Finding the hidden sounds in circuit boards - circuit bending

Things that make noise such as children's toys, little piano keyboards, walkie talkies have a power source, speakers and usually a circuit board with some bits and pieces in it like resistors, capacitors, some stuff I don't really know about yet and in some cases LEDs (light emitting diodes). The manufacturers arrange this starting material so that certain sounds are produced when the toy or instrument is played... according to their instructions. But a bit of tweaking can uncover all sorts of other available but currently hidden sounds, many of them truly awful, but some quite pleasant.

Circuit Bending for Absolute Beginners WhenTue, 8 February, 15:00 – 17:00 Bring your old keyboards to make new weird sounds. Think Casio, Yamaha... Noise-making toys also work. Not everything will work but we'll have a bash...may have to ask for a small donation to cover cost of potentiometers/wire etc an introduction here: http://www.oscillateur.com/circuitbending/faq

I spent Tuesday afternoon at the Really Free School in Bloomsbury Square playing around with some circuits and making some noise. The School opened a couple of weeks ago and closes in a couple of days (although it will likely re-appear somewhere else). The people running it have squatted the property which was once offices (and previously a rather lovely house) and unfortunately have to leave and move elsewhere. Their website is http://reallyfreeschool.org and I heard about this because of a mailing list (persons_unknown@hotmail.co.uk) I joined when they ran the Temporary School of Thought a couple of years ago. 

I've blogged recently on the Temp School of Thought - I went to a film showing there but none of the classes, and a talk by Dougald Hine at the Really Free School. Keeping with the theme of creative living and squatting is a post with some scanned images of a groovy book called 'Alternative London' from 1974. 

We sat in a room at the front of the house at large worktables while our tutor told us a little bit about the principles of 'circuit bending' and how to go about getting some bonus sounds from a hacked / modified (modded) bit of kit. She showed us a keyboard which she'd taken apart, added some switches and other twiddly knobs, and from which she could get some eerie sounds possibly not intended by the manufacturers. 

I'd brought along half of a walkie-talkie to tweak. A year or two ago I did an afternoon class, which I blogged about here, in Brighton with Ian Helliwell which included a taster session of circuit bending (along with creating a mini theremin from an electronics kit and playing around with tape loops) and I started work on the walkie-talkie then. 

There were about eight or nine of us sitting at the worktable with people popping in and out to visit. The people in the room next door (well, it's the reception / living room I suppose) were probably making a much more tuneful noise than we were. The people living in the house brought a baby grand piano with them, there was also a cello and a couple of guitars. People seemed to be really rather good at music. 

We took apart the toys that people had brought with them (apparently there's a second hand children's toy shop in Pimlico which seems to provide rich pickings for dismantle-able toys which have circuit boards and speakers in) and got to work with a strip of wire. With the device switched on (might want to be a bit careful here) you basically use the two ends of the wires to poke about and connect both ends to different points of metal on the circuit board. Sometimes connecting them up results in silence, sometimes in white noise, sometimes in a high pitched squeal and sometimes in a fairly pleasant buzz or tone. Depending on your tastes if you like the sound produced you can solder in the connection for keeps. 

Even better, if you have a potentiometer to hand you can connect it to two wires and then, on finding a suitable connection, twiddle the potentiometer's knob to make the pitch or volume (or whatever variable you've discovered with your random connection) go up and down. 

There are also some pictures on my Flickr page - the lighting isn't very good, it's more of a bright spotlight. This is because we're in a squatted propertly with plenty of electricity (all paid for, utility companies are required to connect up properties which have occupants at the occupants' request and I believe connecting the electricity is an essential part of squatting a property to prevent being accused of stealing the electricity) but with many of the ceiling light fittings absent. 

A couple of people in the class dismantled a tiny little plastic drumkit that they'd brought and rewired it so that it made some quite cool sounds when various buttons (that they added) were pressed. You can see them soldering in one of the pictures. 

I've described this circuit bending to a few people and they mostly want to know where they can do it so I've added a few links below in case you might fall into that intrigued category. 

Places where you can go and do or find out more about things like circuit bending (and 'arts computer' stuff) in London  

Dorkbot is more of a show and tell for projects that you've been working on but you'll always find someone in the crowd who can help you but the monthly-ish events aren't workshops. They do usually have an annual event in which workshops feature though. http://dorkbotlondon.org/  

Hackspace - I've not been to these yet but you can find more details here http://hackspace.org.uk/  

Ian Helliwell's Analogue sound course - if and when it runs again it will probably appear here but also see here http://www.phoenixarts.org/courses.htm and http://www.ianhelliwell.co.uk/  

MzTEK ("An Arts Collective for Women in New Media and Arts Computing") hosts workshops for women only on a variety of electronics and other things like laser cutting. http://www.mztek.org/  

OpenLabs - I attended a circuit creating workshop (making some noise too) at the Kinetica Art Fair and Evan Raskob from OpenLabs was teaching it. Lots of fun but against a backdrop of the Kinetica fair it was quite hard to hear what was going on with my own battery operated mini speaker. Given the squealy noises I was making, perhaps not a bad thing ;) http://openlabworkshops.org/about/  

