The Atari Punk Console is one of DIY sonic electronics’ all-time greatest hits. Designed by Forrest M. Mims III — the brilliant electronics artist and engineer whose hand-drawn books were once promoted in Radio Shack — the “Stepped Tone Generator” as it was originally called is an excellent circuit for first-timers or those wanting something simple and adaptable. You can read up on the APC over on Wikipedia, with some good links to what the circuit does.

The Cracklebox is, similarly, a “greatest hit” of electrical noisemaking, a simple, self-contained synthesizer with speakers.

Put them together and add some comic art, and you’ve got the creation you see above, created by Massimiliano Farnea, aka maxfarnea. It’s been watching over the site from the CDM Flickr pool (which has various other stuff like this, as does the pool for our friends at MAKE and some other Flickr pools). So I had to know more. Here’s a quick preview from its creator — and the story behind that fantastic illustration:

The exceptional Masayuki Akamatsu, best known around these parts as the maker of the wonderful aka.objects for Max for hooking into Wii remotes, Space Navigators, MacBook motion sensors, and more, gets an in-depth interview over at the Make:blog. They even manage to bridge the language barrier and translate to English.

“Made in Japan” Interview: Masayuki Akamatsu

The digital maestro talks about Max, the future of technology in the micro- and macrocosm, and his live-soldering electronic Breadboard Band.

He also has this to say about the darker side of technology in Japan:

This depends on the generation, but I think that in particular young people in Japan for most part think of electronic devices as being disposable. The pace of consumption and greed is pretty astonishing, and they probably aren’t even aware of it consciously.

I think there’s a growing awareness of this issue here, as well.

One bone to pick: he claims Max, compared to the open source Pure Data, is “overwhelmingly better in terms of function, extendability, etc.” I think that easily applies that to the areas of interface and documentation, but Pd has some functionality and extensibility tricks of its own — more “different” than “better” (and arguably, Pd is better in some areas). But he has done some fantastic things with Max, so I certainly see no reason to argue with his choice of tools.

Thanks, Make, for the great interview. Anyone you’d like to see on CDM’s interview list? Any volunteer translators for people of the rest of the world?

Ed.: Circuit bending too destructive for you? Don’t let that scare you away from this year’s Bent Festival, in NYC, LA, and Minneapolis. Key pioneering circuit benders like founding artist Reed Ghazala are quick to argue that bending is a creative, not a destructive act — though some more radical benders might disagree. You say creation, she says destruction — let’s call the whole thing off: this year, handmade instruments and art of all kinds are welcome, say conference organizers, who are…

… continuing to open the Bent Festival to performers and artists that create their own electronics as well as to those who hack, bend, modify and destroy them

Full details:

The Tank is currently accepting proposals for Bent 2008: The Fifth Annual Circuit Bending Festival:

Announcing the winners of the 2007 Circuit-Bending Challenge!

Note: All the entries were excellent, and we have a little prize lined up for all of you, not just these top picks. *See below for details

It was very hard to choose three winners from all of the entries- the variety and quality of submissions was amazing. So, we tried to select those that most embodied the spirit of the contest- creativity, within a set time limit, and using only those materials that can be scraped together quickly.

And that didn’t narrow it down much. It was a tough call to be sure, and it makes me think that we’ll be seeing increased stiff competition next year. So, while these three will receive a special prize, we’ve got something lined up for everyone who participated.

Without further delay (ahem), here are the top 3 entries in no particular order:

George Lazenbleep’s Mini Furby:

El Colin’s Bent Guitar:

And Squelchbox’s “The 15 Puzzle”:

Since I forgot to do this at the beginning of the contest-
everyone who entered, please use the createdigitalmusic contact form and send us a message containing the following information:

• Your name
• Your display name
• The piece you submitted to the contest
• Your address and contact info (email is fine)

I will be in touch to make sure you receive your prizes in the mail.

Thanks again to everyone for participating, thanks to our generous prize-donating benefactors, and let’s do this again next year!

