Bending the Circuit
A few months ago, some wonky mishaps with my Mac required opening up the computer, and I personally witnessed the unscrewing of tiny screws, the removal of the computer's protective silver cover, and the naked wires and vulnerable circuit boards exposed to light, dust and even the prying point of a screwdriver. The result? Lightheadedness. A cold sweat. The need to sit down.
It all ended well, but the experience was revealing. You're supposed to keep these things warm, dry, clean and together, and to do otherwise is very, very unsettling. Right?
LA-based artist Phil Stearns disagrees. Indeed, for a workshop this weekend at the terrific gallery Machine Project in Echo Park, Phil will give a group of attendees a bunch of old Texas Instruments computers with the following instructions: first, crack them open and rummage around in the wiring; 2) rewire the circuits; 3) mount hardware and then "solder like crazy and seal the deal." Why? Phil will be teaching the art of circuit bending, which he says is classically defined "as the practice whereby artists acquire discarded toys - toy keyboards, for example, or anything that produces sound - and then open them up and short circuit the insides to produce new, unpredictable and chaotic sounds, some of them pleasant and some of them, depending on your tastes, not so pleasant."
The goal, explains Phil, who graduated from CalArts with an MA in music composition and experimental sound, "is to reclaim these closed systems and appropriate them to your own practices." He adds, "Each bender's instrument is his or her own unique expression and exploration."
For the workshop, however, Phil will not focus on producing sound, but instead show people how to make video based on sound. The sound acts as an input that is then transformed into imagery. Asked if this practice is related to the history of Visual Music, when artists such as Oskar Fischinger and John Whitney attempted to create visual correlates to sound, Phil notes that it's similar in some ways. However, what he's after is a material connection to sound and image, not a representational connection.
"I guess the fascination does stem from the synergy of the sound and synchronized visuals," Phil says. "But it was really born as a response to VJ culture. I was fed up with the way so many VJs create a one-to-one correlation with sound and the connection between sound and image becomes so glossed over or ornate, as with an iTunes visualization; I wanted something that more appropriately represented the sound aesthetically, materially and conceptually." Phil is not interested in trashing VJ culture. It's just that his interest was elsewhere. "I saw circuit bending as a means of bypassing the culture of prepackaged software for music production, as a kind of hack of the traditional culture of instrumental music performance."
Visually, the result unites bold graphic design, retro computer graphics and totally unpredictable imagery. Yes, it takes some getting used to, but conceptually it's pretty exciting. You're seeing sound in its material form! Phil clarifies: "You're seeing the result of sound scrambling the flow of zeros and ones inside a computer's video ram... but it's all the same in the end."
For Phil, the project has moved on so that he's less interested in producing video than in sculpting with electricity. Yes, sculpting with electricity. Phil works with both the physical circuit and the flow of electricity, considering the design of the circuit and it ability to function to sculpt and direct the flow of electricity. The process involves moving from abstract information to its embodied form, of moving from one medium to another until you're working with media as a medium itself. "
See more about Phil's work with TI99 mods here.
the details:
Intermediate Circuitbending & Video Art Workshop
Machine Project
Saturday October 25, 12:00 - 6:00 p.m. and
Sunday October 26, 12:00 - 6:00 p.m.
1200 D North Alvarado Street
Los Angeles, CA 90026
213-483-8761
http://machineproject.com/