Stories of Place: Saturday 1 October 2022

Local doers, creatives and designers have been gathering every month to delve into observations, interpretations and re-imaginings shared from the past, present and future of Dudley High Street. We call these Stories of Place.

You are warmly invited to meet the group and discover and share past, present and future stories of Dudley High Street at a Stories of Place event on

Saturday 1 October | 11am-3pm (drop-in)
@ CoLab Dudley, 201a High Street, DY1 1QQ (opposite Nationwide)
All ages welcome, free to take part

Join in anytime between 11am and 3pm to share your stories and create new ones about:

• How have food and people from across the world shaped Dudley High Street?
• Who owns the High Street and what does that lead to?
• What could we learn about the High Street if we used senses like other beings?
• What might a deep timeline of Dudley High Street tell us about possible long-term futures?
  

Below: a screenshot of 10 of the 400+ Stories of Place collected to date about Dudley High Street. They originate from a wide range of sources, including Time Rebel experiments, and cover a diversity of themes and timespans.

Stories of Place and other Time Rebel experiments on Dudley High Street are developed as a source of inspiration and ways to bring together with people with lots of different gifts and talents to bring curiosity, creativity and care to our High Street. This is part of Dudley CVS’s work with creative partners and local people through CoLab Dudley  in which we seek to show what is possible by involving local people in designing and testing things out (not just talking).

These are some of the explorations and enquiries local people have been undertaking through Stories of Place.

• Journeys to the High Street – Dionne and Miriam are exploring the impacts of migration on the High St.
• Food on the High Street – Alan, Sita and Sue are curious about food on the High Street and how it could change in the future with our climate and a move towards self-sufficiency.
• More-than-human sonification of data – Bill was inspired by street detectorist findings and invited us all to create a collective score. Click here to listen to what was created.
• Place Naming – This is an idea that developed from inspirational conversations between Helen, Kirren and Alan and their fascination in the history of place names.

Place names on and around Dudley High Street generated during a Stories of Place session led by Helen.

• Creative writing – Rick invited the Connect Dudley group to write poems inspired by Stories of Place.
• More-than-human story – Kirren invited people to create collages and poems inspired by more-than-human findings from the High Street.
• Scale of Permanence – Lorna is curious about a deep timeline of the High Street, from the Dudley bug to the future, and inviting people from the High Street to add their wisdom to the timeline.
• Street Detectorism – Holly has been inviting people to explore the High Street with tools from nature, to gather stories and create maps.
• Who owns the High Street? – Helen and Bill are curious about who owns the High Street.