The classic bending devices are the texas instruments ti speak and spell maths read range of kiddies educational toys. Keyboards with eyeballs, circuit bending info and book. Circuit bending media archaeology into an art method. He can often be found writing music, sculpting, taking photos, hunting mushrooms, building things that fly, or indulging in other creative pursuits as befits a true. Build your own alien instruments by reed ghazalawhile out of print, copies of this book can be found online. Circuit bending is the creative, chancebased customization of the circuits within electronic devices such as lowvoltage, batterypowered guitar effects, childrens toys and digital synthesizers to create new musical or visual instruments and sound generators. This is done by giving it an historical background, and by relating it to aesthetic theories and practices. Revolutionizing the ears victoria nguyen circuit bending. In 1992, he coined the term for a series of articles in. Any interesting sounds found in this way will be charted directly on.
Bug brand bristolbased tom bugs makes and sells circuit. Reed ghazala on free learning, teaching reed ghazala himself talks to cdm. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading circuit bending. The author describes the philosophy and art of circuitbending. Short circuiting an electronic device more than likely happened before, but reed saw its potential as something more. At the end of the chapter on the sk 60 testing he mentions lightly that depressing the defibulator button for more then a quick second can fry the circuit. Our goal is to instruct individuals with no prior experience in computing or engineering in. In order to show the practical part of circuit bending, four experiments are carried out. Circuitbending is a folk expression of randomly conceived analog electronic music. Pdf podcast, youll download a good chunk of circuitbending instructions. Circuit bending build your own alien instruments extremetech pdf. We head to the queen city cincinnati, ohio to talk to the man largely considered the father of circuit bending. Reed ghazala, antitheory, anti theory, antitheory workshop, photon clarinet, vox insecta, circuit bending, circuit bending, father of circuit bending, incantor.
The other ti toys are slightly more rare, but are equally wonderful to play. Ghazala himself was not the first to practice it, but he did conceive the term circuit bending. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading circuitbending. Tv takes a look at reed ghazala, the creator of circuit bending. Reed ghazala is an instrument builder and the selfstyled oaleatorico chance composer who, as a teenager in the mid1960s, stumbled upon the power of creatively shortcircuited analog sound devices. Reed ghazala developed the technique of circuit bending in 1967, following the chance encounter of a transistorized amplifier with an unidentified object in his desk drawer. The art of circuit bending is, by tradition and by its very nature, more experimental. Circuit bending started by accident in 1966 when reed ghazalas 9v batterypowered amplifier shorted out in his highschool desk drawer. An ethnography circuitbending university of minnesota. Speaknspells turn up regularly at car boot sales or on ebay, but have become somewhat overpriced due to the popularity of circuit bending. Written by a circuitbending pioneer, this book goes into much greater detail about the ideas introduced in this zine sparkfun is a great online resource for broader concepts like circuits. Reed ghazala the guy that invented circuit bending in.
After much exploration, he subsequently owrote the booko on circuitbending. The term circuit bending was coined by qubais reed ghazala in the article circuitbending and. Circuit bending is the creative, chancebased customization of the circuits within electronic devices such as lowvoltage, batterypowered guitar effects, childrens toys and digital synthesizers to create new musical or visual instruments and sound generators emphasizing spontaneity and randomness, the techniques of circuit bending have been commonly. Qubais reed ghazala has been circuit bending since the 60s. Qubais reed ghazala born 1953, an american author, photographer, composer, musician and experimental instrument builder, is recognized as the father of circuit bending, by whom. Circuit bending article about circuit bending by the. In particular, we have targeted students 912 years of age from underserved communities to help these students in circuit bending ghazala, 2004 the process of handmodifying battery powered childrens toys to build custom electronic instruments. Qubais reed ghazala, the folk music of chance electronics. The sounds of bent and broken circuits, sound studies, 2, 1 2016. The circuitbent instrument, often a rewired audio toy or game, is an alien. This text seeks to show why circuit bending can be considered an aesthetic phenomenon.
