Flashmobs
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| Hundreds of drunk dads thinking they're John Travolta? |
- A mob is a group of people, acting together
- Flash means to appear and disappear instantaneously, and only existing for a brief period of time.
So a flashmob is a group of people who appear out of nowhere to perform a short act and then disappear just as quickly.
How does a group of people appear out of nowhere then disappear? They need a method of hiding, and they use the old technique of hiding in a crowd. Until their act, flashmobbers blend in the hustle and bustle of unknowing public.
An integral part of flashmobs is that they take place in public areas - so that
- Flashmobbers can hide in the crowd before and after their act
- There is an audience, i.e. the ignorant public*. One of the aims of flashmobbing, perhaps the main objective, is to achieve a sense of wonderment and confusion among the public. Haha, you ignorant plebs, we're shaking your world upside down (in a nice way).
What was the first flashmob? Where did the idea come from? The first one I remember watching was where the flashmobbers stood perfectly still for a few minutes at an American rail station. It looked like the people were 'frozen in time' - the resulting differentitation between the flashmobbers and the public was very effective.
According to wikipedia, the first flash mob was organised by the senior editor of Harper's magazine and was a failure since the targeted shop was tipped off about it. The second attempt was successful however. The flashmob gathered around a large rug and told sales assistants they all lived together and wanted to buy a 'love rug'. Bloody stupid.
A relatively recent sophistication of flashmobs is to slowly increase the number of participating flashmobbers during the course of the flashmob. This is the power of underestimation. What can see to be a flashmob involving just 5 people ends up actually consisting of over a 100. What we think is a small and disappointing flashmob actually turns out to be an epic one.
The power of flashmobbing lies in many people doing the same (strange) thing. If just one person was singing, or dancing, or slow-motion running, then they'd be crazy. Here's a quote from a member of the public after Grocery Store Musical:
"The music came on, and then the one, the first dude was like (mimics singing) and that was like, wait, is he just bugging out? And then, then it was a... that was great."So 1 person alone is not enough for a flashmob, it seems. When 2 people flashmob, some kind of preparation becomes evident. But even 2 people doing the same strange thing can look crazy. How many is the minimum number for a flashmob? Perhaps 5 or 6 is a good number.
2 people = 1 relationship between these people (a straight line)
3 people = 3 relationships (a triangle)
4 people = 6 relationahips
5 people = 10 relationships
6 people = 15 relationships
1 relationship can be twisted and crazy - 2 crazies could be on the same wavelength and organise a flashmob together, I think. But in a group of 5 people there are 10 simulateneous relationships, and 5 people to view and evaluate the healthiness of these relationships. So a group of 5 or more people is seldom mad. ???
Anyway...
Here's a list of the flashmobs I've seen (on youtube), in order of my enjoyment
- everyone stands still - beautiful, haunting and simple
- singing - brilliant - see the flash court musical
- dancing - impressive and fun
- a member of the public gets chased down a narrow alley - hilarious when they run
- zombie walk - nice idea but why don't the zombies bite anyone? Some of the flashmobbers should be pedestrians who get 'bitten', leading to the public taking the whole thing too seriously and decapitating a flashmobbing zombie
- human dominoes - nice idea but poorly implemented
- massive pillow fight - disappointing, and naturally introverted hence excludes the audience
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