Let the Circuit-Bending Challenge begin!
It’s on! The Circuit-bending challenge is officially underway!
A quick review of the guidelines:
1. Bicycle, walk, or swim to your nearest secondhand store.
2. Locate and purchase a cheap electronic noisemaking device.
3. Take it home and bend that thang!
4. Document the process and end result, then upload it to the internet in some fashion- Youtube, Flickr, etc, all with the tag “circuitchallenge.” (and createdigitalmusic, of course). Still images, audio, and video are all fair game. Bonus points for all 3.
5. Add a comment to this post with links to your entry. I will add them to the post itself as they are received.
You have until midnight on Sunday. Go!*
(* or whenever you like, because we don’t know what time zone you’re in … see comments for further disclaimers.)
An auto-updating slideshow of all flickr’d entries can be seen at getlofi.com, thanks to the esteemed Circuit Master.
Here are the entries, in order received:
Zombie Jesus by Ryan J:
Link
Mini-Furby by George Lazenbleep (With excellent documentation!):
Link
Mystery Black Box by Evil Paul:
Link
Plastic Guitar by Stephen Haunts:
Audio
Link
The Monster by El Colin
Zapper by Vanillatray:
Link
Circuit Bent Toy Guitar by Johan & Lukas Larsby (bonus points for hilarious video):
Some kind of bleepy, blinky thing from BRIAN!
Images
A Saxophone from Fin, which died in the process:
Audio
Link
Squelchbox knocks it outta the park with “The15 Puzzle”:
Images
Burnkit gear’s Kawa Clone:
Link w/audio
Octatone’s 99-cent guitar:
Link
Kubton’s Little Tykes Keyboard:
Audio
Link
VJ Anomolee destroys the Easy Button:
Video
Link
Here’s my own personal contribution to the day: A Prenatal Heart Listener
Looks like some fierce competition already- keep those entries coming!
[Ed. note: We left out a reference to Reed Ghazala's superb book on the topic in our story the other day, so let me mention it again. Reed's Circuit Bending tome
61 Comments
Leave a CommentStephen Haunts
“You have until midnight on Sunday. Go! ”
Some of us in different time zones might be late :-)
October 27, 2007 @ 1:15 pm
octatone
Two days? And I thought it was a one day bendathon.
October 27, 2007 @ 1:19 pm
Peter Kirn
Let me be clear — we’re musicians. Our, erm, sense of deadlines is fluid even WITHOUT time zones mucking things up. And as I’m regularly collaborating with Australia (Jaymis in particular), I sure don’t know what day it is any more. So even if you’re on Mike’s Chicago Standard Time, bend the guidelines of this bending challenge as much as your, uh, bending.
That means right now, or several hours ago, or several hours from now you may officially begin this one or two day challenge until such time as comes the stroke of midnight in Greenwich, or Greenwich, Connecticut, or somewhere with really nice bells on Sunday or Monday if you put things off because the stores were closed Sunday and your significant other wanted to do something other than bending or maybe you really started a bit early but can go until a few hours later when you’re done.
Void where prohibited, unless you’re a bada** and want to bend the rules, in which case unprohibit that sucker.
So, yeah, just bend something nowish / soonish and you’re good.
October 27, 2007 @ 4:54 pm
ryan j
Well I didn’t have a lot of time this weekend so I decided to do a quick little hard bend and add some LEDs to a Tales of Glory Talking Jesus Doll.
All I could find was pitch up, and pitch down points. No glitch points to be found on this minimal black blob toy.
Sorry for the low quality photos, but it’s better than none at all. :)
Photos:
http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/shuutobi/ZombieJesus/
Video: (The LEDs are brighter IRL)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sKMBbiBDYc4
October 27, 2007 @ 4:56 pm
ryan j
Er… here is a photo slideshow:
http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/shuutobi/ZombieJesus/?action=view¤t=2c04f78d.pbw
October 27, 2007 @ 5:18 pm
george lazenbleep
the evidence is here;
http://www.haha-fresh.blogspot.com
October 27, 2007 @ 6:05 pm
Evil Paul
Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30553515@N00/tags/circuitbendingchallenge/
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTSossXPYNo
Audio
Waiting for my Freesound uploads to be approved
Bloggage
http://evilpaul.vox.com/library/post/circuit-bending-challenge-completed.html
October 28, 2007 @ 6:34 am
Thomas
Any possibility to bend it and evidence it tomorrow? I’m working a show today/tonight and all the shops are closed. :/
October 28, 2007 @ 10:25 am
Peter Kirn
Thomas: totally. Even here in NY, some of my favorite shops are closed. I can’t imagine what happens for people living in Paris, etc.
