Pikachu Circuit Bent Goggles

pikachu_goggle1 (Custom)

These nifty looking goggles are actually an instrument. The guts of a pikachu doll have been splayed and mounted to the goggles. The controller is an external box that allows you to make all kinds of changes to the pitch and sample section. You can see a video of it after the break. We don’t really find this to be great music, but find watching the guy fairly amusing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKGQjjTj6oY]

40 thoughts on “Pikachu Circuit Bent Goggles

  1. Hmmm, lack of materials at hand? I do like the visual display element of the glasses.

    Would be cool to add visualizations to any bent instrument. The way I would make it would make the glasses an accessory, plug them in if you want to.

    I like the terminator effect for sure.

  2. @ girrrrrr2:

    he wanted to hide his true id, guess he didn’t want to be made fun of.

    I really don’t like circuit bending, but this kid does show some talent in electronics. would have been better if he could have changed the sound sample too.

  3. I like it. An inventive use for goggles. Maybe he’s not daft punk, but its a cool bending project.

    Honestly, if you have to hate on it, submit something better you made.

  4. Well he’s better than most, I’ll give him that. He shows he knows how to get a sound he wants out of it, rather than flailing with a spoon in his mouth.
    The tacked on battery pack and circuit eyepatch are ugly though, it misses the ‘cyber’ mark by miles.

  5. I did like that his control box is a florescent lamp. It might sound awful, but I think that it makes him look like so much a dork is part of the total “art” behind it all.

  6. to hardon collider

    first your name, com’on seriously, that’s gay.

    second, as i look at circuit bending, i realize that to NOT understand it is the way to succeed in it. if someone like this kid actually has electronic skill, well he can’t be a circuit bender, he’s to GOOD! he must be a sell out or something. you want me to take circuit bending seriously, get more people like this kid into and get them an education in either electronics or music, both would be uber, but don’t think we don’t understand you, “oh boo hoo, nobody understands me.” that gets like no sympathy from me, so hide your face away from the world, cause we don’t need to see it.

  7. ok hardon, i just went to your myspace and OMFG you dork. your music is torture. i can’t say anything bad about your philosophical viewpoint (that’s the beauty of them, it’s yours and yours alone) but you can keep it with the full knowledge that there is at least one person out there (me) that accepts that you are fully justified in very own personalized viewpoint (regardless of how moronic it appears to everyone else).

    keep up the good work, the world needs people like you (to laugh at)

  8. I thought some of Hardon Collider’s tunes were pretty heavy actually. Not necessarily the uber noize-scape stuff, but the broken-beat d’n’b was pretty good.

  9. Let the haters do their job, don’t trip on them.

    Do you guys know that Circuit Bending is the Origin of SOUNDS for video games? cmon… how can it not be cool? The 1st home video game console wouldn’t have had sound if it wasnt for circuit bending.

    You must have not seen the instruments used in a proper way, or just haven’t seen very many bent instruments in general. Not to mention their use as synthesizers in general for all ranges of samples that have been used in many productions (that you most likely don’t even realize)

    Take the melloman for instance
    http://www.mysterycircuits.com/melloman/melloman.html

    Not cool?

    Aside from that, I just wanted to post that this inspired me to think of DIY REM Sleep detector flashing goggles, for lucid dreaming. Is there any DIY instructions for one of those?

    I found this similar DIY brain wave led goggles as well;
    http://www.hackcanada.com/homegrown/wetware/brainwave/gallery/index.html

    very interesting….

  10. Same, I just don’t see the fascination in making things that make noise make slightly different noises. Two things that annoy me more.

    1 – The 4 month run up to Halloween on most hack sites.
    2 – Anything with the suffix -duino.

  11. Okay, you still don’t seem to get it, or understand what EXPERIMENTAL means. It’s SUPPOSED to be gritty, it’s SUPPOSED to look cheap, it’s SUPPOSED to not be fully serious. It’s an art form of free expression and chance. It’s not meant to be a professional and refined art, it’s something to have fun with. Like it or love it, you can’t just say “oh it looks crappy like that, why did he put it in that” and so on, the thing is it’s supposed to be like that. It’s giving life to new things, repurposing and reinventing.

    Also, Hardon Collider is a play off the Large Hadron Collider if you didn’t catch that. And the music on the webpage is mostly breakcore, old stuff, and there for our and who-ever cares to lisen’s enjoyment.

