VIDEO BENDING

"HACKING TOYS" WORKSHOP SERIES AT THE MUSIC HACKSPACE

   Autumn 2012 has been an exciting period at the sessions of "Toys Hacking" Workshop. Hosted at the Music Hackspace, London, I organized this series as an introduction and secrets sharing meetings about the art of circuit bending and electronic instruments design. Many enthusiast hackers and devoted sound explorers joined the team during the monthly workshop series, lots of new inspiring instrument designs were created and new sounds came out of old toys!!! I would like to thank all the participants and I am looking forward for another exciting year of circuind bending and extended handmade electronics techniques. Special thanks to Martin from "Rebel Technology" and to Sus for her kind assistance!

MODULAR "HOMEDICS" SOOTHING MACHINE

Soothing machines (or alternatively "sound spa" devices) are pretty much fun to mess around with their circuits since they display interesting samples of nature's sounds in 8bit resolution. I have transformed this relaxation tool to an instrument capable of producing complicated patterns with the use of a voltage controls from a modular synthesizer (tested in eurorack format).

EXTRA FEATURES
- Pitch Control Knob
- Audio OUT
- CV IN

ALEATORIC TOY-LAPTOP (mini modular version)

   I am usually not making self-generated aleatoric sound devices (instruments which produce endless autonomous random patterns). But this is not the case...this toy-laptop didn't seem to have so much potential for modifying, but after a few short circuity attempts this is what it turned out to be like...
I already used it in a few gigs and it seems that I am going to be carrying it around for as long as it lasts before it eventually crashes. There is a variety of harsh noises and glitches by different combinations of patching the mini-banana cables.

MECHANICAL HACKS

“You see, I am inventing a new language. When an umbrella breaks and you get wet, is it still an umbrella? It has changed, but the word is the same. It is imprecise, false. I invent new words that will correspond to the things”. This particular fragment from Paul Auster’s novel “City of Glass” has become one of my main inspirations concerning the current project. During the past few years of my sonic experimentations I have often utilized “ready-mades” and "found" materials as means to explore their potential aural and visual sense. Familiar everyday objects have been used as points of departure towards the creation of original sound sources; parts of mechanical toys, electrical motors and fans, old record players, broken alarms and pieces of everyday domestic equipment as well as other dispatched sound electronics were modified and transformed into automaton sound sculptures. The general purpose of these -often ephemeral- assembled devices is to generate constant synchronized or random acoustic patterns and to interact with each other as parts of a wider sound installation setup engaging with and transforming the environment where they are installed. 

These videos feature the first complete series of automaton sound sculptures made out of recycled material and found objects. The devices are based on mechanical movements and intend to be used for the creation of musical structures in live performance. Please keep updated to watch some more videos, including series of hacked electronics and series of modified turntables/cassette tape players and more to come...