique Strategies in your phone or tablet and add it to your home screen as an app.)