Oblique Strategies 004: “Water”

…is it an ‘element’ in your work? I know...sorry.

Brian Eno's "Oblique Strategies" is a set of cards designed to catalyze creativity and challenge conventional thinking. Each card is a brief statement or puzzling command intended to help creators break through “blocks” by pushing them toward alternate thinking and reexamination of their work. Each week I‘ll address one card from the deck and its potential applications.

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When I first read the Oblique Strategy prompt "Water" I remember a sense of locking-up or an inner feeling of paralysis. I guess it sorta stunned me into a state of no-mind like a Zen koan. It seems SO freakin’ oblique that I couldn’t begin to imagine where to go with it. But the more I stayed with it, the less afraid of it I became…and the more fertile and fun it seemed to be. So, let’s dive(!) into what might be one of the obliquest of the strategies. 

I think “Water” serves first, as a symbolic reminder of fluidity and transformation within the c…