Also many intended and programmed sounds, beats, drum machines, and even
full demos are hidden inside the hardware, unreachable from the outside keyboards
and interfaces. Inside your old 80’s toy keyboard hidden relics are kept, and not
only that; a whole new way of making music. Bent out from discarded toys a new
world of music, tones and noise can be born, something circuit bender Brian Duffy
often demonstrates in his live hacking performances. In these performances he
uses a camera and projector to, before his concert starts, show how he reverse en-
gineers, constructs and prepares his instruments by opening and tuning the cir-
cuits in very simple steps. What he does is that he actually liberates the hidden po-
tentials inside and opens new action spaces. Before the audience’s eyes he releases
imprisoned noises and with these lines of flight summons new forms of playful
musical experiences. After the show the audience leaves with glistening eyes, hun-
gry for discarded electronic toys and fingers itching for the need to break open and
play with circuits.
Also in this practice, as spatially exemplified in Urban Exploration, we see the curi-
ous trespassing and opening of new action spaces, but without tearing down old
structures. Circuit benders do not oppose other forms of music, or try to subvert
the classical canon of music. Instead they try to draw new lines through the musi-
cal charts, reveal new tones and noises to make new forms of music. By creatively
short-circuiting the existing music toys they reveal new multiplicities or music
creation, new unpredictable lines of flight for music.
We have now seen some trespassing hacktivist practices that curiously cross bor-
ders and share their methods and paths to build experiences for others. Another
such border zone where we can see a hacktivist practice emerge is the distinction
between two practices, craft and activism. On the one hand it can be said that craft
is apolitical as an amateur does it discreetly as a hobby and it is mainly of interest
for the practicing subject. However, on he other hand, when craft breaks its borders
to expand into other activist-related fields something very interesting happens. An
abstract machine of hacktivism evolves in the shape of “craftivism”.
craftivism
The practice in which craft meets political activism is popularly called “craftivism”
(Greer, Spencer 2007: 228ff ). Craftivism is a reinvention of craft, by updating or
hacking tradition and making it a tool for raising political questions. Using crafts
for political debate is of course not new, but what has happened over the last dec-
ade is a rebirth of popular crafts among a generation of young people who by their
parents are often seen as apolitical and who were normally used to buying things
ready-made. The reason for this rebirth can be manifold. As argued by crafter Jean
Railla (2006) it can be because artisans are held up as the heroes of our time, in the
“creative economy”, but also as an amateur rebellion against just that. According to
Railla it can also be because, as consequence of the feminist struggle, domestic la-
bour is no longer seen as suppressive, yet it can be a political protest against glo-
balized labour conditions, manifested in the sweatshops of East Asia.
This updated craft, sometimes called NeoCraft or NuCraft, is currently being de-
veloped in a wide range of ways, from renewing stitching by using radically new
patterns or meanings, to combining crafting with social activist protests like stitch
sit-ins at Nike stores to protest against sweatshops. But not the least, as a “new do-
mesticity” craftvism is a resurgence that reclaims craft as tools and methods to