The Oblique Strategies API brings modern web standards and open data practices to Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt᾿s classic Oblique Strategies.
First published in 1975, the Oblique Strategies are a collection of brief aphorisms meant to stimulate creativity. Such as “Give way to your worst impulse,” “Question the heroic approach,” and “Work at a different speed.”
By making these strategies accessible in a machine-readable form, the Oblique Strategies JSON API makes it possible for programmers to readily include these Oblique Strategies in their work.
More subtly, it addresses a conversation about machine creativity, which I first addressed with the Lyrics Generator. How might a computer᾿s creativity resemble human creativity? What happens when a computer gets writers block? Would a computer consult the Oblique Strategies?