Qubais Reed Ghazala (born 1953), an American author, photographer, composer, musician and experimental instrument builder, is recognized as the "father of circuit bending," having discovered the technique in 1966, pioneered it, named it, and taught it ever since.
Ghazala, who is from Cincinnati, Ohio, has built experimental instruments and/or consulted for many prominent musicians and media companies including Tom Waits, Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, the Rolling Stones, Faust, Blur, Chris Cutler (the Residents, Henry Cow, Art Bears), Sri Chinmoy, Rob Schwimmer (Simon and Garfunkel), Nine Inch Nails, Towa Tei, Blue Man Group, Yann Tomita and MTV, among others.
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 (April 8, 2004, Technology Section, Matthew Mirapaul), and can be found being taught world-wide.
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 [1] and Japanese suminagashi [2], as well as liquid, gel and smoke chambers, mobiles and pyrotechnics.