Dream catchers -Time Rebel lab notes
These time rebel notes are part travel log — capturing the early thinking and research in their creative journey as time rebels* — and part deeper dive into the WHAT of their What If questions.
what if?
‘What If’ questions (inspired by the work and thinking of Rob Hopkins) invite us to imagine a future where everything worked out OK. The bold act of imagining enables that future to be more knowable and more tangible. The more we dream and imagine that future together the easier it becomes to believe in it and make it happen — together.
Dudley Time Rebels are on a mission to invite the people of Dudley to visit through their What If questions and experiments a kinder and more creative High Street of the future. They will capture the memories of that future High Street and bring them back to 2021. In sharing those memories of the future we begin a journey of collective imagining and action that means the reality of 2031 is more likely to be a shared future rooted in a collective wellbeing — not just the prosperity of the few landlords that currently benefit from the civic space that is our High Street.
it is ALL about Place
“We can’t save the planet. It’s too big; it’s an aspiration, but how do we work on it? …But when we work in place we can see the impact and respond. Place is the one unit of measurement that allows us to change our behaviour. If we save the places of the world, we save the planet”. (Bill Reed quoted in An Economy of Place by Jenny Andersson)
These What If questions all have in common an invitation to the people of Dudley to use a range of senses, imaginings and experiences to gently explore their relationship with this place — the High Street.
They invite you to time travel to a High Street of the past, the future and into a deeper connection with the present day High Street. They involve capturing memories of the High Street in the near and distant past. Through the What if of Street Detectorism, Street Wisdom and Poetry of Place they ground the radicalness of their provocations in the often unobserved or forgotten everyday detail of Dudley High Street. They explore your connection to this place whether you are passing through, this is your home, or the High Street is your livelihood.
These questions dig into our relationship with those we share the High Street with — redefining the boundaries of what this High Street community includes. The more-than-human High Street and Black Country Collage Club helps reveal this expanded tapestry or assemblage of unexpected place based connections. Meanwhile, connections between strangers, that nurture a greater well of empathy and commonality emerge as What If questions of Dudley People’s Archive and Afro Histories Dudley reveal the untold histories of this place. New bonds with place are manifest in the gifts and visions that Bimringham City Univsersity student Time Rebels have created inspired by their What if questions and the reciprocity this invokes.
These What If questions reach into the fibres of our connection with place to make new place based knowledges of the High Street. These questions liberate our current ideas of what sort of things should happen on the High Street, or who should be on the High Street, and what they should be doing there. From poetry, to collage, to dance, to group observation walks, to story-telling, all woven together by a time rebel High Street activity trail. Individually and collectively they invite us to reimagine the very purpose of our High Street and understand how our relationship with this place shapes our lives, planetary health, and the lives of future generations.
Time Rebel What If questions help us feel into future narratives of this place to tell new and more hopeful collective stories of stewardship for the High Street, for each other and ultimately for our planet.
What If invites us to think the unthinkable and in doing so moves us further away from an existing High Street narrative of isolation, decay, injustice, destructive over-consumption and even extinction. In this High Street time rebellion we are invited to play, learn from each other, open ourselves up to new ideas, create, dance, draw, collage, gift, walk, sit, observe, connect, listen deeply, share and tell new stories. These What if questions feed our curiosity and so our imaginations. Unlocking our collective imaginations is the key to a new story of place that is a kinder, more creative and connected Dudley High Street.
an invitation to dream
If you are curious to know more have a read or listen to the time rebel lab notes below (we will be adding to these over the next few days) and join in their joyful experiments on the High Street at Do Fest Dudley, 30 July to 1 August 2021.
