Technique

Circuit Bending

Circuit Bending

Circuit bending is a hands-on hardware way to create glitch aesthetics by physically modifying electronics so they behave “wrong” on purpose. Below is a focused, practical guide for glitch artists who want to explore bending for audio and video.

What is circuit-bent glitch hardware?

Circuit bending is the creative modification of low-voltage electronic devices (toys, synths, video mixers, cameras, etc.) to generate new, unintended behaviors and artifacts. In a glitch art context, you are abusing hardware so it produces:

  • Broken, noisy, unstable sound
  • Distorted, flickering, color-shifted video
  • Performable, repeatable “errors” wired to knobs, switches, or body contacts

It sits alongside databending (glitching files) as the physical, hardware side of glitch practice.

How it works (core principles)

Circuit bending exploits three simple ideas:

  1. Low-voltage sandbox
    You work on battery-powered or safely low-voltage gear so you can poke around while it is powered without risking electrocution.

  2. Shorts and rerouting
    By connecting points on a circuit that were never meant to touch, you create new feedback paths, timing errors, and data corruption. This can scramble audio signals, clock lines, or video processing paths, producing glitches.

  3. Control components
    Once you find “sweet spots,” you add components into those paths so you can perform the glitch:

    • Potentiometers (variable resistors)
    • Switches and pushbuttons
    • Sensors (light, touch, etc.)

The result is an instrument built from errors, where randomness and instability become a playable parameter.

Choosing hardware to bend

Good candidates:

  • Cheap electronic toys (keyboards, talking toys, drum pads)
  • Battery-powered synths and drum machines
  • Analog video gear: mixers, titlers, enhancers, old converters
  • Older digital cameras for “glitch cameras”

Avoid:

  • Anything mains-powered with exposed high-voltage sections unless you know exactly what you are doing.
  • Gear you cannot afford to lose. Circuit bending always risks total failure.

Tip: For video glitching, artists often repurpose obscure analog processors and mixers as video glitch devices once bent.

Core techniques & tools

Essential tools

  • Small Phillips screwdrivers
  • Alligator clip leads (for exploratory patching)
  • Soldering iron, solder, desoldering braid
  • Wire, heat shrink, basic hand tools
  • Multimeter (for continuity and basic diagnostics)

Optional but powerful:

  • Drill (for panel-mount controls)
  • Hot glue or epoxy (strain relief)
  • Breadboard for prototyping external add-ons

Audio glitch circuit bending techniques

  1. Probing shorts with alligator clips

    • Open the case, power the device, set volume low.
    • Use clips to temporarily connect different solder points.
    • Listen for new timbres, stutters, pitch warps, or freeze effects.
    • Mark promising points with a pen for later.

  2. Adding potentiometers and switches

    • When a short produces an interesting sound, insert a potentiometer instead of a solid wire to continuously “tune” the glitch.
    • Use on/off or momentary switches for stutter, mute, or “panic” kill functions.

  3. Body and touch contacts

    • Add exposed metal pads connected to sensitive points so your skin resistance becomes part of the circuit.
    • This yields pressure- and moisture-responsive pitch or noise.

  4. Clock and pitch bending

    • Many toys have a simple clock/resonator controlling pitch. Replacing it or inserting a pot in series can stretch time, from ultra-slow granular stutter to squealing noise.

Video glitch circuit bending techniques

  1. Bending video mixers and processors

    • Old analog video mixers and enhancers can be bent to produce ghosting, inversions, lines, and broken sync when internal video paths are shorted or routed through new components.
    • Mixing, keying, and enhancement sections often hide rich glitch points.

  2. No-input and feedback setups

    • Route camera -> bent video device -> mixer/TBC -> display, then capture.
    • Add camera feedback (point camera at the display) to compound analog instability with digital failure.

  3. Audio-controlled video glitches (vactrols)

    • A common trick: use a vactrol (LED + light-dependent resistor) in place of a potentiometer in a bent video path.
    • Drive the LED with audio so the resistance - and thus the glitch - follows the sound in real time.

  4. Glitch cameras

    • Older digital cameras can be bent so image sensors, buffers, or codec paths misbehave, yielding live glitch previews and corrupted captures.

Practical tips for safer, more usable bends

  • Safety first

    • Stick to battery-powered or clearly low-voltage sections.
    • Never poke around power supplies or CRT circuitry.

  • Document everything

    • Photograph boards before and after.
    • Label wires and note which points produce which behavior. This turns a one-off accident into a reproducible instrument.

  • Add bypass paths

    • Use switches to restore “normal” operation and to bypass dangerous or crash-prone bends during performance.

  • Stability vs chaos

    • Some bends will hard-crash the device. Keep a mix of:
      • Stable, repeatable bends (for performance)
      • Wild, unstable bends (for recording sessions and sampling)

  • Design the interface

    • Group controls logically: pitch area, glitch area, kill switch.
    • Use different knob sizes and switch types so you can play in the dark and feel your way around.

  • Accept failure as part of the practice

    • Circuit bending and glitch art both treat breaking as a “way of knowing” hardware. Destroying a few devices is the tuition for learning how to build better, more expressive glitch instruments.

This approach turns obsolete hardware into uniquely characterful glitch tools, deeply integrated into both your process and performance.