Largest creative work

The largest creative work is the largest or longest item in different fields of creative works. Some pieces were created with the specific intention of holding the record while others have be recognised for their size after completion.

Media

Literature

*The longest novel in Latin or Cyrillic alphabets is Henry Darger's "The Story of the Vivian Girls". The illustrated fantasy novel manuscript is typed single-spaced on 15,145 pages in 10 volumes. Discovered after Darger's death, the manuscript has never been published. The total number of words has not been estimated; some believe this might be the longest novel ever written. The most conservative guess will put this in the million-word realm, possibly into tens of millionsFact|date=October 2008.
*The largest known general encyclopedia is the Yongle Encyclopedia commissioned by the Chinese Ming Dynasty emperor Yongle in 1403. It comprised 22,877 manuscript volumes in 11,095 books occupying 40 cubic metres (1400 ft³), but has since disappearedFact|date=October 2008.
*The longest poem in any language is the Mahabharata, with more than 100,000 coupletsFact|date=October 2008.
*The longest epic cycle is the Tibetan Epic of King Gesar, which contains over 20 million words in more than one million versesFact|date=October 2008.

Music

*The longest musical performance began on 5 September 2001 and is set to last for 639 years. The first audible note of John Cage's "As Slow As Possible" was not actually heard until 5 February 2003. [BBC News. 5 February 2003. " [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1525792.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2728595.stm First notes for 639-year composition] ". Accessed 2 September 2006.]

Paintings and sculptures

*The largest painting by a single-artist is David Aberg's 86,000 square foot "Mother Earth", made inside an aircraft hangar in southern Sweden. [MSNBC. 11 August 2006. " [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14309591/ In the art world, this is really big] ". Accessed 2 September 2006.]
*The longest painting was created by over 3,000 students in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and measured 2,978.4 metres (9,771.6 feet) when completed on 21 March 2005. [Guinness World Records. " [http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=57763 Longest painting] ". Accessed 2 September 2006.]
*The largest glass sculpture is "Fiori di Como" by Dale Chihuly, found on the ceiling of the lobby for Las Vegas's Bellagio hotel. It measures 2,000 square feet. [GlassonWeb. August 2005. " [http://www.glassonweb.com/articles/article/298/ Fiori di Como] ". Accessed 2 September 2006.]

Theatre, film and television

*"The Cure for Insomnia", directed by John Henry Timmis IV, is officially the world's longest film. Running 5,220 minutes (87 hours) in length, the film is a documentary performance of artist L. D. Groban reading his lengthy poem "A Cure for Insomnia" over the course of three and a half days, spliced with occasional clips from heavy metal and pornographic videos. [Internet Movie Database. " [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284020/ The Cure for Insomnia] ". Accessed 2 September 2006.]
*The longest running U.S. television series is "Meet the Press", which started on 6 November 1947 and continues today.

ee also

*Hermitage Museum – the world's largest art gallery
*List of largest buildings in the world
*Unfinished work

References