Elmo Phone

YouTube via RothMobot — May 28, 2010 —

"Though this nice, hand held device uses a crystal for it's clock , and therefore shouldn't be hackable with out a custom built precision timer sub-circuit, it did, however, clock down nicely when two pins on its central IC chip were connected. The toy also has a USB port and can download a "name" from an online list. In this video it's set to 'Marco.'"

Sesame Yellow

"RothMobot — May 28, 2010 —

"This device was hacked by our good friend, Creme DeMentia. It is full of glitches, clock bends, and loops."

Phonics Bot
RothMobot — May 28, 2010 —

"This toy has a classic clock bend that glitches nicely on the low end. By jamming a screwdriver into the toy's mechanism you can cause the device to loop nicely."

Handmade Electronic Music – The Art of Hardware Hacking

"The new edition of Nic Collins' book, Handmade Electronic Music – The Art of Hardware Hacking, is out! Lots of new circuits and illustrations, more examples of artists’ designs, and a DVD with 87 1-minute video clips by hackers from all over the globe, as well as a series of step-by-step video tutorials by Nic.

Saturday, May 2, at 3PM Quimby’s Bookstore (1854 W. North Avenue) is hosting a book release party. Nic will screen some videos from the book's DVD (one of which is an animated tutorial on how to hack together a safetypin potentiometer by Roth Mobot), Nic will sign books, and the Chicago Symphacking Orchestra (CSO) will perform. See http://quimbys.com/blog/store-events/handmade-electronic-music-event/

It's free, I hope to see you at there."

via www.RothMobot.com

Third Coast Festival Awards Prototype - Post Office Box Synth

YouTube via RothMobot
"We were hired to create the electronics for the Third Coast Festival's 2009 Awards. Each award will play a two minute segment of the winning documentary and will have a "normal" mode, a "bent" mode, and a "synth" mode. Each award will be housed in a custom made replica of a vintage radio.

The basic architecture is a circuit bent sampling mother board with a 555 timer chip oscillator daughter board. This particular example is playing a segment of a documentary about toy hacking produced by Delaney Hall, and contains an interview with Tommy and myself.

This "cardboard" prototype is an intermediate stage to check the functionality of the components and to debug the internal wiring scheme."

Bent Casio MT-70

YouTube via RothMobot | January 25, 2011 |

"Commissioned project. Two glitch buttons, a pitch shifting body contact, and two noise body contacts."

Hamburger Drive Thru Demo

YouTube via RothMobot
"One of the principle devices in Roth Mobot's song, 'Hamburger Drive Thru.'"

Newton

"Circuit bent Fisher Price toy. When clocked down the horizontal LED arrays become apparent, and when more LEDs ar needed in a row they drain a multiple quanta of energy from the circuit and cause the toy to jump almost musically from pitch to pitch during the slow execution of a single moment of a single sample. Very cool."

bleep pad

"Awesome wet glitchy hack. This device is the vocal backbone to Roth Mobot's 'The Presidents of the United States.'"

2010 Third Coast Festival Award

YouTube via RothMobot | October 20, 2010

"Roth Mobot was asked to collaborate with Trek Studios in Chicago to create nine interactive awards. Each device plays an excerpt from the recipient's documentary, has a "bent" setting, and a bend frequency control. They will be housed in handmade retro radio replicas."

Roth Mobot Circuit Bending Workshop - Happy Earth Day!

"Saturday, April 25th, 5:00 PM – 11:00 PM
The Peter Jones Gallery
1806 W Cuyler Ave., 2nd Floor

~FREE~ & ~BYOB~

Tommy Stephenson and Patrick McCarthy from the circuit bent duo, Roth Mobot, will be hosting a special FREE Circuit Bending Workshop as part of their ongoing efforts to further educate the public about creatively recycling e-waste, and the other Acquired Technology Arts.

Learn how to recycle common, often discarded, battery-powered electronic devices into unique musical and video instruments.

Bring your current and past projects and meet Crème Dementia’s Austin Cliffe and GetLoFi.com’s Alex Deeba, as well as fellow Hardware Hackers, Circuit Benders, and Contraptionists from around the Midwest.

For more information see www.RothMobot.com."
via brian c

finishedAward

YouTube via RothMobot

Silver Mercury Box

YouTube via RothMobot
"Circuit bent ring toss toy re-housed in a box with a gravity-sensitive mercury switch"

Driving Toy


Merlin


Fire Engine


Pray


more videos

Circuit Bending 101, Earth Day 2009, Peter Jones Gallery, Chicago

YouTube via CremeDeMentia. Video of the Earth Day event previously announced here.
"The boys from www.GetLoFi.com were in attendance Earth Day, 2009, to help Patrick McCarthy from Roth Mobot (www.rothmobot.com) teach a small workshop on Circuit Bending. You'll see an animated sculpture by Kathy Weaver (www.kweaverarts.com) starting off the video, some shots from the workshop, and some footage of Tommy Stephenson, also of Roth Mobot, demoing a delay pedal circuit bent by Spunky Toofers/Daniel Park."

