7/2/00

one-result composition


a google-based literary practice in which the writer comes up with original phrases that, when typed into google within quotation marks (so it searches the exact phrase), yield only ONE RESULT. (if you get multiple results that all feature the phrase in the same context, it counts.)

the point is to generate ORIGINAL CONTENT, so when you search a phrase and it yields multiple results, you must NEVER peek at the CONTENT of those results, ONLY the NUMBER of results at the top of the search result page. if you decide you want to try restructuring or adding onto your phrase in an attempt to narrow the result count, you must NEVER allow yourself to be influenced by the initial multiple results yielded by a phrase. USE YOUR BRAIN. it's actually not that hard once you grow accustomed to the process.

you'll grow to understand the types of phrases that are likely to yield one result, you'll develop a knack for guessing one-result phrases. sometimes a phrase just pops into my head and I type it into google and get one result. I've developed a sense for it, and many of my friends have as well. good luck on your personal one-result journey! it can be rewarding, therapeutic, spiritual, even addictive.

when you get one result on the first try, without testing out different phrasing permutations, this is a mystical harmonious occurrence and should be celebrated!

a few recent examples:

"great orchard of death"
"surrounded by artificial everythings"
"so attached to attachment"
"negative value pulse"
"an eternal spiritual unit"

NOTE: you will find that many of the lines in my one-result poems currently do not yield one result on google. I assure you that, at the time of its composition, each line did yield one result, but given enough time the internet shifts around and terms that once yielded one result no longer do. that is the nature of being. change is life. we live alongside fragments of the past, shells and fossils of a lost time...