The Performed Bend

A 23-second continuous take of capacitance played as an instrument — 19 moves, open → 2n2 → open — plus burst-locked color decodes of what each setting does to a figure.

Most bends on this site are held still long enough to photograph. This one is played.

The instrument is a relay-switched capacitor bank sitting in a composite video path. Each move switches a different capacitance onto the signal — from open circuit, down through the bank to 2.2 nF, and back to open — 19 moves in 23 seconds. The signal was captured raw at 13.5 MS/s and decoded from the samples afterward.

Two cuts of the same performance:

FIG. 1 — the lockable cut. Only the moments stable enough for the certified decoder to lock a field. What a piece of test equipment agrees happened.

The full take includes the passages where the decoder loses sync entirely and the raster tears loose — the parts a CRT would still display and a decoder refuses to certify. [DRAFT: full forced-raster take is 93 MB — hosting decision pending; it belongs here.]

What a single setting does

Held settings, decoded burst-locked in color:

FIG. 2 — baseline. The figure, no bend engaged.

FIG. 3 — the etching bend: +31% high-frequency boost. Edges cut deeper, the figure engraved into the raster.

FIG. 4 — the opposite direction: the cream bend, −94% high frequency. Color bars softened until they pool.

None of this is a filter. Every artifact is voltage misbehaving in a physical circuit, on purpose, and captured on the way out.