If, as Douglas Englebart asserts, the interface invariably leads to new methods of cognition, then Opho hopes to evoke variant and indeterminate structures previously unheard through the process of applying randomizing factors derived from a Web interface. (Englebart, 94) Through this mangling of original sources, the process intend to elevate an appreciation of interaction, cooperation and collaboration in the same manner that “high art” of singular vision has been appreciated.

Similarly to the use of John Cage’s implementation of the I Ching, or Brian Eno’s custom oblique strategy deck of cards, or Chris Mosdell's Oracles Of Distraction, serving as guides to their own chance-operative compositional choices, Opho uses an online “deck” of “index cards” with 10 restrictive parameters per audio clip, loaded into a Flash movie that randomly shuffles between multiple permutation possibilities. [To load the chance operators interface, click the second image down from the top left column of this page - the image with the five-pointed flower.] In other words, for each original source sample submission, the Engineer clicks a “shuffle” button for each one of the 10 parameters in order to derive the production requirement result for that particular sound. These restrictive parameters will allow the Engineer to further manipulate the sounds beyond recognition of the originating source material.

The 10 parameters include:
sample length (in seconds, i.e., 0.5, or 7, etc.)
fragmentation (i.e., removing portions of the sample by division in order to retrieve only microscopic slivers of audio)
harmonics (i.e., tuning up or down - major 5th, minor 7th, etc.)
envelope shape (i.e., restrictions or requirements regarding attack, decay, sustain, release)
waveform (i.e., sawtooth, squarewave, sinewave, etc.)
amplitude (i.e., volume, on a scale of 1-10)
tempo (i.e., beats-per-minute)
warp (i.e., of sample duration; off, +/-)
forbidden effect/process (i.e., chorus, flange, reverb, noise gate, gapper/snipper, reverse, etc.)
required effect/process (same as previous)

The end goal then is to amass elements to serve as the basis of sound banks of entirely unrecognizable clips possessing radically different tonal characteristics than the original source files.  These elements will then be arranged into sound banks, with specifications for the overall track, again, employing all these aforementioned combinatory possibilities.
Similarly, images will be sourced in order to help establish the “mood” of each piece, functioning essentially as an 11th parameter. These images will be Google grabs off the Web. The search parameters for these Google grabs will employ the old style cut-up method of Gysin and Burroughs, requiring the Engineer to apply scissors to the text of this very proposal document and to cut the pages into quarters, then dropping them into a hat, and then typing into the search field the first phrase read from a slip of paper as it is drawn from a hat.  The image-grabs will then also undergo chance parameters (transparency, enlargement, cropping, inverse, hue/saturation, etc.) via the Web interface. The final permutations of these images will later serve as the basis of the packaging artwork for the final CD product. The recording and final CD product serve as a phonautograph of both the participants and the process. The idea that participation creates the influence of the overall product is central to the process, and works reflexively upon itself.