The Father of Circuit Bending

In reading an interview developed by allsound.org, Q.R. Ghazala is considered an innovator in the idea of music, art, and technology. He has created musical instruments with the new development of circuit bending.

So, what is circuit bending? It is not only a way to create sounds and music, but it also is a way to express oneself with remixing while creating a new form of art. Usually using children’s toys, it is basically short-circuiting the devices that are battery powered to create new sounds that are projected through the original toy or by other means. Not only do people rearrange the circuits, they put switches and other devices to distort the original sound or even create a new one.

Ghazala perfected this newfound art and has created music and other art forms through the circuits like ‘bending’ cameras to create distorted images. He believes that every form of art represents the creator and all of their heart and soul that they have put into any other work. One of Ghazala’s artistic traits seems to be that he adds human and animal glass eyes to some of his works. He does this as a combination with the material plastic and wires to add an organic feel to the finished product. He creates albums of his musical sounds with the instruments he creates. Not only does Ghazala mess around the circuits and guess which wire sounds great where, he knows the science behind the idea of circuit bending, which I think helps him understand and create such elaborate works of art. Since he understands the art and the way it works, he can now prefect it.

One of Ghazala’s favorite inventions was the Incantor, or the circuit bent version of the famous toy, Speak&Spell. He loves the Incantor because it expresses the basic idea and perfect model of circuit bending and how it should work. The sound can be looped using a switch or a holding switch, which blends vowel sounds made by humans with abstract noises like electronic or music tones. Sometimes pressure creates new sounds, like a human figure touching a switch. He describes it as sounding like an ‘involved alien music ensemble’.

Ghazala is creating new sounds and images, but I seem to forget that he is taking and idea already made and building upon it and essentially remixing it. I do this because it seems like such a new and original idea that the previous uses don’t even seem relevant. I guess that is the point of remixes. We as a human society change and build upon what we already know to create something better, more convenient, or just more beautiful, and we have been doing it for years. Ghazala stated in the interview that ‘new materials inspire new thoughts’. For him these materials made from every day gadgets ARE new materials because he sees their potential uses in a different light and in a different way, so to him they are new and untouched.

http://www.anti-theory.com/links/Behind_the_Circuit_Bending/index.html