The Giant Perplexi Feeley is a 2’x3’x1″ cast polyester resin panel with brass touch contact points attached to threaded posts, which are embedded in the resin along with a wire attached to each one. The wires converge near the bottom center of the panel where they attach to a 25 pin parallel connector. The circuit boards of circuit bent instruments are connected to the panel through this connector. The performer(s) touch the contact points, which literally connects them to the circuit, creating feedback, noise, distortion and other effects. The gallery below shows the construction process. Below that is a video of performances that incorporate it:
Crazy Box IR version. Up to 8 audio signals can be plugged into the crazy box. In this video, 5 circuit bent instruments are plugged into the Crazy Box. Each channel’s volume is controlled by infrared (IR) rangefinder sensors. the closer an object gets to a sensor (like the performer’s hand), the louder the instrument plugged into that channel gets. The overall level of an externally triggered amplitude envelope generator can be controlled by the sensors as well. 2 photos and a performance/demo video below:
The 49er – the original 49er is way more complicated than it needed to be due to my inexperience at the time, but it is way cooler to look at than subsequent versions. It is a box that rests on the video monitor of a portable DVD player. The monitor can display either a DVD or an external video signal like a camera. the bottom of the 49er has 49 photoresistors sitting flush against the monitor. Each one corresponds to one of 49 keys on a circuit bent Casio MT-240 keyboard. When any section of the monitor exceeds a certain brightness level, the photoresistor resistance goes low and it turns on a laser, which fires into a photoresistor in a second box which activates a relay which in turn plays a note on the keyboard. When a camera is feeding the monitor, the performer can wear a string of LEDs or LED finger lights and play the keyboard without touching it/ this video can be projected in order to have a visual correlation with the sound. the video below demonstrates that mode. In the first section of the video in the the lower left part of the frame you can see the lasers being activated. Below is a photo gallery of the construction process followed by the video:
