11'22"

11'22" is a sound landscape / poem / art work created for FILE 2017 (Electronic Language International Festival) using audio samples collected from electronic literature, language, and literacy conferences. The intent is to broadly explore electronic language through the act of listening. The work's title comes from its length, eleven minutes and twenty two seconds.

Exhibitions

FILE 2017 Juried exhibition, international
Electronic Language International Festival
1 of 17 international artists selected
Hypersonica Program, Fiesp Cultural Center
São Paulo, Brazil
18 July-3 September 2017

Background

I created and submitted 11'22" in response to an international open call for submissions to FILE 2017, the Electronic Language International Festival, São Paulo, Brazil, the largest electronic art event in Latin America. 11'22" was one of seventeen international works jury selected for the Hypersonica Program portion of the FILE festival.

Procession from Egypt: The Book of Going Forth by Day. M.D. Coverley. Samples.
Definition of electronic literature. Justine Bizzochi. Complete.
eLiterature A-Z. Roderick Coover. Complete.
The Obsolete Book in a Post-Obsolete World . . .. Eric Suzanne. Samples.
What Is Electronic Literature. Various. Samples.
Clock atop the Arco da Rua Augusta, a triumphal arch leading out of Lisbon's Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square) to the Rua Augusta, a beautifully paved pedestrian street, Lisbon, Portugal.
Field recording of Michael Joyce during his traversal of Afternoon: A Story. Sample.
Unexpected Woodland Events from Roar of Destiny. Judy Malloy. Sample.
Sc4nda1 in New Media. Sample. Stuart Moulthrop.
Dawn Quartet from Pieces for Simultaneous Voices. Jim Rosenberg. Sample.
The Unknown. William Gillespie, Scott Rettberg, Frank Marquardt, and Dirk Stratton. Samples.
No Booze Tonight. Steven Wingate. Samples.
Song for the Working Fly. Alan Bigelow. Samples.
Under Language. Stuart Moulthrop. Samples.
May I Ask You A Question? Various. Complete.

Responses

I have come to treasure listening to your works as though I were hearing an aural collage. Thank you so much for including some of my work in these wonderful pieces!
—Marjorie Lusenbrink (AKA M.D. Coverley)

Metadata

Object: Audio
Format: mp3
Bit Rate: 356kbs
Duration: 11:22
Created: 2017
Creator: John F. Barber

Artist Statement

11'22" is a sound landscape, a sound poem, a work of sound art, based on the computer-augmented affordances of language and literature. The intent is to broadly explore electronic language through the act of listening. 11'22" (named for its length: eleven minutes, twenty two seconds) is a direct nod to John Cage's 4'33", his most famous composition and attempt to make his audiences listen.

11'22" samples and reimagines aural artifacts of electronic/generated/computational (EGC) literature as sound based narratives as its sole content source.