So, yes, we totally, absolutely expect to do Bending Challenge Day 2 tomorrow / Monday.
October 28, 2007 @ 11:30 am
Keith Handy
I love sentences like that. :)
October 28, 2007 @ 11:44 am
Stephen Haunts
Here is my entry for the challenge. It was a bit of a pain because the charity shops in my local town were closed, but I found some toys from earlier on in the year that I hadn’t bend yet.
Hope you like. There is an mp3 clip to listen too also :-)
http://thehauntedhouse.blogspot.com/2007/10/circuit-bending-challenge.html
October 28, 2007 @ 12:29 pm
El Colin
Circuit Bending Challenge!
Experience the sweetness feel to flying the music sea!
I haven’t bent anything in a couple months because I just relocated. To South Korea. This got me moving. I feel great knowing that people are going through the some of the crap I had to go through to make this awesome thing in one day. Lack of supplies kills me, but it made it special and even more of a challenge. I am happy with the end result. “The Monster” I suppose is fitting for the result.
My blog has pictures, the video of the final product and a bonus video diary type thing of my running around crazy all day.
http://whereheremeetsthere.blogspot.com/2007/10/el-colin-and-circuit-bending-challenge.html
My partner in circuits should be posting one soon as well:
http://whereheremeetsthere.blogspot.com/
The video of the final product is here also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WVMUnlOTVY
The video of the process is here also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHW4q199et8
October 28, 2007 @ 1:15 pm
van
http://vanillatray.blogspot.com/2007/10/circuit-bending-challenge-10-28-07.html
Here is my entry. Links to the youtube and flickr can be found on there.
October 28, 2007 @ 1:21 pm
van
Rather, I’ll just do this
Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Xtq0fAWRE
Flickr:
http://flickr.com/photos/vanillatray/sets/72157602764280082/
Thanks!!
October 28, 2007 @ 1:23 pm
Stephen Haunts
Hi Michael, I think you have put the wrong link on for my plastic guitar on the above post. oops :-)
Steve
October 28, 2007 @ 1:40 pm
Johan Larsby
My entry here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0ERkorfMBk
I’d just like to say that you other guys stuff are awesome!
October 28, 2007 @ 1:43 pm
Michael Una
oops! Sorry Stephen, link is fixed. Thanks for the heads-up.
October 28, 2007 @ 1:46 pm
Stephen Haunts
No worries :-)
October 28, 2007 @ 1:47 pm
Peter Kirn
Okay, my jaw is on the floor.
You folks are freaking amazing.
I still encourage simple hacks, just to make the rest of us feel a little less n00bular. :D So keep them coming in!
Peter
October 28, 2007 @ 1:54 pm
El Colin
Hi Mike!
This was a great time! Why didn’t you do this sooner? -
My video isn’t up with the others.
“The Monster” by El Colin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WVMUnlOTVY
Thanks for the opportunity!
It was awesome!
Can’t wait to see the other bends!
October 28, 2007 @ 1:57 pm
Fin
Just spent 6 hours on bending a saxophone toy and it just broke. Lorddd… Erggg… :(
October 28, 2007 @ 3:43 pm
ryan j
Don’t feel too bad, I’ve toasted an sk-1 before. :(
October 28, 2007 @ 3:58 pm
Stephen Haunts
Ahh bad luck Fin. Post some pics anyway!! I had a soldering accident with mine. Left the iron on a lead to long and it fell out the board. Got it back in eventually. lol
October 28, 2007 @ 3:58 pm
Igloo Martian
“so, I am in”
but just got done with work- will post my bend in a while- purchased a noise toy at the “will”- Now-will start the mayhem!!! ok-she is a little lame- but what can you do, when its all chance!
cool man
igloo
October 28, 2007 @ 4:00 pm
Peter Kirn
Yes, “bending casualties” are just as welcome in this challenge. Keeps it real.
