Reed Ghazala

Qubais Reed Ghazala is an American author, photographer, musician, composer, and experimental instrument builder. He was described by Motherboard as the "father of circuit bending".

Ghazala, who is from Cincinnati, Ohio, Ghazala's work has been covered globally in the press including the New York Times 's declaration of circuit-bending as part of the fine arts movement.

Ghazala's work is held in various galleries internationally including the permanent collections of New York City's Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim and the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of the Fusion Arts compendium.

Ghazala's influence upon creative electronic design is global, having originated the planet's first "grassroots electronic art movement" (while Ghazala has noted that he was not the lone, or first, experimenter in the field, it should be recognized that his contemporaries' work, regardless of date, did not spawn an international and specific art movement replete with original terminology, processes and an ever-increasing fellowship).

Ghazala's practice with chance art (the root of circuit-bending) also involves studies in dye migration materials and Japanese suminagashi, as well as liquid, gel and smoke chambers, mobiles and pyrotechnics.

History Ghazala accidentally discovered the technique of circuit bending in the 1960s when a toy amplifier in his desk drawer began to make "very strange oscillating sweeping sounds". The amplifier's casing had been opened, exposing its inner circuitry and allowing it to short circuit against another metal object. Ghazala's work in the field progressed with the introduction of the Speak & Spell toy in 1978.