September 24, 2006

Web / Print Conceptual Writing

by Nick Montfort · , 11:24 am

2006-05-21 20:52:41   why do i get it
2006-05-21 20:53:24   we the same
2006-05-21 20:54:00   cut my paper off
2006-05-21 20:54:35   no suday paper you came here
2006-05-21 20:55:09   lock your ass out
2006-05-21 20:55:36   laughing
2006-05-21 20:56:30   rick laugh
2006-05-21 20:57:29   joe met his match
2006-05-21 20:58:24   bea laugh
2006-05-21 20:59:05   bea lock you out
2006-05-21 21:00:08   blue eyes
2006-05-21 21:00:44   i cook today
2006-05-21 21:01:36   can cook anything
2006-05-21 21:05:18   home envirronment make a person
2006-05-21 21:06:25   live a happy life

Superbunker presents i feel better after i type to you, a 254-page book that is “an un-edited reproduction of the search queries of AOL user 23187425 from May 2006.” Here’s the text of the book and a blog post about said text from Lot 49. Made up? IM data rather than search queries? Or too strange not to be true?

That’s the most high-concept text in this post, but One Sentence is now soliciting one-sentence true stories. They should be stories about the author, “Insignificant stories, everyday stories, or turning-point-in-your-life stories, boiled down to their bare essentials.” There are many online now, many of which are not very good and/or may not be stories, and there’s no book yet, but there is a tag cloud, so hey.

The project reminds me of Frank Warren’s PostSecret, which solicits whatever (anonymous) secrets will fit on postcards. PostSecret is quite interesting, since people decorate their postcards in many visually interesting ways and also reveal shocking secrets. There’s no way to confirm that these are real, but they too often seem too odd to be fiction. There’s a movie of PostSecret cards from the site, not to mention several books, at least one of which you can check out the next time you’re in Urban Outfitters.

I’m betting that i feel better after i type to you won’t make it into Urban Outfitters.

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