Oblique Strategies - Creative Inspiration

 

Oblique Strategies is a 120+ card method for promoting creativity jointly created by musician/artist Brian Eno and multimedia artist Peter Schmidt, first published in 1975.

Above is a version with 100 Strategies for use with a D100 dice. This will give enough random prompts for creativity for anyone.  I created the numbered lines in Excel. But for me, my mind wonders off by its own anyway when I aren't focused on something I am working on, so haven't found the sheet and dice particularly helpful, but it was worth trying. Other types of things work better for prompting my own  creativity it seems.  

I am in between projects the last few days.  And that makes for a random path till the next project. My own kind of Oblique Strategies, that isn't a randomly selected ambiguous phrase, but actions and thoughts that eventually lead me to my next project.

Rereading Masamune Shirow manga (that 6 wheeled bike above from APPLESEED VOL3, obviously inspired by Akira, that was inspired by Syd Mead TRON design, is really cool) and doing a few other bits and pieces. Like use the cool ION STORM in UNIVERSE IMAGE CREATOR, in video text, like here:

Recorded some door  noises around the house with my Zoom H1 recorder and manipulated them to use in some yet to be determined piece of music and animation:

That came out of recently founding out about French Metal Band IGORR  and their use of recorded sounds, AI and making of strange videos.  Something I do in the future will be because of inspiration from them. 

Have been practicing FINGER DRUMMING using the Akai pad controller. Why is it the pads always look dirty?

I don't need to be able to play a whole drum track live, but the practice and just doing things different triggers something in me that is encouraging.  A different kind of Oblique Strategy prompt. Doing the basics suggested in THE QUEST FOR GROOVE has made a difference for me in a couple of days too. 

This is the 3rd different Akai pad layout I have tried and have found it the best. The main assignments are also the same as in the Yamaha FGDP-30, which is an interesting development to me. A drum machine without the sequencer, for playing live. Has a USB interface for controlling a VST as well though, and really a DAW is a way better sequencer!

Have found putting the Akai on a small folded towel makes it "better" than being just on my NITORI desk. It is quieter and not as hard on the fingers.  

It seems that being not good at all with finger drumming has completely killed my recent normal routine of making some 60second piece of music and putting a comic to it to do a music+comic.  That and kind of hitting a wall with my technique and composition approach recently. 

Last thing I did was this: 

And felt I was just repeating myself more than normal. It needs more, and I need to change/ learn/ practice to do that.  Maybe that requires going back to Melodic Techno for a bit and putting the guitars aside.  Being more proficient with playing some drums on pads feels like part of that too. 

The Appleseed manga has many complex panels with cityscapes and machines and people. They add greatly to the atmosphere of the work, but must have taken so long to do. Looks great, but that really isn't the kind of comic I want to make though.  So I then think, "what kind of comic is the thing I want to make?"  I know most of the answer to that already.

Non-Fiction is what interests me most, as I find, now (is it just an age thing?) I don't care for made up stories and arbitrary danger to the protagonist.  I keep coming back to the format of Topgear, as an entertainment format that had more great moments for me than other things I ever watched. 

Which brings me to my HEAVY METAL GARAGE comic which is rather like that😁.

I only recently discovered Dino_DC and vbloggers like Sammit with their focus on Japanese Car Culture.  I knew about Initial D from my oldest son many years ago and Tuner Kei Cars are things I admire in the car park of my local 7/11 almost every time I visit. 

Have watched many car shows over the years. Monster Garage, Full Custom Garage, Extreme 4WD (and many others from that network), Counting Cars and recently Rust to Riches.  Things like Extreme 4WD & Full Custom Garage were more hands on real workshop stuff than some other more reality TV style. 

So it was interesting  (but terrifying is closer)  to see a "famous" Japanese shop, put a super wide body kit on a yellow Porsche owned by Dino_DC.  Guy didn't wear a mask, or goggles or gloves while working fiberglass or an Allsaw.  He cut into the fenders to make clearance, but then didn't treat any of the exposed metal with an epoxy primer or anything, to stop it rusting away. Mmmm, that could be all done way better, even if the resulting car looked awesome, it isn't going to last. 😧

I feel more HMG comics focused on the Japanese Car Culture scene is likely this year. I mean, even that wonderful 1970s Lancia Stratos HF ZERO was in Nara Japan last month!

Update: April 27

And did this yesterday. Very off the cuff animation, and the door fx is a main part here.

"After a late night audition to be a guitarist in a KISS parody band, our wana be rock star takes a midnight short cut through a grave yard...."

And on the Finger Drumming front, practicing 5~10 minutes a few time a day makes a huge difference after a week. The pads just fall under the fingers and timing and groove comes more naturally too. 

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology