You’re faced with a blank page, a problem, a roadblock—and the way to move through it seems murky, uninspiring, maybe impossible. How do you get unstuck?
Taking cues from Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt’s card deck Oblique Strategies and George Brecht’s performance “event” instructions in his artist book Water Yam, one class of Pratt students came up with a tool for a creative shakeup. In the Pratt Integrative Course titled Games, Glitches, and Creativity, the students devised A Deck of Cards Always Will, a set of suggestions and instructions “to promote creativity and foster new avenues of exploration and inquiry.”
A Selection of Prompts
- What’s the first thing that you can do?
- Map it out.
- Solo for percussion: (Surface drumming.)
- Work together.
- Walk until you remember.
- Clear your stage.
- Loop.
- Outside.
- The closest object.
- Exclamation marks!!
- Can it expire?
- Remain in a state of flux.
- Light event: Turn on the light.
- Reminisce.
- Concentrate on crowds.
- Add space.
- Something new, something old.
- Can it expire?
- Change position.
- Slow it down.
- Searching or seeking?
- Restrict your immediate desires.
- Let the pencil lead.
A Prompt Game
Prattfolio created a fortune teller game you can play to pull a creative prompt from A Deck of Cards Always Will, or one of your own. Download the PDF, print, and add your own prompt, then cut out, fold, and use the fortune teller to reveal an instruction at random.
Instructions:
1. Add your creative prompt to the fortune teller.
2. Cut out the square. Then, with paper printed-side down, fold the four corners in to the center, with their points touching.
3. Flip the folded paper over, with the prompts facing up. Fold the four corners in to the center, with their points touching and the numerals showing.
4. Fold the fortune teller in half, top to bottom and side to side. Place fingers beneath the loose flaps to form a 3D object. Now play!
To play:
- Select your tool: Compass, Mirror, Flashlight, Map. Spell out the word as you open the fortune teller top–bottom, then left–right. (Open fingers, then close and pull to the sides.) M-I-R-R-O-R—that’s six moves.
- Stop, and pick a number from the four you see. Repeat the alternating motion with the fortune teller that number of times
- Pick a number again. Open up and reveal your creative prompt!