October 28, 2007 @ 4:05 pm
BRIAN!
heres the link to my flickr gallery of it. youtube soon!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16726222@N03/sets/72157602770745652/
October 28, 2007 @ 5:52 pm
Michael Una
And…. I just killed mine. Lemme see if I can resurrect it.
October 28, 2007 @ 6:18 pm
Fin
Haha… okay here’s my casualty.
http://ceido.co.uk/?p=20
October 28, 2007 @ 6:54 pm
BRIAN!
heres the video of it in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6sQUftrCl0
last night when we were playing with it our hall light was flickering and it was making awesome noises with the LDR. i will take and post another video of it with the flickering light tonight.
CHOICE!
October 28, 2007 @ 10:45 pm
squelchbox
Here we go. The vids still uploading to youtube but the pics made it to flickr by 11:30, whew 8)
http://www.flickr.com/squelchbox
October 28, 2007 @ 11:48 pm
burnkit gear » kawa-klone
[...] Here’s a red kawasaki clone keyboard. Black blob inside. My entry into the circuit challenge. [...]
October 28, 2007 @ 11:55 pm
octatone
Hooray for blobs!
Mine finished is here: http://createdigitalnoise.com/viewtopic.php?t=1481&start=15#7332
October 29, 2007 @ 1:05 am
octatone
And i YouTube’d it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUpRzfYTWVU
October 29, 2007 @ 1:53 am
Kubton
Rats a few minutes late. I tried but life intervened.
Anyway my (late)entry is is here:
http://kubton.com/cbc.html
Had fun doing it and seeing other creations.
October 29, 2007 @ 2:35 am
squelchbox
Here’s the vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfSzqeA2Rek
Rock and roll
Squelchbox
October 29, 2007 @ 8:37 am
Kevin Rees
Here’s my entries:
Photos
Short video of the results
I also posted a bit on my website, but it’s showing the post for today even though I posted it yesterday. I will be doing more of a write up on it as we did it as kind of a bending workshop, even though I pretty much bent everything.
Thanks!
-Kevin
October 29, 2007 @ 9:17 am
Kevin Rees
I put in a long comment with links to everything I did, but it says that it went to spam. Hopefully it will get caught, and put up.
October 29, 2007 @ 9:29 am
Peter Kirn
I think what’s happening is our spam filter is getting freaked out by all the links. :)
If ANYONE has problems, they can email me directly, peter (at) create digital music (dot) com. I can actually recover your comment pretty easily from the spam filter; I just need to know who it is and that it’s there because we get hundreds of spam comments per hour. (really!)
October 29, 2007 @ 9:33 am
Kevin Rees
Hey Peter,
Thanks for fixing that for me, and for being part of getting this event going. I’m looking forward to next time/year (if there is one) so I can focus on just mine piece since I ended up bending 4 things.
-Kevin
October 29, 2007 @ 9:38 am
Peter Kirn
There will definitely have to be a next time! We may even want other themed challenges; this was really amazing.
And to everybody else, still keep sending in those late entries — we’ll have a round up real soon now, so everyone not currently in the story above, I think we’ll just have a master story with everything. Or something. Working on that. :)
October 29, 2007 @ 9:46 am
Michael Una
All right, all entries up until now should be posted. Drop me or Peter a line if your entry didn’t get in there.
My own creations died, both of them. I was going to enter as “exhibition” anyway, not actualy competing, but oh well.
That’s the way the circuit crumbles.
October 29, 2007 @ 9:59 am
Kevin Rees
Yeah, my first one ended up being a dud as well, so I had to go and get a replacement that wasn’t nearly as interesting. That’s a good representation of circuit bending though, because you just never fully know what will happen once you start.
