The Morning News has a quote- and link-filled piece about circuit bending, an activity that involves hacking cheap consumer electronics devices like Furby's and Speak 'n' Spells to make them do things their designers never intended.
Posted by johndanseven at May 10, 2006 04:41 PMQuite simply, the modern practice of “bending” involves shorting out points on the exposed circuit board of a device (using something like a screwdriver) while said device is playing one of its tinny notes. This is done in the hope that some spontaneous and aleatory sound will erupt (as far as something can “erupt” from an eight-centimeter foam speaker) as the result of a crashed microchip or the torturous electrical manipulation of some other unfortunate component.
When an interesting short-circuit is discovered, a switch is then installed to bridge the two points involved and mounted on the external case—hence my little Casio’s “num lock” key. As a reassuring bonus, practitioners needn’t worry about the risk of brain-frying voltages, as this techno-surgery is performed almost exclusively on victims of the battery-powered variety. Some instruments are even kitted out with “body contacts,” metal pads designed to be bridged by a performer with a body part of their choice, effectively rendering themselves a part of the circuit. Talk about an affinity with your equipment!