Incantor

Reed Ghazala, circuit bending pioneer

Ever since Tom spent some time with the fella above, they’ve been talking about doing a project together— mixing Reed’s knowledge of circuit bending and our work at Wire & Twine.

It all came to a head as Cincinnati hosted the first Circuitastrophe! this past weekend. An event that brought together folks that enjoy the bending of electronics to make music.

In addition to the shows, there was a BE-IN off the grid out near Fort Ancient in southwestern Ohio. Reed explains the origin of the event:

The first Be-In occurred in 1967, in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. At least 20,000 people showed-up. There were no mishaps, no arrests. In fact, the police weren’t even invited. The occasion was to become known as the launching of the counterculture, the Beat generation merging with the Hippies in a wave of social evolution. It was at this gathering that Timothy Leary first announced his now-famous challenge to convention, “Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out.”

So we printed up a batch of items and loaded up the car. (sidenote: a first for us was printing on a button up workshirt). Tom developed the design based on the Incantor, a versatile example of circuit-bending using Texas Instrument Speak & Spell or Speak & Math toys.

Everyone at the campground was super-friendly. The weather was darn near perfect, and I wish I would’ve stayed for the night-time festivities. I did however, manage to take a few photos.

Links:
Photos from the BE-IN (9/7/08)
Reed Ghazala’s website, Anti-Theory
The Incantor shirt (at Wire & Twine)
How bend the Incantor (on Make Magazine)
Previously, Tom makes the Barbinator 3000 (9/1/07)
Overview of circuit bending (wiki)