circuit bending
n.— «Circuit-bending reinforces the unique characteristics of physical instrumentation, without which discourse among electronic musicians might end up becoming little more than the sharing of home-coded subroutines (or “plug-ins”) for commercial software programs. Circuit-benders, hackers by nature, thrive on the quirks of the devices they choose to retrofit, bypassing owners manuals in favor of experimentation.» —“Sacto Instruments” by Marc Weidenbaum Disquiet , 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)