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Furby and Jesus, keyboards and guitars and laser gun blasters, pre-natal heart monitors, toys and instruments and strange unidentifiable electronics — in one day, all these things evolved from one thing into … something else. Babies and bigger adult people took to their shops, spent huge amounts of money (one dollar! two dollars!), and came up with remarkable designs. Some were beginners trying their first simple bends, some were serious builders, constructing really playable (if glitchable), convincing instruments. If you’ve never considered bending before, this could change/blow your mind. And for bending lovers, we have quite a range. Thanks to our friend Circuit Master at GetLoFi and Mike Una here on CDM, here come pages of results from the Circuit Bending Challenge I… -PK

(See also GetLoFi’s round-up, especially if you like all your videos on one page.)

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:

Los Angeles readers, Surya Buchwald aka Momo the Monster writes to let us know he’s taking on the Circuit Bending Challenge live and in person, with a workshop. So if you were feeling squeamish about the challenge and want some assistance, this good be a great opportunity. Please help spread the word, wonderful Californians!

Join us for our Next Share.LA!
October 28th is the Circuit Bending challenge, as posted on Create Digital Music. The challenge is to buy a lo-tech music toy, hack it and document it, and upload the results all in one day! Tell you what - I won’t penalize you for buying your toy early or using one you already have. Never circuit-bent anything before? Don’t know anything about electronics? Great! I’m quite an amateur myself, but I know enough to help you get bending - and I’ve got the tools and parts you need. Directions on the Basswerks site.

Share.LA

If any other municipalities want to organize similar events, even informal ones, let me know and I’ll update here. But events aren’t strictly needed, nor is even more than one person: you are your own event. (That’s what I keep telling myself, for sure.) We’ll all be sending good bendy vibes for the next few days.

Posting to Flickr

Got photos? Upload to Flickr under the tag circuitbendingchallenge. (Don’t forget to add them to the CDMu group, too.) Evil Paul is already up there with some items he scored for a mere US 50 cents to $2.00. And that’s the idea: not just making something cheap, but actually salvaging something fairly worthless to others and making it art / something you’d want to keep.

For all of you who are considering participating in this weekend’s Circuit Bending Challenge, I thought I’d offer a few tips on getting started and some creative/low-budget ideas.

Finding that special device

What makes a device bendable? Two words: cheap construction. Most toy musical instruments are made very cheaply and operate on somewhat simple principles of synthesis/sampling. So what are the telltale signs of a bendable device?

1. Does it make a neat/terrible sound? Keep in mind- this object makes sounds, which you are going hear a whole lot as you modify. It helps if you enjoy the sounds to begin with, or conversely that you absolutely hate them and want to change them completely.

2. Look at the size of the case- once you open it up, will there be enough room inside to kludge around and put more things in? Most toys do, but any micro- or keychain-sized devices do not.

3. Play around with it, if possible before buying. Keep some AAA and AA batteries in your pocket, and a small screwdriver in case the battery compartment is bolted on. There’s nothing worse than taking a potentially fun device home and discovering that it’s completely dead.

4. Does it have a funny or awesome name? Chances are, yes. Who comes up with these names stamped in plastic, I do not know. But often, they are weird and hilarious.

One word to the wise:
WARNING: UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING, ONLY BEND DEVICES THAT OPERATE ON BATTERIES
I’m serious.

In anticipation of the Circuit-Bending Challenge later this month, I’ve rounded up a few great resources to inspire and inform those of you who’d like to get started in the wonderful world of Circuit Bending.

First: according to Wikipedia:

Circuit bending is the creative short-circuiting of low voltage, battery-powered electronic audio devices such as guitar effects, children’s toys and small synthesizers to create new musical instruments and sound generators.

Second: It’s quite easy and fun, and you’ll be able to produce interesting results very quickly.

Third: To kick things off, I’m going to defer to the esteemed Reed Ghazala, considered by many to be the Father of today’s movement. Y’know, like how James Brown is the Godfather of Soul?

The circuit-bent instrument, often a re-wired audio toy or game, is an alien instrument: alien in electronic design, alien in voice, alien in musician interface. Through this procedure, all around our planet, a new musical vocabulary is being discovered. A new instrumentarium is being born.