The Vinyl Record That Soundtracks an Entire Year

We've all tried to soundtrack our lives, whether by creating an iTunes playlist reminding us of that excellent birthday party or by listening to those annual So Fresh CDs that commemorate each individual year of our childhood. Now media artist Brian House has taken it to the next level by literally recording an entire year of his life and etching it onto a playable vinyl record, the Quotidian Record.

House tracked his location using an app called OpenPaths for 365 days, assigned each place he visited a certain point on the musical scale and designated each city a key. He then ordered each location by how much time he spent there as well as the regularity of his visits. Whilst there was a distinct repetitiveness as in all daily routines — home, work, the daily commute — the changes offered by daily life, such as travel, provided House with musical creativity.

"The more common places were generally given more consonant harmonies, so throughout most of the piece you get a major third repeating, which is basically me sleeping at home," House says to Fast Co.Create. "As I’m moving around more, it gets more complex.”

This complexity can be seen on the vinyl itself as it is marked with dates and places so that House and other listeners can jump ahead and experience an exact moment in time. Neatly, an entire day can be heard in just one full revolution of the record, meaning a full year can be musically manifested in 11 minutes.

However, despite the data-centric focus of the project and his endeavour to prove that all data is qualitative, House just wants his personal rhythmic signature to be felt like all other music.

“It's a framework for a set of memories,” he says. “I hear my commute and my travels through a lens of expectation. I love the sound of my trip into the Colorado wildness, in particular. I re-enact that when I listen, and it’s especially meaningful to me".

Due to House wanting to preserve the sanctity of the work on vinyl, you cannot hear the full recording online. However, he has provided a teaser of his year, and despite the unconventional method of composition, it is surprisingly catchy.

[Via Fast Co.Create.]