Ponytrap had a blast at Austin Maker Faire 2018… we hooked up with Tim Deagan and his amazing new project, Boosh Beats – fire drums that shoot 20 foot high flames. We worked out a communication protocol for our computer brain to talk to Tim’s fire machines and the results were spectacular! One of the most fun performances we’ve ever done.
From our collaboration with Tim Deagan’s Boosh Beats fire drums at Austin Maker Faire 2018
Ponytrap performing a SXSW 2018 showcase
Ponytrap had a fun and successful SXSW 2018. We were an official artist for this year’s event with a showcase at the Hideout Theatre on Friday, March 16. The show was a blast and we hit the streets all week with the machines where we made lots of noise and lots of friends!
Dotman hanging out at the Ready Player One activation for SXSW 2018
We animated some skeletons and added them to the twins for some extra fun Halloween good times… lots of robot parading around town and finished with a performance at our friend Ray Seggern’s house
Ponytrap won two ribbons as outstanding makers at World Maker Faire 2017
We had a total blast at World Maker Faire 2017! We gave a talk about building with Arduino. We saw two Mets games, ate soup dumplings. Ate Paella, got footrubs, ate more dumplings… our drum even won a couple of blue ribbons! And as always, Ponytrap made lots of noise and lots of friends.
We were out in LA earlier this week to perform at the Los Angeles premiere of “Genius,” the new scripted series about Albert Einstein on the National Geographic Channel.
Welcome to the party!
The party featured aerial dancers, the fabulous violinist Rachel Grace, fantastic food and drink, and – of course – robots. In addition to our drumming robots, a robot arm was drawing attendees’ portraits in Einstein’s handwriting.
Robot arm drawing portraits in Einstein’s handwriting
So much candy!
Here’s a photo of Executive Producer (and director of the pilot episode) Ron Howard getting a good look at Alan Turing and the Mechanical Turk. His face was lit up like a little kid on Christmas morning. Everyone loves the robots!
Ron Howard takes a closer look at Alan and the Turk
And here are some photos of Ponytrap performing at the premiere. Chip Keichline from We Are Blood Bays was kind enough to join us for the show. What a night!
Ponytrap performing at the Genius premiere
Quentin performing at the Genius premiere
Ponytrap performing at the Genius premiere
Quentin and Hilary performing at the Genius premiere
Quentin and Chip performing at the Genius premiere
Ponytrap performing at the Genius premiere
Ponytrap at the LA premiere of Genius
Quentin and the machines from Ponytrap performing for the NatGeo Genius party at SXSW. Photo by Mitch McCarthy
Hilary looking amazing performing for the NatGeo Genius party at SXSW. Photo by Mitch McCarthy
All set up and ready to rock the house at the NatGeo Genius party for SXSW
We had an absolute blast performing at the NatGeo Genius party at SXSW! Fantastic event for a great show put on by a wonderful crew of people… Chip Keichline of We Are Blood Bays joined us for a second set based on our Promethean Waltz production and simply killed. One of our best shows ever.
Our Instructable as featured by Make Magazine
Ponytrap was excited to participate in SXSW Create for the second time… we showed off our machines and gave a performance and talk titled Ponytrap Welcomes Our Robot Overlords.
Amazing poster for our show by RecSpec.co
We’re doing our multi-media spectacle, Promethean Waltz, again! Come to the Off Center on Sunday, July 10 for some noise, some robots, and some fantasmic visual art by RecSpec. Featuring narration by Chip Keichline, additional percussion by Davie Murray and Mitch McCarthy, and the music of Ponytrap.
Advance tickets available through Brown Paper Tickets
Page 75 of Make: Magazine volume 51. June/July 2016
Our project featured in the June/July 2016 issue of Make: Magazine.
Maker Faire Austin 2016
This year Ponytrap performed twice at Austin’s first full-fledged Maker Faire. We also traveled out to San Francisco to present our drum project at the mother of all maker faires: Bay Area Maker Faire and got a couple of photos featured on TechRadar.