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Eleven hour ticket to ride

By Jon Bounds

On the eleventh of November 2008 a twenty-strong group of artists, bloggers, photographers, writers, bus drivers and babies spent eleven hours on Birmingham's number eleven bus starting after eleven am.

There were rules. But not many. The rules were:

    * Get on the 11C after 11am on 11/11.
    * Get off the 11C at 10pm — 11 hours later.
    * You can get on and off the bus as many times as you like (don't spend more than an hour off bus at one time).
    * Document your journey.

On the Outer Circle

Filming the loop

It was my idea, the date clicked with me, there was nothing else but to organise it. Place holds a great fascination, both physical spaces and people's reactions to it. I filmed a complete loop out of the window from the top deck of the 11A bus and sped it up to five minutes — unfortunately it rained and the view straight ahead isn't the most interesting. It has a nice, 'London to Brighton in Four Minutes' vibe, but it hadn't satisfied my thoughts about the outer circle.

Jon Bounds ride the eleven

We had around 30 sign up originally, on Facebook and on the elevenbus.co.uk website, but I never really thought that that number would actually do it — eleven hours on the bus doesn't sound fun and when it involves a cold November day and taking time off work I knew a lot would drop out. During my three times round I met up with around
15 people riding round on the day, but others did part of the journey (a lot chose to do one circuit) and are recording it for the project.

That's a lot of people to take time out to do something a little bit strange.

Eleven hours on the eleven

Tales of Birmingham

I was mainly doing little snips of live video from a mobile phone, and talking to the other people who were riding the bus, others were live blogging or taking photos. I'm writing a long report too, but the best thing has been reading other people's experiences and collecting them together. There are photos, writing and even, I hope, there will be a few paintings or drawings. I'm really proud of everyone that contributed or supported and hope that there's enough material for an exhibition.

View on the eleven route

Tripping on the eleven

I was looking forward to being able to look at Birmingham from a new perspective, but my thoughts were occupied with memories and the telling of stories — and by the end (and for a few days after) I could barely think straight at all. The eleven bus is a great way to see the city, I did see new things and it was good to see again places that I had not had time to look at for years.

I think everyone should take at least one trip around the eleven route, whether you do eleven hours in one day is up to you!

All photos by artist Alicja Rogalska

last updated: 26/11/2008 at 17:56
created: 26/11/2008

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