Roth Mobot was commissioned again this year to design, build, and "bend" the electronic interiors of the annual Third Coast Festival awards. Once finished, the electronics are housed in retro-styled radios fabricated at Trek Studios. Each award plays two minutes of the winner's documentary, and has a "bent" option; giving each award an interactive playability that is unique for each person examining it.
Roth Mobot's Patrick McCarthy assembling the awards' electronics
Trek Studios' custom radio-shaped housings
A spontaneous jam breaks out during a systems test at Trek Studios
The winners holding their finished awards (photo by Vanessa Churchill)
Roth Mobot's Circuit Bending Workshop (photo by The Spin)
Roth Mobot Performing
The Nashville Scene printed a flattering review of Nashville's recent Circuit Benders' Ball. They mention their involvement in Roth Mobot's Introduction to Circuit Bending workshop and our later performance, as well as the performances of some of the other artists.
Be sure to check out the strip of photos at the bottom of the article. The photographer had quite an artful eye and caught the spirit of the entire day's event.
"...this Circuit Benders' Ball may be the biggest one yet." says Joe Nolan in the recent issue of Nashville Scene. ROTH MOBOT is mentioned in the second to last paragraph in this rather flattering write-up.
"If you do only one thing at the ball, take Roth Mobot's Intro to Circuit Bending..." "It's a rare opportunity to learn from two of the genre's true masters."
Saturday, September 29th, 2012
Workshops, 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM, The Skillery
Performances, 8:00 PM - 1:00 AM, The Brick Factory
Chicago's circuit bent duo, ROTH MOBOT will be continuing their mission of spreading the word of "easy electronics" by headlining this year's Circuit Benders' Ball in Nashville Tennessee. In addition to performing their unique music on circuit bent toys and home made electronics, Tommy and Patrick will be directly involving more people in this fast-growing area of the acquired technology arts by heading up a series of hands-on workshops at Nashville's Skillery.
WORKSHOPS Chip to be Square: Build Your Own Synthesizer
With Josh Gumiela
10:00AM - 1:00PM
This workshop will teach you how to build your own square wave synthesizer. A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument capable of producing a wide range of frequencies (notes) to make melodies. Square waves are one of the most commonly used waveforms in all synthesizers. They sound somewhat rough to our ears and might remind you of old 8-bit video game systems such as the Atari 2600 or Nintendo Entertainment System.
Introduction to Circuit Bending
With Tommy Stephenson & Patrick McCarthy of ROTH MOBOT
2:00PM - 5:00PM
In this workshop, you can take apart an old toy and make a brand new musical instrument! You'll be able to identify and explore the basic components of a typical circuit board, the basics of soldering, install output jacks, switches, body contacts (and more!), and control a world of new sounds.
Build a Buckawatt "Bend-a-Boost" Modular Boost Kit
With Zach Adam
5:30PM - 7:00PM
The Bend-a-Boost is a transistor-based boost kit that is easily configured on modular sockets. It is a single stage amplifier used to boost an audio signal, which works as an active volume control.
PERFORMANCES This year's event has a HUGE lineup of well established as well as up and coming artists in the field:
ROTH MOBOT – Chicago, IL
Blight Side of Life – Nashville, TN
Brain Lesion – Murfreesboro, TN
Elegant Bassterds – Nashville, TN (Ben Marcantel and Derek Schartung)
Josh Gumiela, Kelli Shay Hix, Lucas McCallister – Nashville, TN
Hadals – Nashville / Montgomery, AL
Joey Molinaro – New York City, NY
Nashville Robotic Philharmonic – Benton, KY (Zack Adams of CMKT4)
Pimpdaddysupreme – Nashville, TN
Pineapple Explode – Nashville, TN
Posttaste – Nashville, TN (Tommy Stangroom of Square People)
Teletron Orchestra – Nashville/Murfreesboro, TN (Dylan Simon and Ken Soper)
Monday, September 17, 2012, 9:00 PM The Hungry Brain 2319 W Belmont Ave., Chicago (map)
Donations Suggested, Thank you.
As a part of the ongoing Dreambait Presents series Chicago's own ROTH MOBOT will be performing an extended improvised experimental recursive jazz set on some newly hacked and bent toys and home made experimental electronic devices.
Performances will be accompanied by live experimental video projections by Left Arm Single.
This will be ROTH MOBOT's last performance before they leave Illinois at the end of the month to take Nashville TN by storm at Theatre Intangible's Circuit Benders Ball.
Roth Mobot's Patrick McCarthy receiving his official MSI employee lanyard
Roth Mobot's Patrick McCarthy was recently hired as "Facilitator" for the Wanger Family FAB LAB in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Patrick will be teaching museum guests of all ages how to design "pretty much anything you want" on computers and then how to "print" them "into reality" using laser cutters, vinyl cutters, 3-D fabricators, and more.
"It's a huge honor to be part of such a forward-thinking team." Says Patrick of the museum's Center for the Advancement of Science Education. "Hands-on learning in labs like this is a huge part of the future of education and 'digital literacy.' Some of us have been banging this drum for a long time -- but we've gotten used to the idea of sometimes being from the future."
My "First Fab"
Perhaps you will run into Patrick during one of the FAB LAB's new series of workshops that the museum is developing. The workshops will range from simple quick "How to Fab a Vinyl Sticker" to "How to Fab a Keychain" to "How to Fab a Radio-Controlled Walking Robot," and more!
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