Transcript


0:40
watching this video and of course
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hearing it sounds may have left you is
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confused and is irritated as my parents
0:47
felt when I started tinkering with
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electronics years ago in high school
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they are not sounds that we typically
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deem Musical or even pleasant nor is the
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process of inviting noise and air and
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irregularity into our relationships with
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technology I'll particularly enjoyable
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experience but for many circuit benders
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these experiences are instructive
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powerful and expressive further because
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I've been circuit bending and tinkering
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with electronics for much longer than
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I've been in academic the practice
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philosophies of circuit bending have
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always lived in and impacted my
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practices as a researcher teacher and
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rhetoric the more ma and I discussed
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circuit bending and our own approaches
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to rhetoric and composition the more we
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realized that bringing some of these
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philosophy practices to life in a
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relation to our freely was a worthwhile
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endeavor for this special issue entirely
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an ani circuit bent as casio sk1 and
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began making connections between the
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work of cubase Reed Ghazala the pioneer
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circuit bending and rhetoric and
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Composition circuit bending was an
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accidental discovery in Cincinnati Ohio
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in the late 1960s this is the circuit
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not the instrument with the circuit that
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started the whole circuit bending
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revolution in 1966-67 that circuit
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shorted out in my desk drawer started
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making
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very strange oscillating sweeping sounds
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over and over again immediately I
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thought if that can happen by accident
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what might happen on purpose if I began
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shorting battery-powered audio
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electronics shorting it out here there
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and everywhere and that led to what I
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ended up calling circuit bending and
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when I came up with the term circuit
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bending it was actually based upon the
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idea of mind-bending a mind-bending
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experience this is what we talked about
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back then so circuit bending sort of
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came out of that idea
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so that's the cash it's k 1 so basically
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all you all about good stuff is going to
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be here because this is the sound
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synthesis chip and so all of these
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little leads are running out
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and by stability I mean
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circuit bending it's spilling king in
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circuitry it's noodling around an
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exploration of something it's so
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intimate and something that's so
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surprising it's like a Leah toric
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parallel worlds within a circuit that
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really aren't don't exists aren't
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supposed to exist i guess but they're
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they're so circuit bending is the act or
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art or craft of short circuiting
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electronic devices to create new
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instruments we should also mention that
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this practice is not limited to
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keyboards artists have done work with
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speaking spells and other vintage
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children's toys video mixers Nintendo's
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and countless other electronic devices
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ghazala coined the term circuit bending
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in about two thousand four in his
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article the folk music of chance
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electronics circuit bending in the
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modern coconut and published a
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comprehensive circuit bending book in
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2005 outlining philosophies practices
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tutorials and techniques while ghazala
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and certainly others have written and
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spoken in many ways about the practice
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philosophies of circuit bending we want
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to talk about two of them here focusing
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specifically on the craft of circuit
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bending and its relation to rhetoric and
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composition practices my technique
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focuses on everybody and you know
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circuit bending has if it's leveled the
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playing field it has become every man's
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technique for creating for prototyping
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audio circuitry so that's one of the
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reasons I think it's spread like
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wildfire you don't have to pay for it
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anyone can do it you can learn it nearly
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instantly but you know the beauty of
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circuit bending is that it is not a dish
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wire days filled art with this wire goes
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here you end up with a bunch of replicas
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or duplications of the same circuit so
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that's not what I'm about and that's not
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what circuit bending is about
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while bending the sk1 Stephen and I
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talked a lot about the popularity of
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this keyboard primarily because of its
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affordability for the average consumer
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in the 1980s and now found easily at
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thrift stores and garage sales for about
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five dollars what was interesting to us
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was the act of taking this mass produced
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object and turning it into something
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personal and handcrafted while bending
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the keyboard it became a unique thing
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there's only one sk1 in the world with
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these particular sounds and mannerisms
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there are risks and rewards when we play
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with our new instrument we compose with
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it not on it we begin to experience some
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of the joys and failures of the
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composition process invention and
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arrangement becomes something other than
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intentional we experience something
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we've begun to call the aesthetics of
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irregularity for those in rhetoric and
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Composition circles this is an
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interesting way to approach designed
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communication it's a way to balance the
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how-to technical side of communication
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with a more rhetorical approach I'm
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thinking specifically about how Charles
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coastal Nick warns that if technology is
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only a tool a means to an end
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instructors need to be wary about
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letting it sabotage student learning by
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truncating the invention process and
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curbing the students inclination to
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think creatively and flexibly about
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design solutions inviting practices like
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circuit bending in the classroom
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privileged invention or X of discovery /
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convention or the way things are usually
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done entering the composition process
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from this place students are freed from
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the usual small structured set of
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conventional forms circuit bending D
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cannon izes the process of making
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there's no fear of doing something the
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right way it helps students enter into
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conversations about the nature of
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conventions and rhetorical situations
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while it also Foster's students aptitude
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for creativity and invention
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with circuit bending there you there is
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no presumption because you you don't
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know what's going to happen so you
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become an immediate part of the music
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whatever that might be and you know that
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there's a challenge to that but but
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there is there's a mystery and a reward
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that I've kind of not knowing what's
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going to happen here ghazala discusses
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the joys of losing control as a composer
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and a performer in the ways that circuit
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bending requires one's attention to a
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collaborative complex and highly
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illogical way of making in his other
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work he articulates the bsafe or
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bioelectric audio Sapien a hybrid
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species that emerges as benders make
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their bodies part of the circuitry the
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circuit bender is quite literally
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participating in networks of relation
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among prefabricated instruments points
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on the circuit board wires switches
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resistors even the human body these
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relations do not yield to the intention
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of the author they divide they become a
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new rhetorical situation a new
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rhetorical body suddenly and clearly the
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author and instrument are no longer
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distinct posthumanism actor network
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theory object-oriented ontology and
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object-oriented rhetoric all echo this
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awareness calling for an understanding
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and practice of rhetoric that accounts
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for more complex networks of human and
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non-human agents that Co construct
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meaning
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in sharing this piece on the art and the
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craft of circuit bending we hope to
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invite others into conversations
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conversations about the composing
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process especially with regard to
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invention intentionality glitch and
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irregularity conversations about what
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happens when you bring circuit bending
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and other forms of experimental art
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practices into composition classrooms
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in conversations about networks and
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object-oriented practices specifically
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how meaning is co constructed with
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non-human asians
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you