“Circuit bending is the creative customization of the circuits within electronic devices such as children’s toys and digital synthesizers to create new musical or visual instruments and sound generators. Circuit bending is manipulating a circuit to get an output that was not intended by the manufacturer.”
I happened across the world of circuit bending a few years ago now while looking into hardware synthesizers on YouTube. Specifically I came across a channel called NOYSTOISE and was immediately struck by the creativity and quality of projects on display. The videos did a great job of displaying the functions of these crazy machines and I was very happy to find out that the creator also runs a blog detailing the “behind the scenes” for each project. Some time has passed since I stumbled on this hidden internet gem, and I occasionally revisit the blog every once in a while to keep up with newer projects and re-read older articles to gather inspiration.
During one of my sporadic visits to NOYSTOISE blog I encountered an article called “glitch cameras and how” detailing the process of circuit bending old digital cameras from the early 00’s and instantly knew I had to have a go.
After browsing Ebay for a couple of hours I found a cheap 3MP Vivitar Vivicam 3720 for under £10 that came with a (minuscule by today’s standards) 128MB SD card. Fast forward a couple of days and the camera had arrived. I assembled my soldering equipment and screwdrivers, ready to attack the poor 3720. The disassembly was fairly straightforward and unfortunately I was so absorbed by the process I forgot to take any pictures, oops! After a decent amount of tinkering, solder, patience and superglue I managed to successfully complete the circuit bend. The camera was alive and ready for action!! While not a feature rich as some of NOYSTOISE’s bends, I’m still very happy with the results as you can see below.
The left switch on the camera seems to turn many of the highlights in to a glitchy blue, pink and purple mess while the switch on the right seems to degrade the image detail and apply what I can only describe as a “piss filter”. You can also mess around with the camera’s exposure and white balance settings to further change the image. Fun stuff! I’m keeping my eye out for more of these cameras and will definitely be circuit bending more in the near future.
Check out NOYSTOISE blog post here for more details.
Glowlabs 