The Observatory
The Observatory is a whiz, bang, pop kind of place at the top of the lab where we record ideas, experiments, stories, dreams, questions and answers. It is a place to ponder, wonder, ask questions, share learning and imagine new experiments. It even has a time machine!
The Observatory is the home of detectorism.
Detectorism is our way of learning out loud, together. It involves listening, observing, noticing, sensing, reflecting, asking questions, identifying patterns and joining the dots. It is conducted by lab team and experiment participants using an unlimited list of mediums and methods — from art, to dance, to spoken word, to music, to poetry, to conversations, to simple observation, the list goes on.
The Observatory is where our shared learning from all our experiments is woven together. Anyone can take part in the learning — we have experiments bubbling away all the time that you can take part in or indeed help design! Equally you may want to just sit quietly to read, listen, reflect upon, or watch the detectorism treasure we have collected, connected and popped through our sorting hat so far. You can plan time to do this in our Observatory on Dudley High Street, or dive into our observations online from the comfort of your own home.
On our Observatory walls, ceilings and floors and in our online spaces the curious will find detectorism treasure from our journey of exploration as a social lab on the High Street. There are written lab notes, audio recordings from doers, maps (but not as you know them!), sketches of future High St imaginings, little zine booklets of wisdom from the doers and curious, video recordings of performances of theatre and dance, poems from our collective, and many many other wonderful artefacts from our learning together.
Remember, we all have detectorism superpowers!
This is a shared journey — one designed by many hands, many minds, many voices and made up of many experiments! So while the Observatory is a detectorism treasure magical mystery tour, it is also a ‘how to’ guide and invitation to taking part in our collective learning and reimagining on the High Street. If you have a High Street experiment you want to test out the detectorism treasure might just help with your experiment design.
Come and be curious!
We believe shared learning, open to all, using many wonderful different methods and practices is part of how together we will nurture a culture of curiosity and experimentation. Curiosity and experimentation are super helpful ingredients in our shared journey to a kinder, more connected and creative Dudley High Street.
CoLab Dudley Team x
