Maker Faire Austin Returns

Because, among the many things that William Gibson’s oeuvre has made clear to us, possibly the most salient is that “the street finds its own uses for things.”

And here’s that annual Maker Faire Austin, the public celebration of all that’s do-it-yourself and creative about various forms of technological things – electronic, robotic, biological, industrially progressive things. It’s one of 19 such faires that take place across the world, and this one unveils its spectacle of impressive street-use wonders within and around the Palmer Events Center this Saturday and Sunday.

You say you’d like an up-close and personal gander at some robots? You’d like to check out what formerly clandestine hordes of hobbyist wire-benders have been fomenting in their suburban laboratories? How about getting a load of a few cleverly hacked drones? Some tech-enhanced music performances? A darkened hall with glowing installations? And, oh! A 30-foot-long wall on which you can digitally paint 2,500 LEDs with actual brushes to create an illuminating work of art!

Yes, well: That’s Maker Faire Austin.

With the robot-abetted music of Ponytrap, that most excellent band we told you about right here a couple of months ago. With Scott Parenteau’s Tin Spider walking around like a kind of engine-driven Strandbeest. With the lightning-wielding rock stars of ArcAttack. With Daniel G. Benes, all regal among his array of apparatus, holding forth as Thomas Alva Edison – and he’d best be prepared, lest old Nik Tesla show up and give him some electromagnetic whatfers, you know what we mean?

We mean, citizen, that this is the weekend you go back to the future that’s being built by your most ingenious friends and neighbors, from Austin and from all across the country.

Because this is the weekend of Maker Faire Austin 2016.