Circuit-Bending

1 circuit -BendingBuild Your Own Alien InstrumentsReed Ghazala01_588877 7/19/05 9:12 PM Page iii01_588877 7/19/05 9:12 PM Page iiCircuit-Bending01_588877 7/19/05 9:12 PM Page i01_588877 7/19/05 9:12 PM Page iiCircuit-BendingBuild Your Own Alien InstrumentsReed Ghazala01_588877 7/19/05 9:12 PM Page iiiFor general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Departmentwithin the at (800) 762-2974, outside the at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataGhazala, Reed, 1953- Circuit-Bending : build your own alien instruments / Reed : 978-0-7645-8887-7 (paper/website)ISBN-10: 0-7645-8887-7 (paper/website)1.

2 Electronic musical instruments Construction. I. '192 dc222005010349 Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, inthe United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. ExtremeTech and the ExtremeTech logo aretrademarks of Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings, Inc. Used under license. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property oftheir respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this : Build Your Own Alien InstrumentsPublished byWiley Publishing, Crosspoint BoulevardIndianapolis, IN 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc.

3 , Indianapolis, IndianaPublished simultaneously in CanadaISBN-13: 978-0-7645-8887-7 ISBN-10: 0-7645-8887-7 Manufactured in the United States of America10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 11MA/QU/QY/QV/INNo part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United StatesCopyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copyfee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600.

4 Requests to thePublisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis,IN46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4355, or online at OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NOREPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THECONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUTLIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OREXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREINMAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION.

5 THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THEPUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IFPROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSONSHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGESARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS ACITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THEAUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAYPROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNETWEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORKWAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS 7/19/05 9:12 PM Page ivAbout the AuthorQubais Reed Ghazala(Cincinnati, Ohio, 1953) was firstinstructed in painting, theatre, and classical piano as a young child (including preschool art courses at the nearbyart academy).

6 By the time Ghazala reached the age oftwelve, his interest had turned to experimental art (mazes,luminous painting, mirror assemblage, freezing liquidswithin expandable envelopes winning awards in local exhibitions for his cubist sculptures). Ghazala soon aban-doned formal schooling in favor of his interests, becomingself-taught in his Circuit-Bending , Ghazala also pioneers work in pho-tography (lens-less imaging with dye-migration materials;time exposure with cross-axis polarization and apertureshift), magnetic assemblage (kinetic timepieces, anti-gravity sculptures), and aeronautics (an oper-ative flying saucer; various kites, aircraft, and solid fuel rockets). Ghazala s further experimentalarts include electronic smoke and liquid/gel chambers, lenticular art, plasma chambers, laser andneon chambers, film and computer animation, video documentary, 3-D drawing and photogra-phy, program bending (chance data entry), rubber stamps (as a sampling medium to alter),and woodland art for only forest animals to observe (natural mobiles and interlocking keystonesculptures).

7 Ghazala is the author of numerous articles on electronics and experimental musical instru-ments (including the seminal 20-article Circuit-Bending series in Experimental MusicalInstrumentsmagazine, 1992 98). Ghazala is one of the Web s most influential cyber-professors,also teaching in person via public workshops and one-on-one apprenticeship programs ( Circuit-Bending and Japanese suminagashi, an ancient chance art).Although Ghazala is primarily a music composer and instrument designer, he continues towork as sculptor, photographer, visual artist, and author, and in his spare time pursues hobbiesof theory-true designing/hacking, building toys, robots, and things that fly; designing mobilesand kinetic electro-lumia; working in optical lens construction; practicing kitchen and deepwoods cooking; designing/building home additions; canoeing; hunting mushrooms; studyingentomology, mineralogy, and meteorology; star gazing; compiling a home library.

8 Exploringnatural incenses and resins, psychedelic and experimental music, unusual lighting, rare musicalinstruments, antique postcards, home-designed postcards, strange medical devices, parlor andstage magic, ESP, unusual natural phenomena, and the collecting of unidentifiable s work has been covered in all the world s major press (including, in the United States,the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post,The Smithsonian, andWIRED); his work is kept in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, theGuggenheim, and the Whitney in New York City; and his instruments have been designedfor some of the planet s best-known and most influential musicians (including Peter Gabriel,Tom Waits, the Rolling Stones, King Crimson, Faust, Blur, and many others).

9 Ghazala is recognized as the father of Circuit-Bending and is credited with launching the firstgrassroots electronic art and Moonbear outside The Anti-Theory Workshop01_588877 7/19/05 9:12 PM Page vCreditsExecutive EditorChris WebbDevelopment EditorEd ConnorCopy EditorSusan ChristophersenProduction ManagerTim TateEditorial ManagerMary Beth WakefieldVice President and Executive GroupPublisherRichard SwadleyVice President and PublisherJoseph B. WikertProject CoordinatorErin SmithGraphics and Production SpecialistsKarl BrandtJonelle BurnsKelly EmkowDenny HagerStephanie D. JumperClint LahnenLynsey OsbornMelanee PrendergastBrent SavageAmanda SpagnuoloQuality Control TechniciansLeeann HarneyJessica KramerCarl William PierceDwight RamseyProofreading and IndexingTECHBOOKS Production ServicesCover DesignAnthony Bunyan01_588877 7/19/05 9:12 PM Page viTo artists working in new fields everywhere and struggling against all 7/19/05 9:12 PM Page vii01_588877 7/19/05 9:12 PM Page viiiAcknowledgmentsWho supports the arts?

10 The big names come to mind, the foundations and institutions whose grants go a long way toendow board-approved art art whose viability, often, is measured by an unshy degree ofpublic acceptance. But what about art that is supported more by the maverick mind than thecommon nail?History teaches us a few lessons here. Claude Monet s eventual salons made his work known,but impressionism owes immeasurably to friends and fellow painters who sheltered Monetthrough his many destitute periods. Renoir, the same. And it s well known that Vincent VanGogh s brother, Theo, kept Vincent happening during the very worst of times. C zanne, con-sidered by many the best example of the postimpressionist school, found in the simple supportof fellow artist Pissarro a reevaluation of his own treatment of color and subject, promptingwide discussion that thereafter became key to interpreting a painting s space.