  12. to hard-on collider, oh boo hoo, nobody understands your play on words, and you don’t understand mine, I put a hyphen in it to help spell it out for you; it’s gay, if you need more than that . . .well you need help anyway but of a different kind.

    and even though it’s experimental what this kid has made is a prototype and a pretty good one (i’m sure you’d agree) but where do you go from there, maybe a second prototype? V2.0? at some point, prototypes are remade, presumably better, and a final version is achieved. when will your music reach this evolutionary plateau? when will you graduate from monkey slapping music to true art?

    and now about you:
    “Popular music is disposable garbage used to subjugate the masses.”

    -yeah whatever

    “Academic music is disposable garbage used to subjugate the aristocracy.”

    -fascinating

    “Anti-music is disposable garbage used to subjugate the post-post-modern artistic community.”

    -i’m sensing a trend, you think music is disposable garbage so you create “music” that sounds like it came from a garbage disposal.

    now a little about me “music is an expression of something deeper within.” Jay Platte fort wayne bible college.

  13. I’m digging the DIY keyboard made from a florescent light fixture as much as the bend!

    Neat stuff from a project standpoint, but don’t douche out with the philosophy, ‘kay?

  14. Hi,

    I really like this piece, I think Kaseo is on to something with this interface, and have been trying to implement the same principle in conjunction with a 40106 osc to create a playable 8-bit synth.

    I also like Hardon Collider, and think they should be given respect for creating something, and having the cojones to stand by it.

    If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all, ladies and gentlemen understand this as a matter of course.

  15. @ circuitben and mcfat-hands. btw is that both circuitben and cruel hand luke or did you just post twice and forget to clear the websight bar?

    being a critic is fun you should try it, no one takes you seriously unless they are complete idiots, having said that, let me comment about your music (yes i went to your myspace page, twice). your music is very simple, 8-bit from the sound of it but the sound processors are more complex than your tonal progression, there isn’t any, you seem to be playing the same pattern over and over and over and over . . . you get the idea. Is this sort of thing popular over in the uk? just curious.

  16. i play a little, enough to teach my daughters piano, i have an old miracle keyboard that’s midi, but i prefer the piano overall. and i’m not embittered towards people having fun with music, i believe in self expression too, but music has a very deep and profound meaning to me personally, it actually pains me to witness people, who believe they are serious about music who don’t appear to honestly try. if somethings worth doing, it’s your obligation to do it the best you can, and improve your own skill above all else. regardless of what others think. that’s how i tell the serious from the non-serious, the true artist doesn’t care about what i say, the posers do.

  17. I like piano. I can’t play it though. You should see what Sarah Niccols has done with piano. You’ll love it.

    You seem to be serious about music. I like that. I like you Vikki. You’ve got balls. You express your opinion freely, as it’s your god given right. I think you and I could be real, good friends. Soul mates, perhaps.

    What IS your idea of music? What moves you the most?

    You’re right, however. I am a poser. You’ve found me out. It’s my shame up for display. My whole image is one big facade. I’m really just crying out for salvation. It’s hard though, y’know. Striving to find your place on this planet. I know I was destined for something… or maybe someone.

    A true artist may not care what you say, but I do. It’s like a stark cry from the abyss.
    ‘Save me Fat-Hands’ you shriek. I can try Vikki, I can try.

  18. I checked out sarah niccols, um interesting, not my style, I’m not into that kind of “Modern music”, and i had the opportunity to play some in college, but it never did anything for me. I like subtle complexities, being able to listen to a piece several times and finding something new every time. Mozart, Beethoven, wagner, these are classics to me. as far as more contemporary artist, I would have to say peter gabriel, prince, u2, and dire straits. these have complexity, but their music also fits together like a jigsaw piece, going from one piece to another in a predestined way. it can be predictable, yes, but still pleasing to hear.

    I guess it’s how i view the universe, not as some random jumble of energies bouncing here and there, but as an infinite balance between harmony and conflict.

    but i guess that is a conversation left for a more appropriate forum, not to clutter up the hack a day server.

  19. I’m not averse to predictable music. A lil bit of Knofler is many-a-persons guilty pleasure.

    I think Clara Rockmore would be more up your street than Sarah Niccols. Clara is a theremin virtuoso. You can find her,well her videos at least, on youtube. Classical compositions. Piano accompiament. Emotion, grace… it’s all there and I hope you enjoy.

    You name the forum and I’ll be happy to continue this debate.

Leave a Reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.