Reverse Engineering - circuit bending.

Following on from the brief glance of physical computing, reverse engineering has been another avenue I've come across a number of times in digital and interactive art. Circuit bending is one of the forms of reverse engineering that I've had some practical insight to during my undergraduate Fine Art course. I also saw it in a performance context, which I can only describe as a plethora of glitchy sound rhythms and pretty lights - nonetheless entertaining (and audibly harsh).

Defined as a practice, circuit bending is the application of short circuits on electronic devices for the purpose of creative improvement. It's frequently done with cheap products that usually have an audio output. There's no end to the possibilities in which it is applied, which I can personally confirm from one workshop that use of animal meat can also work to alter the sound produced by electronic hardware. 

Reed Ghazala - The Father of Circuit Bending

You'll spot in this video how even human flesh can be used as a conductor for cheap circuit bent hardware, but this work with simpler items like crocodile clips. 

Circuit bending extends broadly into music as well, and flourishes with results rooted in chiptune, 8-bit music and others. The Bonington basement sound studio has other software like Reason, Logic, Reaktor and Ableton Live, which will undoubtedly prove helpful in this respect. You don't necessarily need software like that to bring sound into circuit bending, but they may help in generating an extensive multitude of sounds that can be incorporated into circuit bent devices. These devices in turn can probably react to external influence and alter accordingly, depending on what is produced and applied.