Giant digital brainstorming

Method of activating a vast contribution for the axes of a cultural project.

The need

In the solidarity I had with the city of Saint-Denis’ bid to become European Capital of Culture 2028, Juliette Bompoint, the general delegate, had told me that she regularly brought together small groups of people to come up with ideas for the 3 sentences summarizing the bid, which were necessary to apply, and that it was difficult to come up with relevant and unifying ideas, because of the diversity of the groups she brought together, and the time it took.

The proposal

My idea was to get a large number of people to contribute to the candidacy, in order to collect enough material to feed the reflection. But how could this be done? We know that sending emails or making requests on social networks leads to a low participation rate. What gives people the confidence to participate is being together. There’s a collective energy that encourages creativity. For example, we proposed a videoconference meeting lasting just half an hour, with a dedicated digital tool for collecting ideas.

Contributions

A date and time were set. I created a digital contribution tool and moderated the session, to which around fifty people contributed, which went as follows:

1. Explanation of the half-hour session by Benoît Labourdette.
2. Juliette Bompoint explains what’s at stake in these three words or three phrases.
3. Everyone∙e entered one to three words or phrases in the digital tool to define the candidacy.
4. Then I suggested that tou∙te∙s close their eyes, to propose a kind of guided meditation, to take each∙e’s imaginations to other places. I made a narrative so that each∙e would imagine, in a place in the Saint-Denis territory, an unexpected and surreal situation, and let words, phrases, sensations come.
5. When sentences were born, people would then open their eyes and write them down.
6. As simply as it had begun, people could leave.
7. We collected 146 proposals, which were very inspiring.

Exploiting contributions

A few days after this rather extraordinary moment of contributions, I led another moment of collective intelligence, in a small group, to divide all these words (printed and cut out) into four main themes (worked out beforehand using mindmapping).

A step along the way

The result was the concept “Pulse (what reveals us) - Scratch (what shakes us up) - Flow (what binds us)”, structuring the application’s sales pitch. This highly collective creative brainstorming was just one step in a vast process, but a key step and above all a democratic one, which was the cardinal value of this bid. The digital tool enabled us to create a real democratic space for this contribution.

Invitation

Periferies 2028 in 3 words?

Participate in our giant virtual brainstorming session to name the bid’s three themes together!
See you on Thursday, June 9, 2022 from 6:00 pm to 6:30 pm by video link

Hello,

You are actively involved or have been involved with Périféeries 2028, the Saint-Denis, Plaine Commune and Seine-Saint-Denis bid to become European Capital of Culture 2028.

We invite you to take part in a video discussion on Thursday, June 9, 2022 from 6:00 pm to 6:30 pm to co-construct the bid!

The European Capital of Culture label is asking us to sum up the bid in three themes, three very short sentences, which must be unique to the area and its challenges, outline the bid’s key themes, be dreamy, poetic, and work when translated into English.

You each have your own vision, based on where you came into contact with this bid project. We suggest you come up with three phrases or three words, and share them during this giant brainstorming session on video.

We’ll start by entering our three phrases on an online platform, and all the others’ will appear. Benoît Labourdette will then suggest a moment of collective creativity, to get you to invent three other phrases and enter them on the platform too. Once you’ve finished, you can leave the visio directly.

Looking forward to imagining and

The digital contribution tool

This tool enabled people to write their own sentences, while seeing the sentences of others appear on their screen. It’s as easy to use on the computer as it is on the phone.