City cincinnati, ohio to talk to the man largely considered the father of circuit bending. Qubais reed ghazala, ghazala 2004 circuit %20bending. The online extra for that feature has additional bending resources. Sound on sound march 2000 feature on reed ghazalas circuitbending instrument design techniques, by sam inglis reed ghazala designing circuitbent instruments in these days of sampling, dsp and physical modelling, you might think that building your own electronic instruments would be a daunting prospect. This artist is claimed to be the father of circuit bending. As it happened, just at this moment, i came across an ad for a circuit bending workshop, which i decided to attend. Circuit bending article about circuit bending by the free.
Arius blaze and qubais reed ghazala are two of the main circbend dudes i think. Ive been accused of starting the first electronic art movement, ghazala told us back in 2010. The origin of the technique of creating instruments from found electronic sources is difficult. This pdf file is a great abstract about the fretless zithers industry of the 19th century, including old ads with. Build your own alien instruments, authorreed ghazala, year2005 reed ghazala published 2005. Circuitbending is an electronic art which implements creative audio short circuiting. After a brief preliminary discussion of the beauty of chance and the rhythm of trains on tracks, reed ghazala goes on the describe his trigon incantor see his article on the incantor in emi september 1992. You can find much of circuit bending info there, although my understanding of it partly differs from his one. Starting from his first foray into chance electronics during his junior high school years, he details both his method of working and the wealth of instruments that have resulted. Build your own alien instruments extremetech book 15. Sep 14, 2018 it was pioneered as a method of making music by musician and technologist reed ghazala in the 1960s.
Build your own alien instruments extremetech book 15, reed ghazala, ebook. Reed takes us into his workshop where we get a glimpse into his world of circuit bending, exploring the history and evolution of this art. View notes circuit bending from com 300 at mcnally smith college of music. An introduction to circuit bending by tom bugs tom. Build your own alien instruments, author reed ghazala, year2005 reed ghazala published 2005.
Build your own alien instruments in some cases, they are either unpublished in the journal itself or published in an abbreviated form in the journal. It was pioneered as a method of making music by musician and technologist reed ghazala in the 1960s. Circuit bending is a folk expression of randomly conceived analog electronic music. His page is pictures, sound clips, and general bending info. Circuitbending is the electronic art of the implementation of the creative audio shortcircuit, explains ghazala. Reed ghazala developed the technique of circuitbending in 1967, following the chance encounter of a transistorized amplifier with an unidentified object in his. The thoughtful ghazala strolls down memory lane for some. Reed ghazala armored now against attacks, the instrument settled into this. Build your own alien instruments extremetech by reed ghazala isbn. Circuit bending as an aesthetic phenomenon semantic scholar. Reed ghazala, antitheory, anti theory, antitheory workshop, photon clarinet, vox insecta, circuitbending, circuit bending, father of circuitbending, incantor.
We travel to cincinnati, ohio, to meet with reed ghazala, the founder and father of circuit bending. Hes credited with documenting the first known bent device as we know it. Jul 31, 2014 first, lets revisit reed ghazala, whos been called the father of circuit bending. Le circuit bending designe lactivite qui consiste a. Arius blaze qubais reed ghazala experimental television center. Band heavily into circuit bending old games consoles, analogue synthesisers and other gear.
Circuit bending circuit bending revolutionizing the ears. Circuit bending pdf besides circuitbending, ghazala also pioneers work in pho tography. Sep 16, 2008 we head to the queen city cincinnati, ohio to talk to the man largely considered the father of circuit bending. Machinenoise machinenoise showcases works by artists replicating an artform pioneered by reed ghazala around 1966. So the story of the creation of the bentsoundspa is also the story of my day at the wonderful music hackspace in cremer street, london. Circuit bending started by accident in 1966 when reed ghazala s 9v batterypowered amplifier shorted out in his highschool desk drawer.
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