Circuit Bending
The process of circuit bending is a delicate balance between freestyle experimentation and reverse engineering. The process involved freely searching for glitches, new features, and distortions in the original hardware, while at the same time preserving and not damaging the original components. It is a trial-and-error procedure that can yield unexpected results, both in terms of unlocking new features in the device and potentially breaking it completely.
This unpredictability is precisely why we are fascinated by this technique and find it unique: it dances on the spectrum of possibilities and experiments and designs over something that already exists, creating a methodology based on adaptability, hacking, reusing — concepts difficult to find and apply in other contexts. This vision also requires care and attention, creating a magical tension between what the artefact could or could not become.
Open Collective Jam
JALEO has been officially presented during the event Alquimia in SSuave3000, on 12-06-24 as part of the MDEFest 2024.
To present the project, we organized an “Open Collective Jam”, a happening in which all of our instruments were available for everyone to play with, creating a gathering for collective jamming. The objective was to let the collective sounds, noise, and process of discovery arise as protagonists, rather than the individual musical skills.
The lack of rules in the design of the instruments allows anyone to play sounds, offering a unique and approachable interaction compared to traditional instruments, which can be intimidating due to their interface, architecture, and cultural background.
Live
After this moment of co-creation, we also wanted to share our personal process of experimenting with the instruments that we built and show their potential by designing and performing an Audio/Visual Live Performance of JALEO.
We designed the set to reflect our process by including every artifact we built as part of the performance. Although the performance was mostly improvised, we strategically included and distributed our tools and their features throughout the performance to highlight their unique aspects.
