The observers
The observatory is a collective, not a faculty.
Perception does not belong to one discipline. How a mind turns material, scarcity and memory into the experience of the extraordinary is not a question for neuroscience alone, nor for art history, nor for economics. It is all three, and badly served by each on its own.
So the observatory is assembled, not appointed.
Perception science
The eye, the cortex, and the instruments that record them.
Material craft
The hand that knows a cloth before the mind can say why.
Art history
How the extraordinary has been staged, and for whom.
Behavioural economics
What a price does to a judgement.
How we work
We observe before we conclude.
We publish the question, then the method, then the finding — in that order.
We name no result we have not recorded.
We are assembling the first cohort. If your work touches any edge of this, write — and tell us what you observe.
The observatory names no members yet. It will name them when they have agreed to be named.