Pocket Observatory is not-for-profit project offered to you for free through a Creative Commons license. The continuation of this work depends on donations from people like you.
A few examples of how your donations help me work: $3 buys me a pen! $25 buys me paper for a month! $90 buys me three hours of childcare!
Hi, I'm Meg Conley
I am a researcher, writer, and caretaker. I create Pocket Observatory, a not-for-profit attention reclamation project. My work appears in places like Harper's Bazaar, The Guardian, BBC and NPR.
Other Places to Find My Work
Publications like Harper's Bazaar, Columbia Journalism Review, The Gloss, and Slate.
Books like Jessica Grose’s Screaming on the Inside: The Unsustainability of American Motherhood, Katy Kelleher's The Ugly History of Beautiful Things and Pooja Lakshmin’s Real Self-Care: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness (Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble Baths Not Included)
Podcasts like BBC Radio 4 The Coming Storm, Vox’s Today, Explained , NPR’s It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders and documentaries like The Rise and Fall of LulaRoe
This is Pocket Observatory
Drawing on years of research and reporting, I've developed a pocket-sized framework designed to help you reclaim your attention, preserve information and share knowledge. This framework includes pocket practices like daily notes, a monthly curriculum, and a (much improved) dynamic archive of human experience.
Pocket Practices
Pocket Notes
First I pay attention. And then I tell you about it.
Each evening, I share contextualized observations on culture, care work, politics, community, history, and the economy. This daily newsletter offers subscribers a simple model for cultivating shared understanding in an age of information scarcity.
Attention is the beginning of devotion - Mary Oliver
Pocket Observation
A monthly curriculum focused on preserving information and cultivating community knowledge.
I create one half of Pocket Observation. The other half is created by you. As you interact with each Pocket Observation, it will be transformed into a piece of your personal archive. Add blank pages, write in the margins, tape in ephemera, sketch impressions.
Each Pocket Observation is uploaded to the Internet Archive, ensuring long-term preservation and public access. You can download the Pocket Observation to a device and interact with it in a digital space. Each issue can also be printed at home, requiring just four pieces of paper. This dispersed, non-digital, local implementation model will protect your personal records from digital decay and other online hazards.
Follow along as I work through each Pocket Observation. As part of my own observance each month, I send out exclusive writing, audio notes, free art downloads, and recommended resources.
Pocket Constellation
A dynamic archive devoted to the human experience
This archive contains cultural objects that interact with one another and the observer. Objects include articles, etymology, literature, ephemera, profiles of organizations, research notes, audio, video, newspaper clippings, historical profiles and high-resolution art files available for your downloading pleasure.
Pocket Constellation is organized with tags that decay over time. This structure makes unexpected connections visible while also illuminating how categorization is a perspective that shapes information.
Plus, it’s full of lots of cool stuff that I know you'll like.
(Currently being moved from a private platform to the Internet Archive. Will be available soon!)
Pocket Observatory by Meg Conley is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
