One of the first things we were shown in this class was that there is an ability of some sorts to take pieces of technology, such as children's toys, open them up, switch around the circuits and the flow of electricity to make the toy give out a range of distorted wave sounds. There is a culture around this idea, with circuit bending camps being created where people all meet up with each other, mess around with toys and show the result of something they have created. There are also cafe bars that have people go up on stage to show off what they have created. People are quite passionate with this culture, with famous musicians also taking an interest.
The reason why the majority of the technology being used for circuit bending is children's toys is because to circuit bend, you need to pick apart and manipulate microchips. And the problem with microchips for modern technology is that they are extremely small as they made by small computers and robots. Whereas back then, especially with children's toys, the technology was made by hand. So it's easier for the technology to be manipulated by hand.
I find the culture fascinating, but at the same time I have no interest in it whatsoever. It would be interesting to know more about it though.
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