What is a binky?
- 27 Jun 2014
Leonie Sanderson describes crowd sourced and crowd funded approaches to creative engagement with communities…
The Binky Collective focuses its activity on social and community good through projects and events that encourage participation and collaboration. Binky came into being in 2012/13 through a series of serendipitous events that began when I came across a Kickstarter project called The Feast. The aim of The Feast was to hold a worldwide dinner on 19 October 2012 that brought together people and their ideas to solve community problems. The dinner formed part of the annual Social Innovation Conference held in New York City (of course). Something about the idea immediately clicked with me and I added my name to the list of Kickstarter supporters. The support option I chose meant I signed up to hold a Feast in my community.
I received a half hour Skype coaching session from the NYC organisers and access to tools and resources to support the dinner. I pulled together a group of friends from various backgrounds to help me plan the structure of the evening. I asked my local councillor to open the event, decided on a guest speaker and booked the venue. I worked on getting people to come along who I thought would have something special to contribute.
Bringing together people over food and drink is such a lovely way to generate ideas and discussion. At the end of the evening, a number of ideas stood out and talks started happening about how we could make the ideas a reality. I started imagining a group of people who could work together to put ideas into action, to pool their skills and learn new ones, to contribute in a meaningful way. A group that was inclusive, non-hierarchical and supportive. A collective.
At the same time as Binky started forming, the first project from The Feast was also realised. A photographer participant at The Feast had pitched a photo a day gratitude project, Grateful 100. Participants from the dinner really wanted to help build the project. They came together to form a Facebook group for Grateful 100. The Facebook group became so successful, an exhibition was held – as much an excuse to meet other group members as for showing the grateful images. Renamed the Grateful Project, there are now over 700 members in the Facebook group, a second exhibition was held this year (funded by a Pozible campaign) and the group connects people from around the world to gratefulness.
The concepts of happiness, gratitude and resilience and the use of online engagement are central to Binky projects so far.
YarnHeart, our next major project, was inspired by the Grateful Project. During our Pozible campaign, we crocheted hearts for people as a way to say thank you for their support. The activity got us dreaming about yarn bombing, and connecting it to gratitude.
The theme for this year’s Bagot Community Festival is I HEART BAGOT and the producer was looking for a way to combine the heart theme whilst raising awareness about Bagot Community. Bagot was founded in 1938 as Darwin’s first town camp. It remains segregated today with a large fence separating the community on three sides from the suburb of Ludmilla.
YarnHeart aims to counter the notion of segregation and connect people from all over Australia in a meaningful way using reciprocity and exchange. Make a heart, tell us what you love about where you live, send your heart and story to Bagot. In return, you will read what community members are grateful for and see your heart become a part of something bigger.
In a world of diverse meaning-making, a heart is a simple, beautiful symbol that is relevant for everyone. Each YarnHeart that travels to Darwin contributes to an installation handmade by people from across the nation. Accessible to all, Yarn Heart is an opportunity for people to come together in creation and celebration.
The 2014 Darwin Festival and Binky Collective are working collaboratively across Australia to create YarnHeart as part of this year’s Bagot Festival on 16 and 17 August. For more information on YarnHeart go to www.binkycollective.org/YarnHeart
PS: Binky – a spontaneous, ecstatic jump for joy, performing by rabbits.
Leonie Sanderson is a policy analyst by day and a social media junkie, ideas DJ and crowdfunding addict in her other time. Most recently, Leonie has worked on developing a collective of/for people who share the common goal of making the world a better place www.binkycollective.org. The goal is for Binky to be a platform for everyday people to put their good ideas into action and get the world jumping for joy.
Feature photo: Eva’s Yarn Heart, photo courtesy of Binky Collective