Technology will save us - I spotted a sign-up sheet for this at the Kinetica Art Fair and signed up, haven't investigated it yet but looks full of potential for classes although they might be a little beyond my budget. http://technologywillsaveus.org/ and http://twitter.com/techwillsaveus  

Tinker It - I am not sure if they are still running courses but they have run Arduino workshops in the past (Arduino is a circuit board whose chip is controlled by a computer programme). http://arduino.cc/blog/ and http://twitter.com/tinker_it 

For people who like non-electronic technical crafts but like sewing then these people might have a class for you: The Make Lounge, in Islington. http://www.themakelounge.com/workshops I bet someone's reading this and thinking "but she's forgotten X" if so, do let me know, thanks! You might also like these other posts of mine, tough luck if not :)

• Dougald Hine's talk at The Really Free School in the Bloomsbury Squat 2011
• Temporary School of Thought - the Mayfair squat 2009
• Nicholas Saunder's Alternative London - squatters' / activists' book from 1974
• Geeky things to do in London
• Abandoned Britain - nothing to do with circuit bending but about exploring urban landscapes.

Dougald Hine's talk at The Really Free School in the Bloomsbury Squat 2011

After receiving an email a couple of weeks ago from the group who last used that email address for the Temporary School of Thought I've been reading about some of the back story behind the School and I wrote about my visit there in this post. I've also visited the new incarnation, the Really Free School at 5 Bloomsbury Square. Their event details are on this page but their Google Docs listing works better.

On initially Googling the Temporary School of Thought I came across Dougald Hine's blog which had a roundup of links and reviews of some of the events - and then I discovered he was giving a talk on Third Spaces, Web 2.0 and First Life on Thursday night, 3 Feb 2011, so I went along. I smiled when he said that before he'd start his talk we should all take a moment to soak up the place that we were in, as I'd already been doing precisely that.

A couple of people were video recording Dougald's talk so I daresay it will be available online soon - I didn't take any notes though, just sat and enjoyed. The room was packed; I estimated over 50 people when the talk began and probably nearer 70 by the end, possibly more. This made the room very warm and cosy - and there was even someone having a cigarette (inside!). I'd forgotten what they smell like to be honest.

I wish I could remember more of talks after I've been to them, possibly a mistake not to have made notes which I would usually do.

Dougald talked about the concept of third spaces - a term which originated with Ray Oldenburg to describe places that we meet together in that aren't our homes or workplaces. He mentioned how the phrase had been appropriated by organisations like Starbucks which have been keen to position themselves as a venue where you could get a bit of third space with your coffee and muffin. Apparently the reason why they persist in asking you "would you like a drink with that?" (one of the reasons I try and avoid the place to be honest) is that they have a script to follow and there are mystery shoppers who'll check that they're doing it properly. Staff are also expected to initiate conversations with customers, beyond the script. Dougald contrasted this enforced bonhomie with a cafe in Sheffield run by people from the more surly school of customer relations who'll more or less ignore patrons until they get to know them. I think I'd prefer a middle ground of detached civility though.

There was some amusing discussion and audience participation on the nature of social media (interactive / Web 2.0 stuff) tools. Hardly anyone in the room had used Second Life and I'm pretty sure we all agreed that social tools that help us make more of first life are what's wanted. Examples of these include text messages which bring us ambient information about what our chums are up to, similarly Facebook (and Meetup) are used to help people arrange events etc. in the real world. He mentioned that text messages were originally something placed on mobile phones for engineers to communicate with brief messages they became one of the most used features of mobiles generally. I send and receive texts from my mobile far more often than use it as a telephone because I like that these conversations don't have to be synchronous, particularly if I need to be somewhere quiet.

I remember getting what turned out to be my first text message in 1995 and not having the faintest idea how to access the mystery message. It appeared on my Motorola Graphite in the form of a differnt type of small envelope icon, which unfortunatey threw me. I'd worked out that another envelope icon I'd seen on my phone meant I had a voicemail message but I couldn't get this one to play until the friend (coincidentally he worked for a mobile phone company) who'd sent it asked me about it. And even then he had to explain what it was and what keystrokes I'd have to press on the phone to access it (bit of a geek fail there). After that though, it was text messages all the way, and not just for me either.

Some companies had invested in devices which would let you make video calls on your mobile - he wondered if walking down the street having a video conference with a friend was such a great idea as it meant you were less involved with your surroundings. The message here was that people don't necessarily want to be immersed in something - while they're going about their normal life. With Second Life it might appear that plenty of people don't want to be immersed in that either, unless all of the people I know just don't use it. A year or two ago I went along to the Nature offices while they launched their Second Life island, I'd also seen it in use at the Science Online conference the year before last - it seemed to work fairly well for people not attending the conference to follow it online that way. I'd have used a plain old audio or video feed (Twitter feeds also good) in preference to downloading some new bit of software and learning how to use it (and, I understand, having to dress my avatar). So Second Life has passed me by somewhat. I think IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is probably simpler to operate though.

