Seattle and Raleigh-Durham marketing, graphic and brand design studio Design Kompany

Circuit bending Speak & Spells came up as a topic of conversation at our last Designers’ Korner.

Of course I have to dash off an e-mail to BF to learn more. BF lives in Boston and does stuff like go to M.I.T. swap meets to buy synthesizers, check out vacuum tubes, and scope old-fashioned amplifiers for antique electronics.

BF can’t be reached for comment, however, so I turn to… the Internet.

NYC24.org’s article quotes Douglas Repetto, a research director at the Columbia University Computer Music Center as relating circuit bending to the “found sound” performance movement. “It’s the idea that these sounds are almost found objects, and they have their own idiosyncratic sound… Each thing has its own character and you’re finding ways to exploit it.”

So what does circuit bending even look and sound like, then?

Check out this YouTube video of a circuit bent Speak & Spell…

You can see how this is really exciting for people into electronic music, yeah?

In fact, there’s a whole festival on this–the Bent Festival. In 2008 it’s gonna be in NY, LA, and Minneapolis on these dates:

UPDATE: April 2008

Note that the dates for the Bent Festival have changed. Here are the new dates:
Los Angeles - April 17-19th
New York - April 24-26th
Minneapolis - May 1-3rd

See more at BentFestival.Org. Also MySpace/BentFestival.

And all you electronic and visual artists out there? Definitely check out this link to Bent Festival’s call for entries. Deadlines in early February.

Here on our own turf of Seattle, Decibel amps up every year around September. If you’re new to town, check it this fall.

P.S. Designers’ Korner is this happy hour we host and you’re all invited. It’s for anyone curious about Design Kompany and what we do and other stuff like circuits. Join us for the next one, Monday, February 4.