Circuit Bending
Topics:
-What is circuit bending?
-Circuit bending as a learning tool.
-What is the difference between circuit bending and circuit modification?
What is circuit bending?
Circuit bending is an experimental process of short circuiting electronics for the purpose of discovering unintended, often bizarre functionalities. It exploits the malfunctions found, most often in digital circuitry, when the circuit is “confused” by crossing data signals. The effects range from garbled audio output to random melody generation and lots in between. In many cases the results are shockingly bizarre and unexpected.
Although the practice of bending is relatively simple, the appeal is far reaching.
For the musician and artist, circuit bending can be appreciated for the novel sounds produced in the process or the striking visual presence of a heavily altered, once common, electrical device.
From the view point of the bender one enjoys the liberation found in modifying mass produced electronics and making them ones own.
In an academic arena it can be appreciated for it’s inventive approach to electrical engineering, the encouragement it gives to question the concept of obsolescence, the recycling of discarded technologies.
Some of the most profound significance of bending comes when it grants the viewer a glimpse into a world that exists just below the surface of a world the think they know and know on a very personal level, for circuit bending is most often targets children’s toys as creative fodder. Children’s toys which many viewers have grown with and then outgrown and discarded. Here is where the perceptual shift that bending offers can begin.
Bending encourages people to explore the world around them more closely, to question what is shown versus what is possible. It invites creative manipulation and exploration of what we are given and encourages people to create something expressive and unique from even the most common and mundane.
For these reasons, I think of circuit bending as a creative approach rather than a technical process. It may not be too dramatic to call it a philosophy. One that encourages deeper consideration and personal reclamation of a world which is fast losing it’s uniqueness and finding in it’s place faceless product and manufactured identity. OR one might say that bending is simply a fun way of building weird sound gadgets. That’s the joy of the medium, you can delve as deeply into theory as you want or simply enjoy the process.
Circuit bending as a learning tool:
Circuit bending is a creative approach to exploring a technical medium. In many ways it mimics the approach one might take to learning how to paint.
Arguably the best way to learn either of these mediums is to jump in and start exploring. One need not deeply understand the chemical make up of the paints they use in order to begin painting. In this same way one need not understand the complex theory involved in electronics in order to start bending.
Ideally as one spends more time with either of these mediums they will begin to gain a more intimate understanding of technique and theory.
What is the difference between circuit bending and circuit modification?
There is a distinct difference between the two although they often informally share the same definition.
Bending is to “confuse” digital circuitry. It is an experimental process, the results are unknown for which many benders are grateful. A known outcome holds no surprise.
Modification is a more informed and deliberate process and often is performed by replacing or adding circuitry. Common examples of useful mods are the addition of an a pitch adjustment or audio output jack and volume control . These require a basic understanding of the circuit, some simple rewiring and sometimes some component replacement or addition. Mods are not necessarily exploiting any glitch within the operation of the circuitry, they are simply increasing access to and depth of existing functionality. Mods and bends work very well together and the approach taken in each process brings practices useful in the other. Often bending gains from a bit more deliberation and modding gains from a bit more exploration. I think that the ideal is a seamless combination of processes