I went to the first night of Bent NYC last night and was really blown away. There were all kinds of circuit bent exhibits and performers. Everything was pretty wonderful but the highlight of the night was by far L.A. artist Phillip Stearns.

He had a circuit board in front of him w/ around 10-20 touch spot where he could control the sound w/ his fingers and hands. Linked to that were four drop lights, aimed right at his face. The lights that jumped and flickered with the same intensity as the noise he was making. These lights were the only lights on the the building, perfectly highlighting Phil’s involuntary ticks, twitches, and down right pain. You see, he had four electrodes taped to each arm so when ever he made connections in the circuit it would send electricity racing though his body! At first I didn’t think the pain was all that bad, but with in his twenty min. set you could see him working out the cramps and tension in his hands and arms just in order to point his finger touch the board and get shocked some more.

It was amazing. Here are a couple of youtube clips from last night.

He has some other stuff up on his website (linked above) and a little bit on his myspace all of which are cool but nothing that toped last night.