Roth Mobot Electronic Saturdays

"A Weekly Symposium
Saturdays, Noon - 3 PM
Lizard's Liquid Lounge
3058 W Irving Park Rd., (773) 463-7599

Starting this Saturday, August 29, 2009, in an effort to nurture the experimental electronics community in Chicago, Tommy Stephenson and Patrick McCarthy of Roth Mobot will be hosting free weekly electronics meetings at Lizard's Liquid Lounge in Chicago.

Weekly agenda will include soldering, playing, tinkering, Q&A, show-and-tell, bending circuits, an experimental electronics open mic, etc., and $4 Burning River pints.

Stop by and share your thoughts, questions, projects, ears, experience, and advise.

Please pass this email along.

Thank you,

Patrick McCarthy
www.RothMobot.com"

TCF2011awardPrototype

YouTube Uploaded by RothMobot on Oct 15, 2011

orb

YouTube via RothMobot
"A circuit bent "relaxation" device. It has a classic clock bend, with floating voltage, three clock electrodes, and a volume knob on the front. The 1/4" output on the back cuts off the speaker when a cable is plugged into it."
Only relaxing on Halloween...

Roth Mobot Experimental Electronics News

"1. Upcoming Workshops
Introduction to Circuit Bending
Sunday, November 28th, 1:00 PM - 4:50 PM
The Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N Lincoln Ave
Register at 773-728-6000

Take apart your old toys and make a brand new musical instrument! Circuit bending is the art of modifying existing battery-powered electronics (like children's toys, guitar effects units, inexpensive battery-powered instruments, etc.) to create unique musical instruments by adding wires, knobs, and switches to control new connections within the device's pre-existing circuitry. Enjoy bizarre sounds, electronic loops, sampling, distortion, and other easy to create effects. At the end of this workshop you'll be able to identify and explore the basic components of a typical circuit board, install an output jack, switches, body contacts (and more!), and control a world of new sounds. No previous electronics experience is required! Tools and components will be provided. Students are required to bring one or two battery powered devices to the class.

How To Build A Simple Contact Microphone
Sunday December 5th, 1:00 PM - 2:50 PM
The Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N Lincoln Ave
Register at 773-728-6000

Contact mics are inexpensive, easy to build, and can be a source for fun and experimental ways of creating new sounds for recording, art installations or various live performances. In just two hours we will show you how to make a simple, effective contact microphone from surplus and discarded materials. Students are encouraged to bring random objects to amplify - sheet metal, cardboard boxes, acoustic instruments, slinkies, coat hangers, textured plastic objects, etc.
No previous electronics experience is required!

2. MEECAS 2010 Audio Tracks Ready for Listening & Downloading
Thanks to everyone who made it out to the MEECAS and helped make it such an awesome, constructive day/evening. The videos and pics are starting to roll in. If you have any please feel free to dump them into one of the many "groups" on the www.MEECAS.com site. Thanks to (steven) Buck, we have high quality recordings of the evening's performances that you can listen to online, or download the MP3s. Also, if you have a chance, check out Tom Young's excellent portraits from the evening.

Thank you for your time,

Patrick McCarthy
www.RothMobot.com
www.MEECAS.com"

Cake Organ

YouTube via RothMobot. I think this one takes the cake. Bwahaha..
"Circuit Bent 'cake' keyboard with oscillator injection."

Hacked Cop Car Toy

YouTube via RothMobot
"Classic clock hack. Notice how the lights on the top of hte toy act as a built in VCF based LFO."

Glitching a Circuit with a Trash-Picked Photovoltaic Array and a Desk Lamp

YouTube via RothMobot | January 03, 2011 |

"Resurrected Loud Objects Circuit (battery compartment popped off), Found Photovoltaic Array, Desk Lamp, Stereo Headphones. Moving the desk lamp towards the array causes the circuit to glitch."

Teaching 6th Graders How to Solder at Eco Arts Festival

YouTube Uploaded by RothMobot on Apr 26, 2011

"Roth Mobot was invited to conduct one of their circuit bending workshops at the annual Eco Arts Festival in Cedar Rapids, Iowa."

actOnePartThreeCroppedCompressed.avi

YouTube Uploaded by RothMobot on May 12, 2011

"Roth Mobot was asked to perform a few of their strategically improvised recursive jazz pieces at TRANSISTOR in Chicago as the opening act for Tim Kaiser's "Numbers Station Test Pressing Tour." A huge "thank you" to audience member, Bob, for recording the performance with his iPhone. The piece is broken up into three main sections."

Hybrid Hacked Vocaid Incantor

YouTube via RothMobot | September 10, 2010

"A rare hybrid device by both Tommy Stephenson and Patrick McCarthy. They don't usually collaborate on the circuitry of their various devices. Both artists inserted custom circuitry and Tommy painted the exterior."