El Pulpo Mecanico, which graced a Maker Faire Bay Area I attended -- I think it was in 2014.

No experience necessary? I'm going to find out.

I'm going to take the DIY (Do It Yourself) and Maker movements at their word: "You can do this." 

DIY and Maker movements are telling us that reasonable people with the patience to watch the right YouTube tutorials can put it all this stuff together. (FYI: that's the reason for the lead illustration for this post. El Pulpo Mecanico graced the first Maker Faire Bay Area I attended.) 

And these approaches have gotten easier because its easier to access the required tools: open source software is free, the electronic hardware it runs on is cheap from China; and did I mention YouTube?

My plan: to actually assemble something Mixed Reality-ish and try it out in real life, in a real place.  I wanted to see if I could make a difference: help "make a space a place" -- a phrase I was hearing now that I was following a few placemakers on social media.   

And it had to be real, on location: something with actual silicon chips, a footprint in the actual world, and code, a little bit of electricity, and internet connectivity.   

Hacker journalism: Watch my back, I'm going in!

We all know that the internet has started to suck politically, and socially, and privacy-ly, but when you want to learn how to do something, it's still awesome, and getting awesomer. 

Maybe there really isn't any there there in mixed reality, but I didn't want to take someone else's word for it. And I didn't have to. Because it's now possible for a journalist to break out some technology and design a test or a prototype.

Hacker journalism. 

I started to assemble a mixed reality hardware and software toolkit for my placemaking journey. 

My first purchase: an electronic brain, a quarterback.