All imagined themes

1. What do we value?
2. universal accessibility
3. Elsewhere is here Tomorrow is here You are here
4. antidote
5. Archipelago of dreams
6. Artistic metze
7. Dream catchers, sky stealers, we are the pirates of the world
8. Au cœur de la marge
9. On the water, our boatmen transport cathedrals and taggs
10. With beauty, miracles are possible
11. creative and dreamy suburb
12. Welcome home
13. C’est affreux comme c’est beau
14. C’est affreux comme c’est beau (McBeth Shakespeare)
15. It’s history, our history, it’s the history of stories.
16. Canal-paillette: a party with your feet in the sand
17. Capsule
18. Every day is a party
19. Beating heart of Europe
20. Colors of futures
21. Conviviality as a method
22. Cooperation and generosity
23. Creating a breeding ground for the possible
24. Cultivating links
25. Cultures without borders in the heart of the city
26. In the silences of beating life
27. Decentralization
28. Deconstruction reconstruction co-construction
29. from the confines emerge the power of the world
30. the power of fashion emerges from the confines
31. Flying images
32. rituals for today
33. Diversity in solidarity
34. Ecoute battre mon cœur du monde
35. cultural emancipation, a desired event, not a suffered one
36. Empower, Recount, overcome (divisions)
37. In depth
38. Energy and youth
39. Epic
40. And in the middle flows a river of dreams
41. Fabrique à Rêves!
42. Making the heart of Europe beat
43. Flying carpet
44. fusion
45. fusion, revelation, circulation !
46. Futur of arrows
47. hospitality
48. Here, the flow of water resonates in my veins and carries the city in all its open senses to my ears.
49. Here, elsewhere and differently.
50. Imagination tomorrow
51. Inclusion and diversity
52. I love worlds
53. I write your name (Paul Eluard)
54. I shout out my creativity!
55. I was eating a sandwich in front of the canal, it was too hot, in front of a lock and behind the Stade de France. I dived in (the water was dirty). I swam the few meters across the canal and by the time I got there it was already dark. The stadium was lit up like a flying saucer. A soft, hypnotic hubbub. Departure imminent at 20 28, I was told inside. Destination Périféerie.
56. Young, poor and wild
57. So far so good.
58. L’Envol
59. the enchanted epic
60. The urgency to create
61. The conviviality of the future
62. the sweet scum
63. the magic of the absurd
64. the magic of the absurd
65. the margin is at the center
66. multicolored speech as an inexhaustible source of humanity of humanity
67. the periphery is the center
68. la rage de vivre
69. La terre est bleue comme une orange (Paul Eluard)
70. The vibration of elephants
71. la ville culturelle qui vient
72. Le 93 en Euope : un incroyable kaléidoscope culturel
73. Le Bokit du peuple imaginaire
74. Le ciel dans la main
75. Le flow à venir
76. le livre tient par sa marge
77. Le livre tient par sa marge
78. The whole world in my street
79. The whole world in a street
80. Sharing the word to listen to each other’s dreams
81. le sud est au nord
82. The garbage collectors of the sky
83. Fiery kids shout their celestial joy!
84. Minorities are majorities
85. Les mondes à notre porte
86. Fairy times
87. Mother cities
88. Make it count
89. Mommy, I’m home!
90. Matrimoines
91. Metamorphosis
92. Myth Power Antidote
93. New Territory of Multiculturalism
94. Our barges lock up the future.
95. We are culture
96. We are youth
97. We are all on the periphery of something and at the center of something.
98. New cultural generations
99. We’re gentle as sheep and calm in the midst of the storm
100. Because we’re young and dumb
101. participation and hospitality
102. The land of childhood
103. Penser passer donner tout le monde
104. Peripheries, territories of diversity, dynamism and togetherness
105. Pushing back the walls and meeting each other
106. re-enchant metamorphosis dyonisiaque
107. Re-joining history, from the city to Europe
108. Connecting people and places
109. remember, regenerate, prosper, thrive, fly
110. revelation
111. Dreaming, creating and acting together
112. Rêves party
113. Sending yourself into art
114. Se poser autour de nous
115. Se poser autour de nous
116. Sensible zone
117. Feel the world
118. if youth isn’t always right, those who despise and ignore it are always wrong
119. So much project So much cultures So much nationalities
120. Metamorphic dream
121. Under the spotlight
122. Sublimate the landfill
123. sustainability: a sustainable and preserved city
124. lands of welcome and sharing
125. terres vivantes
126. living territory
127. Territoires de tout les possibles
128. transition emotion Get together
129. Ubi et orbi
130. a young world
131. a multicultural project
132. A changing territory
133. A festive and cultural whirlwind on the banks of the canal, without end, without limits
134. A bid to dream the suburbs
135. A strong voice rooted in the heart of the city
136. A history of stories
137. Unlimited youth
138. Ville-monde
139. Vivacités des cités!
140. Lively, vibrant
141. Living the city
142. veiled unveiled
143. Journey to the heart of cultures
144. Zone sensible urbaine
145. Ultra-sensitive urban zone