[sdiy] Maybe OT? Circuit Bending class!

[Ian Smith]

> I would like to see people learning electronics, by building kits ,
> even simple things like "led flashes (555), and power supplies. Kits
> would be nice, but there's nothing like gathering the parts yourself.
> Start by subscribing to a magazine, or buying some beginners books.
> There's is a tremendous sense of satisfaction in understanding how
> something works and having the confidence to modify for your liking
> later, that randomly connecting things lacks in my opinion.
>
> Tony Kalomiris

I totally understand your concerns. I started out jumping right in and reading schematics after one introductory electronics class. The first thing I built was A Weird Sound Generator from Ray Wilson on a piece of perf-board. I didn't even know about circuit bending until a few years ago. 
The class that I really wanted to be teaching would have been more kit based and introducing people to synthesizers. I pitched that and the circuit bending class to the people in charge of the community arts center and they chose the circuit bending class. Nothing involving electronics has ever been taught at this center. Since the class was such a hit with the students and I got them excited about more advanced and standard electronics work it showed the education director that there is a place for electronics in art. 
And trust me... after only finding the resistor that changes the pitch of the toy a few times I kept catching myself saying things like: "Well, if we could voltage control that..." or "It would be really cool to put a filter on the output..."
-Ian Smith