Upcoming Roth Mobot Events

1. Circuit Bent Open Mic
Saturday, September 26th, 12:00 noon - 3:00 PM
Lizard's Liquid Lounge
3058 W Irving Park Rd, Chicago, (773) 463-7599
In an effort to nurture the experimental electronics community in Chicago, we are 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, and every last Saturday an experimental electronics open mic. $4 Burning River pints.

2. Deadline Projects presents Hands On
Saturday, October 10th, 6:00 PM - 11:00 PM
Happy Dog Gallery
1542 N Milwaukee, 2nd Floor, Chicago
An exhibition of multidisciplinary art designed to cause sensory overload. Local artists present new work specifically created to be touched, handled, and manipulated by the audience.

Update via Michael Una in the comments: "at the "Hands-On" show I'll be debuting an all-analog drum machine I built from the SN76477 synth-on-a-chip"

Exhibiting and performing artists include:
Arielle Bielak
nikki hollander
Damien James
Blake Parish Lewis
Roth Mobot
Vivien Park
Sarah Perez
Holly Sabin
Marc Salha
Shawn Stucky
Michael Una
Russ White

3. Introduction to Circuit Bending Workshop
Sunday, October 11th, 1:00 PM - 4:50 PM
The Old Town School of Folk Music
4544 N Lincoln Ave., Chicago, (773) 728-6000
Learn the basics of Circuit Bending and build a unique musical instrument out of discarded electronics.
Register via the Old Town School's web site, or give them a call.
BRING A BATTERY-POWERED TOY

4. Building an Inexpensive Contact Microphone Workshop
Sunday, October 18th, 1:00 PM - 2:50 PM
The Old Town School of Folk Music
4544 N Lincoln Ave., Chicago, (773) 728-6000
Contact mics are widely used by acoustic musicians, noise artists, and other audio experimenters. They are usually used to amplify the sounds of fiddles, guitars, mandolins, drums, etc., but they are sensitive enough to directly amplify human voice boxes, heartbeats, the sounds of fingernails on chalkboards, or various "found object percussion" instruments. In just two hours, Patrick McCarthy will show you how to make a simple, inexpensive, effective contact microphone from surplus parts and discarded materials. Register via the Old Town School's web site, or give them a call.

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"

2nd Annual Experimental Garage Sale

Saturday August 08,2009
At the Experimental Sound Studio
5925 N Ravenswood, Chicago, IL, 773-769-1069
12 noon - 8 PM

Ransom Duets Recording Session 8 PM - 11 PM

Midwest circuit benders and DIY artists will be unloading piles and piles of thrift store treasures like keyboards, Speak and Spells, and oddity kids toys. The sellers will also be demonstrating and selling LoFi Synth prototypes, kits, handmade contact microphones, and completed circuit bent works of art. Bring wads of cash to snag some awesome deals, otherwise this is a great chance to experience circuit bent devices in person and make new friends.

Special Guest, Father of the Circuit Bending movement, Reed Ghazala
Reed promises to have for sale some of the best vintage electronic parts available anywhere, like shuttered or polarized pilot lenses, short-throw all-metal reset switches, plus glass deer eyes, classic knobs, signed CDs, historic ephemera and way more. He will also be signing hand-annotated copies of his Circuit Bending: Build Your Own Alien Instruments book. Hope to see you there!

The list of sellers has been finalized to include a wide geographic variety of Midwestern Artists.Last year’s round up from the event can be found here. Music through out the day and the sale is Free to get in.

Sellers:
GetLoFi.com/shop - Alex Dyba ( IA )
Roth Mobot - Patrick McCarthy ( IL )
Roth Mobot - Tommy Stephenson ( IL )
Creme Dementia - Austin Cliffe ( IL )
Thejunkyard Catalyst - Karl ( OH )
Spunky Toofers - Daniel Park ( MO )
Properboy - Steve Stoll ( IN )
Pelzwik - Nick Heimer ( MN )
Datura 1.0 - Matt Cisler ( MN )
Mike Una - ( IL )

Later in the evening we will be pulling names out of a hat and conducting a series of brief duets to be professionally recorded at the studio. So stick around for what will undoubtedly be one of the best FREE shows in Chicago that night!

check out the Facebook Event Page or the mySpace page

Experimental Garage Sale 2009

via GetLoFi where you'll find the full details.

"Sellers:
GetLoFi.com/shop - Alex Dyba ( IA )
Roth Mobot - Patrick McCarthy ( IL )
Roth Mobot - Tommy Stephenson ( IL )
Creme Dementia - Austin Cliffe ( IL )
Thejunkyard Catalyst - Karl ( OH )
Spunky Toofers - Daniel Park ( MO )
Properboy - Steve Stoll ( IN )
Pelzwik - Nick Heimer ( MN )
Datura 1.0 - Matt Cisler ( MN )
Mike Una - ( IL )

Special Guest: Reed Ghazala! ( OH )"

Aegis Sonix: An Early Software Synth With Patrick McCarthy Roth Mobot

YouTube via gearwire
"Aegis Sonix was cutting edge back in 1984, and it's even kind of neat now. But does it have Reversi?"

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."

The Midwest Experimental Electronics Showcase

"The Midwest Experimental Electronics Showcase
Saturday, May 16th, 7 PM
Lizard's Liquid Lounge
3058 W Irving Park Rd., Chicago, 773-463-7599

~NO COVER~

Audio &visual artists and inventors from the Midwest gather to share their recent homemade experimental electronics projects, instruments, videos, and robots at this DIY convention/lab. Circuit Benders, Toy Hackers, Tech Pirates, and Recycling Junkies will have an opportunity to perform, demonstrate, and lecture about their recent work in the fast-growing art of Acquired Technology."

Line-up: Tim Kaiser,Talking Computron,Hey Coma, Thriftstore Boratorium,Créme DeMentia, Roth Mobot,Alex Inglizian,Mike Una,AutoShrimp,djswyll.
via brian c

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

Earth Day Circuit Bending Workshop / Salon 4/25/09

flickr set by Roth Mobot
follow-up to this post

pictured: Bent Shrek Lunchbox

"Alex Deeba's Clock Bent Happy Meal Shrek Baby Toy with Inverter Trigger / LFO Injection mounted in Brookfield Zoo Lunchbox"

via Patrick of Roth Mobot:
"Thanks to everyone for making last Saturday's Hacking Salon such a blast. Here's some documentation:


flickr set
blog
YouTube
http://www.GetLoFi.com"

Rubber Bandjo

YouTube via RothMobot
"Experiments with rubber band, piezoelectric pickup, c-clamp, violin box and table"

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