Offline Matters Cards: Truth or Dare?

Do you dare to step away from the social media mandate? Are you ready to challenge yourself beyond the automatic solutions of creative work today? Can we break from business-as-usual and find alternative ways of approach?

Following the publication of Offline Matters: The Less-Digital Guide to Creative Work come the first two decks of the Offline Matters Cards series: Truth or Dare?. Like the much-loved classic game of Truth or Dare?, these tools are designed to challenge creative minds into unfamiliar places of thinking.

Whether starting with a problem that needs solving or a blank state waiting action, the decks bring a fresh take to the task at hand. Draw a prompt card from each or either pack, then apply the perspective or action for counter-cultural results. The goal is to (re)introduce elements of experimentation and play that press against the dry digitality typical of creative work today.

Truth cards
The Truth cards give creative thinkers and collectives a tool to provoke alternative ways of doing, through the minds of others. In a variety of quotes from thinkers across different times and disciplines, this deck is here to snap us out of our go-to approaches and turn us towards the possibility of other worlds.

Dare cards
Through a series of prompts that pay homage to Brian Eno’s beloved musical Oblique Strategies, the Dare cards are designed to inspire acts and outcomes that drive us outside our usual practices.

How to play
Both packs are designed to be played either on their own, or in duet. You can play the game alone or in a group. Instructions are included on how to play for specific scenarios; including fresh starts, breakouts and problem solving. There is only one rule: Always attempt to apply the drawn card before drawing another!

Author

Jess Henderson is a writer, researcher, theorist, creative strategist, and author of Offline Matters: The Less-Digital Guide to Creative Work (2020). She is the founder of online magazine No Fun and Outsider—an insider-activist platform within the creative industries. Beginning as a subversive email newsletter in 2017, Outsider has grown to garner a cult-following around the world with its anonymous writings, research, publications, experimental workshops and offline-only events. Henderson is a fellow of the Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam and speaks about offline creativity around the world – including at NYCxDesign week, Parson’s Strategic Design Conference, the DuPho Awards and Us by Night Festival.