four minutes forty-four seconds

South Korean-born, Netherlands-based electroacoustic sound artist Jiyoung Wi (Psychic Liberation / Enmossed) presents 4'44" - a self-professed 'sound fiction' in the dual format of book and audio CD.

Structured as a series of letters with a one-sided transcript of a conversation, 4'44"'s accompanying audio combines sounds collected through field recording and a reading of the transcript by seven speakers - in Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Bengali, English, Lithuanian, and Turkish. The use of multiple languages disrupts a single, cohesive cultural or geographical context for the text, further obscuring the identities of those engaged in the conversation. The story follows a first-person narrator who relies on her fractured psyche for survival, chronicling the various stages of her mysterious illness, in a world where patriarchal authority is largely absent and the protagonist's trauma manifests as a physical illness, becoming a symbiotic force that both consumes and guides her.

The title reflects the layered conceptual and formal explorations of the work, appropriating John Cage's 4'33", lasting 273 seconds, often interpreted as referencing -273°C, or absolute zero, where all molecular motion stops. 

Hardback / Pages: 165 pages / Dimensions:  128×205mm / CD included / ISBN: 978-1-0369-0338-1 / Translation: Dayun Ryu / Editors: Yeasul Shin (Korean), Gye Taekgon (桂澤坤) (English) / Design: Yongwan Jeon / Sound mastering: Lawrence McGuire