Pocketology
The Pocketology Collective invite you to open your pockets and share a story.
Sometimes a pocket holds junk and other times it protects sacred objects meant never to be lost. The Pocketology Collective's project uncovers potential stories about how we live as individuals and as part of a community.
The Pocketology Collective was founded in 2010 by Rachel Ellison and Coleen MacPherson. Both artists share the initial desire to create work that disrupts the tedium of everyday life, to awaken connections between strangers and to seek out unarticulated stories.
With Rachel in the United States, Coleen in London and Toronto as a connecting point, physical distance presents itself as a key tool to investigate the relationship between place and self.
Rachel began to understand the vitality of pocket stories in 2006 while living in Tel Aviv.
After spending a day roaming the city she emptied her pockets and realized that the collection of items mapped out a story that was unique to living in that city.
In 2009 Rachel invited participants to tell stories based on the objects they found in their pockets in Toronto at The Pocketology Gift Shop and other site-specific installations throughout Toronto.
Rachel and Coleen met during a Jumblies Theatre workshop where they created their first collaboration, a performance piece on Toronto Island. Their conversation inspired by the idea of seeking new forms of engagement continued and the two received funding to tour pocket installations across the GTA. They took part in the St. Mary’s Storytelling, Art of The Danforth (Madeleine Collective), Nuit Blanche Toronto (Small Audiences, Theatre Local).
Pocketology was featured on CBC Radio’s Here and Now by Lily Ames.
Most recently the work has been taken to Winchester’s 10 Days Festival in the UK where Pocketology was featured on BBC. The Pocketology story archive continues to grow, as do the connections made through pocket stories.