Editor 's note : The staff at CNN.com has been intrigued by the journalism of Vice , an independent media company and Web site based in Brooklyn , New York . Motherboard.tv is Vice 's site devoted to the overlap between culture and technology . The reports , which are being produced solely by Vice , reflect a very transparent approach to journalism , where viewers are taken along on every step of the reporting process . We believe this unique approach is worthy of sharing with our CNN.com readers . Brooklyn , New York ( Motherboard.tv ) -- Last year , Motherboard went to Bent Festival , the world 's premier meeting of circuit benders , music hackers , and broken Speak n ' Spells . We spent a day at 81 Front St. in Dumbo , where hackers young and old , expert and amateur , came to break electronics in order to put them back together again , in the DIY spirit of groups like NYC Resistor and musicians like Reed Ghazala and Morton Subotnick . At night , a healthy roster of chiptune musicians and others made music with their homemade gear . Our visit last year started out as an average Saturday at the Dumbo , Brooklyn outlet of Mikey 's Hook Up , an Apple retailer and repair specialist . Well-groomed arty-types came in , alone , in couples , with lattes in hand , all there to admire the shiny wares or bring in their dead laptop for repair . The air was quiet , calm , tinged with some nail biting concern about lost files , perhaps , but mainly confident . In other words , no sign of the kind of melee happening in the art space just across the street , where the Bent Festival , the annual circus of the art of `` circuit bending , '' was happening . There , scattered impromptu groups of hardware hackers were tearing their gadgets apart , literally , in an attempt to do their own kind of fixing . Their only assistance came from men in worn T-shirts and beards whose advice consisted mainly of how to solder circuits together and the best way to break open plastic cases . To open one piece of electronics , someone resorted to simply throwing it at the floor , again and again , until its tiny tinny speaker started making death groans . ( Later , he would add a new , louder speaker , and make it make stranger sounds . ) Steve Jobs would have been scandalized . The gadgets in question were n't the sleek new phones and laptops being serviced across the street , but mainly plastic kids ' toys from the 1980s , built in China cheaply and at breakneck speed . Just as quickly had they been forgotten and trashed , which partly explained their presence , in various states of disassembly , on the workbenches . But apart from being cheap and easy to hack ( the smaller and sleeker gadgets have become , the harder they have become to break apart ) , these all had another thing going for them : they made beeping sounds . If you 're really lucky , some of them , like the Speak ' n ' Spell , even talk . Crack open a toy walkie talkie or a generic mini keyboard , rip off the coverings ( sometimes there 's even scotch tape inside ) , press a button , and simply lick a finger and touch a circuit . A short will cause the beep to become a bleeooooop , or a danger to become a dddddreeerrrrrrrrr . Wire an output to the speaker wire , plug in an amp , and you 've got an outer-space music box fit for an intense audio-visual extravaganza . Watch Hypnotizing Electronics : The Bent Festival at Motherboard.tv . While beginners and more expert circuit benders tinkered in workshops , small bands of musicians were huddled in the corners , preparing their homemade instruments for an all-out exposition of exploded instruments . At one point near the end of the night , a musician called Computer at Sea ( and introduced as `` the handsomer Dan Deacon , '' though that would only barely approximate his sound ) , began his set by excitedly rallying the audience the only way that would have made sense -- inviting them up to play his instruments . My hand shot up before he was finished asking , and soon it was on a keyboard , on a Simon Says knockoff , and there were all the other hands surrounding the table 's electronic feast , bathing in the torrent of sound and light and energy of our own creation . It was n't just the most fun I 'd had at a concert in a while ; it was the best kind of fun . Like the toys we were all playing , the music came in all shapes and sizes , in bright colors and from another world . The best part : the musicians , like everyone else , were n't just pressing buttons to get them to play music . They were making the buttons themselves . See more coverage from last year 's festival and an introduction to circuit bending before this year 's events start . Bent Festival 2011 starts June 23rd and runs until June 25th . Check out the schedule on the Bent Festival website for more information .
Brooklyn 's annual Bent Festival is a gathering of music hackers . Hackers use broken electronic gadgets to make music by `` circuit bending '' or'playing with the sound waves in order to create new sounds and effects that are not possible using standard equipment. "