The Mao Tai and the Feedback Phone Sarah Washington The Mao Tai was created by removing the guts of an electronic children’s toy and installing it in a new housing (the red box) in the shape of a smiley face. The original plastic switches, shaped as farm animals, were replaced with simple momentary contact switches (the smile), and circuit bends that alter the sounds were added in the form of small toggle switches and potentiometers (the eyes, nose, etc.). The original sound chip played back samples of trains and farm animals; using the contacts initiates the same sounds from the chip but they can now be modified with various pitch transpositions, feedback effects and distortions by Sarah’s circuit bending. For the Feedback Phone, Sarah took a phone keypad and hooked it up to another circuit board added a few toggle switches, LEDs, four potentiometers (the four black knobs along the top) and built a sturdy housing for everything. Pressing the keypad creates short circuits that somehow induce various states of feedback, creating a range of different tones.