October 29, 2007 @ 10:07 am
octatone
Yeah, I spent an hour or two trying to bend a leapfrog toy and never got it to do anything. Also, I was kind of ticked at the amount of completely broken toys at the huge Goodwill by my place. But I did see a bent boombox out in the wild: http://flickr.com/photos/74116646@N00/1794445069/
Can’t wait for your themed challenges. Kudos everyone! Someone should throw all the bends up on a wiki for future reference. I know I’ll be putting some of these items on my buy it if you see it list.
October 29, 2007 @ 10:15 am
loss1234
OK
Here is my entry. If anyone knows where i can post samples, please let me know. i dont have a video camera.
i just started bending this summer, so i am still very new to this.
Anyway , my unit incorporates a homemade cd4001 lfo i tucked away inside a breakout box, its got pitch and lfo speed, and a 1/4″ output. its a really cool bend and I am so glad i did the contest. I had to work late so this had to get posted this morning.
here is the link to the photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13918667@N02/sets/72157602785152649/
if you want to hear it, just email me at
subjectivity@hotmail.com
October 29, 2007 @ 10:17 am
octatone
You can upload quickly to archive.org
October 29, 2007 @ 10:22 am
Igloo Martian
There was nothing too great from my toy find from yesterday! The results can be found on my myspace/igloomartian. It was fun-
cool man
Igloo
October 29, 2007 @ 10:42 am
loss1234
http://www.archive.org/details/CircuitChallenge
here is the soundbite of my circuit challenge monster
October 29, 2007 @ 10:59 am
octatone
BTW, when can we get together and do some guitar ensemble playing guys?
October 29, 2007 @ 11:33 am
salamanderanagram
here’s mine…
http://circuitbent.wikispaces.com/Casio+MT-35
October 29, 2007 @ 11:38 am
salamanderanagram
and here’s the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxDes3KH4V0
October 29, 2007 @ 11:41 am
Rob The Fiddler
Here ya go…I tried to post this last night, the submit called it spam. Youtube and flickr stuff was posted before midnight (webpage was updated with some samples just past midnight).
http://www.robthefiddler.com/electronics-audio-diy/circuit-experiments/circuit-challenge/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKmo9Rf-n0k
October 29, 2007 @ 12:02 pm
reid
here is a blog post of my bent challenger:
http://whereheremeetsthere.blogspot.com
i finished it at 3am after a whole day of adventures (power outages, broken heating, etc, etc) and was to tired to edit together a video, but ill get that up on youtube shortly.
October 29, 2007 @ 12:58 pm
Momo the Monster
Woot! Just got my photos up using Bubblr:
http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/?id=10184
You can see all those pix on flickr under the tag ‘circuitbendingchallenge’ as well, of course - but those are not yet annotated.
October 29, 2007 @ 2:31 pm
reid
my video on youtube just processed!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7_AFSvKXw4
October 29, 2007 @ 3:37 pm
Kevin Rees
Blurb on my webpage now…
here
October 29, 2007 @ 3:50 pm
octatone
Added to the 99-cent guitar and found some more noise it makes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BqvB44×9hI
October 29, 2007 @ 4:27 pm
octatone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BqvB44×9hI
Oh here it is :P
October 29, 2007 @ 4:49 pm
octatone
What the fridge …
that “i” or “l” needs to be a capitol I at the end … your comment system is thwarting me :P
October 29, 2007 @ 4:50 pm
octatone
got it. in the source the commet seystem is trying to convert the link into html or unicode entities. just copy and paste that link and it will work.
October 29, 2007 @ 4:52 pm
GetLoFi - “bent bent bent Circuit Bent Bending Synth DIY” » Welcome to the Circuit Bending Challenge 2007
[...] Big Thanks to Mike Una for suggesting, the Circuit Bending Challenge 2007. Peter Kirn of CDM for hosting the forums and to everyone for playing along. Keep those submissions coming of you haven’t posted already. In the mean time we’re gonna start deliberating on the winners. –CM [...]
October 29, 2007 @ 8:29 pm
octatone
okay last video I promise:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZIcE21TlXUg
October 29, 2007 @ 9:26 pm
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