Re-Published here per multiple request for the article and key64 being dead as shit until they get their act together. Needs a Re-write/Updated – soon….
Circuit Bending – Modern DIY OcculTech
I could sit here and write the typical how-to BS article about circuit bending you can find anywhere on-line but instead Imma approach it in a spiritual sense. Circuit bending is one of the latest forms of occult technology to emerge over the past 20 years, and I would argue one of the most potent due to it’s correct form. You’re prolly wondering what qualifies this as occultech? I mean it’s just making instruments out of kids toys and abandoned other (usually) battery-operated noise producers, right? No, Wrong – it’s a direct channel into chaos, as circuit bending takes circuit boards and rewires them to send incorrect voltages to transitors, capacitors, etc. This results in Random output from the machine. It is in this manner that we establish a channel to divine chaos’ manifestation within this technomantic art.
Occultech is quite an antiquated notion really, throughout time magickal weapons, talismans, sigils, etc. have fufilled this role. Over the past century more analog occultech has come into being alongside further understanding and exploration of conciousness, one good example one be the Woodard Dream Machine.(LINK!!!!) In the modern day we have electronic technology which can fufill the roles of divination – we shouldn’t need to mention any tarot, astrological, or numerological based software, and even sorcery it’s self has moved into the digital realms (i.e. Psychotronics).
However, rarely is true randomness employed, and when it is usually it’s rather limited in the functions it triggers. The random algorithm in computer programming languages is based on the time function, a microsecond number is taken as the seed and run through an algebraic expression which produces a “semi-random†number. This is well and good and is certainly an example of generating randomness from each moment of the singularity embodied in that microsecond ued as the seed, but it is limited. Pre-exsisting circuitry designed to generate random output has exsisted for almost half a century and running an electrical current through these physical algorithms†can result in true randomness.
This is what is employed in the modding of pre-exsisting devices known as circuit bending. When we move beyond the cliche’ elements of making an instrument which produces bad noise and crappy tracks to accompany it (not always the case, but hey some people ARE lazy) and actually approach it in a spiritual manner, employing it in a ritualised audiotory enviorment evokes a divine presence manifest through chaos matrices from the machine at hand. In Circuit bending, you are building a magickal evocatory device for your art – now that’s fucking nifty IMO.
Why is it useful to employ random chaotic notions in your magick, though? Because it will distort your linear perception of time based events. This can be key to creating particular gnostic states. Circuit bending also allows the machine it’s own gnosis and when placed in a magickal enviorment both audiotory and physically, the machine’s random output will likewise produce magickal results. Those who speak of AI as the point of sentience for machines fail to see their level of conciousness in the moment of now. All matter has some level of conciousness. Conciousness is defined as the ability to react stimuli – even atoms react to the stimulus of any other atom they come into contact with. We are stuck on defining conciousness and sentience in terms of the quality that we experience these mechanisms through. This is err on our part; it stems from the perpetual trap of ego-centric perception. Mechanical/Electrical conciousness is in a state of evolution through interaction with ourselves. Silicon is evolving beyond it’s limited quality of mineral-based conciousness. As we alter the way we interact with it, we alot more room for growth of this newly emerging sentience. Giving something multiple options with a random assignment to outcome is base level sentience. If it were a servitor you’d call it sentient, mayhaps because it’s more likely to be semi-humanoid in that form? For all you know it is merely a construct of the self and not comprised of anything other than a small portion of the randomly assembled Kia you consist of. That’s not a good argument in favor of it being in possession of any sentience beyond yourself.
Whilst we’re on the subject of future-tech, let’s ponder some of the ways circuit bending heralds on-coming spiritual technology. Firstly, EEG/Brainwave interfacing with machines is represented in a very base-level format through the employment of contact points which interject one’s electrical resonance on the skin from your biocomputer directly into the circuit, this can result in a multitude of effects and shift the randomness based on this human-machine interface’s presence. This does indeed foreshadow on-coming interface-oriented changes in technology. In addition to this circuit bending will similiarly use lightwaves to alter it’s output. It was not so long ago, shortly after the turn of the century, that magick was expressed in terms of lightwaves and the ether. As time progressed, this model was dethroned to a degree by quantum physics. When wave-particle duality suffered a similiar fate in the aforementioned field, the model of string theory replaced it. String theory was literally disproven by the (re)introduction of an 11th dimension into it’s model, yielding an M-theory singulairty. Point is, all said and done, despite the modern take (or lack thereof at points), Lightwaves are still able to be carriers of magick and information and computers aren’t introducting lightwaves into their circuits VIA interfaces to affect their product.
Magick has always been an empowering DIY art, it’s practitioners have utilized many tools in a variety of manner throughout time. The modern neophyte technomancer is disempowered from the get go simply based on where (s)he’ll stand relative to the large amounts of information needed to execute an operation through the technical aspects of this art. As a result He/She has only the option of utilizing pre-formed digi-tools for executing work – esp. looking towards computer-based solutions to magickal questions. Often times you can find an executable that claims to do what you need but did you write it off of principals you researched and thus believed to be true? Essentially circuit bending offers us a simple and elegant solution for building occultech out of equipment brought into your possession – often times through synchronicity – as a means of digital invocation and evocation.
