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 notes, a free everyday experience 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.
With these notes, I share contextualized observations on culture, care work, politics, community, history, and the economy. This pocket-size newsletter offers subscribers a simple model for cultivating shared understanding in an age of manufactured information scarcity.
Attention is the beginning of devotion - Mary Oliver
Pocket Observation
A monthly curriculum designed to help you reclaim the context of your life.
Each Pocket Observation is grounded in everyday experience. Each curriculum contains four pocket studies, each small enough to fit in a little pocket of your time. Every Pocket Observation also includes prompts, digital ephemera and reading lists.
You can follow along right here in the newsletter. Every study will be delivered to your inbox!
You can also enroll for free at Pocket Observation, where you can keep a digital pocket observation log, access past Pocket Observations, additional audio notes, video, art downloads, and recommended resources.
Again, this is all offered to you for free. So take me up on the offer!
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
