Birmingham: It’s Not Shit’s 11 - 11 - 11
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On the 11th of November let’s create a modern ritual, a post-millennial cultural cult.
Eleven hours on the eleven bus — join us.

The rules:
- Get on the 11C at 11am (or as near as dammit) on 11/11.
- Get off the 11C at 10pm — 11 hours later — (or as near as dammit) on 11/11.
- You can get on and off the bus as many times as you like (don’t spend more than an hour off bus).
- Document your journey; photos, film, writing, cross-stitch, knitting, amigurumi, poetry, blog, twitter, however you like.
- Meet up with others as mad as you, if you want.
The point:
A post-cultural, post-sporting, post-everything pyschogeographical document of the city. The clockwise circling will create a centripetal force for good.
The route:
On the TWM site, or as a video.
The practicalities:
The inspiration:
This is kind of inspired by Gimpo’s 25 Hour M25 spin.
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 6:01 pm by Jon Bounds and is filed under BiNS, Birmingham, culture, environment, history, what's on. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Help improve our tagging - add some appropriate tags to this post:Tags for this article: 11 , 11/11 , 11/11/08 , 11th November , art , Birmingham , birminghamuk , bus , bus ticket , eleven , event , google calendar , madness , project , pyschogeography , travel west midands , upyerbrum , what's on
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on 2 August 2008 at 7:09 pm dp wrote:
and the explanation for a clockwise journey (as distinct from anti-clockwise, either, or both) is…?
I kinda like the idea of a pendular movement between SE and SW, or even something complicated involving 3(2xCW-.67xACW).
To each her own?
on 2 August 2008 at 7:10 pm dp wrote:
“The clockwise circling will create a centripetal force for good.”
Oh, okay.
on 2 August 2008 at 7:12 pm bounder wrote:
Clockwise, because I’ve done an 11A circuit before. You can , of course, do what you like. But this one is circular, a sort of Walls of Jericho thing I guess.
on 2 August 2008 at 7:29 pm brendadada wrote:
Oh wonderful, this is so great. All the best things have been happening in Birmingham since I left, damnit!
Congratulations on a really exciting plan. Wonder where the No 11 goes here in the NE? Not even sure we have one…
on 2 August 2008 at 9:01 pm dp wrote:
I am partly thinking about the potential for duplication of effort. Not that it matters much. If 16 people get on at Kings Heath, so be it. Then it just becomes a moving lounge party. But I’ll be on the bus going the other way and will try to photograph it in passing. Hopefully someone will decorate the upper windows to make it that much more festive.
on 2 August 2008 at 9:12 pm bounder wrote:
Special 11 route T-shirt
on 2 August 2008 at 9:31 pm Sam wrote:
Might be a bit of a problem with the memorial services happening on that day - I’ll certainly be observing the silence at 11am and I invite you all to do the same.
on 2 August 2008 at 9:38 pm bounder wrote:
Sam, I’m not forcing anyone to do anything.
There will be no effect on any memorial services, unless a vicar decides he must be on the 11C instead of conducting one.
Anyone is welcome to join “as near as dammit” (where dammit is your own interpretation) to 11am as in the rules.
on 2 August 2008 at 11:43 pm Alex Hughes wrote:
…of course, this opens the possibility of the 11 route pub crawl. 11 evenly spaced pubs in 11 hours? Sounds do-able to me. Now to find 11 (decent) pubs as near to the route as possible.
Thinking about it though - you’ve missed a trick. You could have done the same for the 8 route next Friday - 08/08/08.
on 2 August 2008 at 11:48 pm bounder wrote:
>Thinking about it though - you’ve missed a trick. You could have done the same for the 8 route next Friday - 08/08/08.
For some reason the 8 route just doesn’t hold the same significance for me, maybe because it doesn’t circumnavigate the city, although I’d be pleased to hear of someone organising such a thing.
on 3 August 2008 at 8:38 am Leonardo Morgado wrote:
This is inspired. This is genius. This could end in tears but my camera will be cleaned, my pens and notebook will be out and my hair will be slicked back ready to go on the bus with the wheels that go round and round.
on 30 October 2008 at 10:51 am Andy Robinspn wrote:
Hey, cool idea. How about contributing points of interest and all the bus stops along the route to http://www.openstreetmap.org (OSM)
The OSM map of the 11 route is complete but many of the bus stops are not there yet. Link below gets you there. Zoom right in on the A4040 to see the bus stops already present.
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=52.4839&lon=-1.9015&zoom=12&layers=B000FTF
What we record:
Bus stop reference number
Route ref(s)
Location
Direction (Towards)
Shelter (Yes/No)
on 30 October 2008 at 11:13 am Jon Bounds wrote:
Nice idea, Andy - I’ve popped a request up on the elevenbus.co.uk site. I think I’ll be to busy on the day, but someone might take up the cudgels.
on 3 August 2008 at 9:00 pm something I said : Number 11 Geographies wrote:
[...] plans for a Daysaver excursion now have a parallel over at B:INS in the form of a group event aboard No. 11 buses. The idea is based on [...]
on 3 August 2008 at 9:20 pm 11 hours on the number 11 bus « The Eclectrician wrote:
[...] 11 hours on the number 11 bus This is a brilliantly mad idea. Eleven hours on Birmingham’s number 11 bus route on 11 November. [...]
on 4 August 2008 at 1:22 pm Pete Ashton’s Blog » 11 - 11 - 11 wrote:
[...] 11 - 11 - 11 - Jon Bounds’ notion for a special Birmingham day where you’re encouraged to spend 11 hours on the number 11 bus route on November 11th and document your adventures. [...]
on 4 September 2008 at 10:23 pm A two pence bus fare for the digital age | Dave Harte wrote:
[...] author of the Birmingham Its Not Shit blog, wants us all to spend the 11th of the 11th this year on the 11 route, leaving at 11am. He wants an army of Brummie bloggers out there, talking about it, recording it, [...]
on 30 September 2008 at 2:49 pm D’log :: blogging since 2000 » Everyone aboard the No.11 wrote:
[...] you want to snap your own take on the famous city-circling No.11 bus route, BINS is proposing an 11-11-11 project… “On the 11th of November let’s create a modern ritual, a post-millennial [...]