Game Art: Andrew Bucksbarg's "Circuit Bending - Lord Galaga Remix Performance II" (2011)
"Video performance using a hacked Jakks Pacific's Namco TV Games - Ms. Pac-Man Collection unit, a custom controller and Pure Data to perform with.
Introduced in 1981, the Galaga arcade game became a classic alien invasion game for the company Namco. Twenty-five years into the future, GalagaRemix appropriates a recent game pack circuit to create an audio-visual instrument that allows the performer or participant to play with a hacked version of the classic Galaga video game. By manipulating a simple interface, audio-visual artifacts are created over a continuous drone, exploring tonalities of audio-visual noise art.
Hardware hacking or "circuit bending" can refer to the inverting or "bending" of low voltage electronic circuits in order to create musical noise instruments from toys by short circuiting them. GalagaRemix explores the glitchy errors that happen when you invert or short-circuit a retro video game in order to create a noisy audio-visual performance extravaganza. With references to circuit bending, hacking and glitching used to create "alien sound effects," video game antics, experimental sound performance, VJ culture and early gaming, GalagaRemix colonizes the corporate product and contaminates an arcade game classic." (Andrew Bucksbarg)
Link: Andrew Bucksbarg
Submitted by Matteo Bittanti