There was also discussion on the ways in which people are creating and using their own third spaces, and using internet tools to develop them. I briefly wondered about the fate of our libraries...

I really haven't done justice to the engaging way in which Dougald spoke with the crowd and encouraged participation, nor have I done much justice to the content of his talk but I really enjoyed his ideas, and the contributions of the audience, and found the event very inspiring - and was just so glad that I'd gone along. It really is a great place.

Just before I left I took a photo (below) of the tiered seating that had been created, and remembered a similar construction back in the cinema room at the Temporary School of Thought. I think at the time I'd just assumed it was somehow part of the house but have learned that these sorts of things are rustled up by people in the squat who have the good sense to have woodworking skills. This one implies that it might have come from what my friend Helen describes as the spiritual home of the meatball - or perhaps someone just wrote IKEA on it (you can just about make it out).

Back at work I mentioned my evening out at the talk to a colleague and told her about the aims of the Really Free School - she asked if I was recapturing my youth. I was a bit taken aback by this as I'd always thought I was still in it; I wonder where that demarcation line went ;)

You might also enjoy these posts:

• Temporary School of Thought - the Mayfair squat 2009
• Nicholas Saunder's Alternative London - activist book from 1974
  

Temporary School of Thought - the Mayfair squat 2009

This is yet another example of how so many of the fun things I hear about 'off the internet' come from Ben Goldacre's mini-blog - I should really update the list ;). Two years ago, Ben posted something about a kind of school opening up within a squat in Mayfair. The Temporary School of Thought (TSoT) had a nice website, some positive media interest from my favourite media and a schedule of interesting events. It looked fun.

One of the events was on a Sunday evening (January 2009) - a showing of the film Kind Hearts & Coronets which I went along to with my friend from work. We met for pizza in Shepherd's Market and then, in keeping with the location, went to get some provisions from Fortnum and Mason to share with the squat (it was around Burns' night so we left them a couple of haggises and some wine) and headed over to 39 Clarges Mews to have a bit of a wander round the property before the film began.

It was one of those perfect evenings and I wish I could have spent longer there. The building was lovely, everyone we met was good-natured and friendly (it was never entirely clear to me who was living there and who was a visitor) and there was an eerie gloom over some of the rooms as we were there in the evening and working light fittings were a little sparse. Everyone seemed to be taking photos and having to switch on mobile phones or torches to get enough light, temporarily bathing everything in a slightly lesser gloom. I got chatting to some people while standing next to the main front door and my friend, a little braver than me, went off for further exploration.

We'd remembered to bring torches which were useful in some of the less well-lit areas - the last thing I wanted to do was trip over and break something. The previous event was running a little late and I wondered if my friend would be able to stay for the film as he needed to travel further out home than me and his trains are frankly lightweights and stop early. But about an hour after we arrived we were ushered into the cinema room which was well lit and someone had a laptop and projector set up (this is my kind of squat!) - and the film was great. I was sorry when it came to an end. You can see a picture of the room we were in here, on Dougald Hine's blog. It was like being in one of those old Stella Artois adverts (or whichever company it is that sponsors the Sunday night film) where they show some rural village getting together to watch a film being projected onto a wall or something.

I'd previously signed up to the group's email mailing list and have received one or two emails from them in the last two years. The week before last a couple of new emails appeared announcing that a new school was opening up - The Really Free School (RFS) at 5 Bloomsbury Square. Yippee!

When the first email came in I Googled, nostalgically, for information about the TSoT and one of the people I (micro-briefly) met there who was definitely a resident - he hosted the film on the night I was there, and went by the name Lucky Jimm. And that's how I discovered his blog which I've been reading all week and tweeting excerpts from.

I've already waxed lyrical about his blog when I originally posted a quick email to Posterous about the new Really Free School. In an equivalent of discovering a book that you just can't put down, since coming across his blog I've been hooked, beguiled, ensorcelled (feel free to throw the thesaurus at this, as one word won't do) by the writing and can only hope he gets a shift on and writes a book. I usually read blogs because I'm interested in the topic and nice writing is a pleasant bonus. In this case the topics (squatting, gambling, cycling and drinking) aren't of particular interest to me but the (often poignant) mix of humour, angst, frankness and occasional whimsy has meant that I've found the blog electronically unputdownable. (The blog itself covers several years, the episode on the Mayfair school is just a small part of it, lasting a few weeks).

Reading Jimm's blog about the TSoT gave a lot of really interesting background information about the school and the people behind it - I wish I'd found the blog sooner after the event. I didn't find any blogs written by the other squatmates but if anyone knows of them I'd love to read them too.

I'm not quite sure what overlap there is between the TSoT and the Really Free School, but I loved my visit to TSoT and wanted to see what RFS was about - and the next post will be about my visit to the Bloomsbury school.

You might also enjoy these posts:

• Nicholas Saunder's Alternative London - activist book from 1974
• Dougald Hine's talk at The Really Free School in the Bloomsbury Squat 2011