MARK WILLIAMS

OPUS12 | EXPLAINED

WHAT IS OPUS12

As the user of a mobile phone, you will inevitably send and receive countless fragments
of information each day. Over the course of the year this data is broken down into a
dozen monthly portions for you to digest in the form of an itemised bill. Rows upon
rows of dates, numbers and times. OPUS12 takes this data and converts if into
something a little more interesting. The Square bill. And here’s how it works:

Your average bill will cover between 28 and 31 days depending on which month it falls.
Your calls and text will then be separated into their respective days so now we can see
the pattern off calls you make throughout the course of the day. The same is done with
all text messages sent.

Each day is split into 24 squares, a square for each hour. Calls made between midnight
and the following midnight will be placed in their relevant position along a horizontal
axis giving a 6:4 tempo to each piece. The vertical axis represents the call duration and
determines the pitch of the note, which is split into semi-tones. A call that lasts between
0 and 30 seconds begins at middle C on a basic piano. The semi-tones increase with
every 30-second increment. A full table is featured above with call times and their
corresponding notes for calls up to 30 minutes. Anything over this and you’ll have to just
try for yourself...

Within each hour square there will be more than one call, sometimes many calls for very
short durations. E.g. 8 calls between 1-2pm, In this instance the volume of the note will
increase and its duration will lengthen. If a varying degree of call time’s feature within the
hour the notes will be played simultaneously at their respective pitches, generating some
quite unique harmonies.