TCF2011awardPrototype

YouTube Uploaded by RothMobot on Oct 15, 2011

4017 Vactrol Sequencer

YouTube Uploaded by RothMobot on Oct 1, 2011

"A prototype device for teaching workshops on how to use the 4017 sequencer chip to trigger sounds in a circuit bent toy. A 555 is driving the 4017 (in four step mode) which is driving four vactrols which are triggering different sounds on a circuit bent zoo toy. The toy also has a 500k pot controlling its clock frequency."

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."

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."

Roth Mobot Workshop on Channel 9 News

YouTube Uploaded by RothMobot on Apr 22, 2011

"Roth Mobot was invited to host a circuit bending workshop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for the New Bohemia's Eco Arts Festival."

Roth Mobot Experimental Electronics Events

via the Roth Mobot Newsletter:

1.Crowdsourced 1.0 @ The Empty Bottle

Sunday, April 10, 2011, 7:00 - 10:00 PM

The Empty Bottle, 1035 N Western Ave., Chicago, $3

Photo by Scott Rettberg

To the unfamiliar, "crowdsourced" means that the content that is the most popular "rises to the top" via votes--as in, the crowd chooses what's the most relevant. Threadless is a good example: only the designs that are voted hottest actually make it to production.

Electronic music fans and supporters were asked to vote on a number of submissions from Chicago artists to determine the lineup for a night of entertainment at the Empty Bottle. Approximately 600 online-votes later, the results were in, and the top four acts were picked, and will perform in order of the number of votes received.

Crowdsourced 1.0 Lineup:
dreamlogicc 9:15pm
Protman 8:30pm
Roth Mobot 7:45pm
Polyfuse 7:00pm

2.Tim Kaiser & Roth Mobot, Live @ TRANSISTOR

Photo by Tom Young

Friday, April 22, 8 PM
TRANSISTOR, 5045 N. Clark St., Chicago
$5 suggested donation ~BYOB~

TRANSISTOR presents experimental circuit bent performers Tim Kaiser and Roth Mobot. According to Art Tape, "Tim Kaiser not only creates compelling musical soundscapes, but he does it all with instruments he has built -- truly hand-made music for the atmospheric aficionado." Says Kaiser, “My music is atmospheric; I’m not as concerned with melody or rhythm as I am with texture and feeling… …perhaps I’m creating a kind of folk music from the future.” (Source: Theatre Intangible interview with Tim Kaiser). More of Tim's work at www.TimKaiser.org.

Roth Mobot's Patrick McCarthy and Tommy Stephenson have been transforming music composition from an activity of composition and "correct duplication" to exploration and "sonic discovery" with their strategically improvised "recursive jazz" performed on home made experimental and circuit bent devices since 2005. More at www.RothMobot.com.

3.The Boys & Girls Club of America

Photo by Michael T. Kennedy, Ph.D.

Recently Roth Mobot was invited by Northwestern University to give one of their lecture/demonstrations of experimental musical instrument construction to a the local Science Club chapter of the Boys and Girls Club of America.

Patrick explained the principles of constructive failure, acoustic exploration, and rudimentary experimental electronics hacking to a group of approximately twenty students and their teachers.


4.Roth Mobot Written Up in the DuPage Courier

The College of DuPage's student newspaper, the Courier, recently published an interview with Tommy and Patrick in their Arts section. It's a nice write up, focusing on our approach to music, our re-purposing of discarded technology, and our academic focus on community building.

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."

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."

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"

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."

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."

Roth Mobot at OFFF Paris 2010

YouTube via RothMobot | July 19, 2010

"Dr. Bleep, of Bleep Labs, recorded a section of our performance at the 2010 OFFF Design Conference in the Loopita Theater in La Grande Halle de La Villette in Paris.

The video has a weird, speeded up quality to it that we will to fix."

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."

Cake Organ

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

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.'"

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."

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

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...

finishedAward

YouTube via RothMobot

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."