The T-Mobile Dance:
While T-Mobile may not be known for the best advertising campaigns, their new Life’s for sharing campaign is sure a fun one to watch. The concept is very similar to Improv Everywhere’s Frozen Grand Central video, which gave us a good laugh when it came out a while back. Our friends over a GeekSugar said it best: “It’s rare when commercials make you feel good, and even rarer when they can make technology seem like a community enhancer rather than a discourager.” They did a good job in making it look organic and building to greater and greater coordination. Great commercial…it shows exactly what mobile phones are for.
Here’s a short movie of the filming on Flickr by someone who just happened to be there.
Improv Everywhere:
People Take Full-Sized Desktops Into Starbucks To Use Free Wi-Fi Service
Improv Everywhere, an improv troupe that is always up to some sort of ridiculous shenanigans, is at it again. This time a group of them bring full-sized desktop computers (complete with CRTs) into Starbucks to take advantage of the free Wi-Fi. Oh the hilarity. You should see the looks on the faces of bystanders. They’re all totally thinking WTF. What a great prank.
Video along with another one of their improv skits in which a ton of them come to a dead stop in Grand Central Station for five minutes.
From http://www.ImprovEverywhere.com, over 200 people freeze in place on cue in Grand Central Station in New York.
This is one of over 70 different missions Improv Everywhere has executed over the past six years in New York City. Others include the No Pants Subway Ride, the Best Buy uniform prank, and the famous U2 Rooftop Hoax, to name a few. Visit the website to see tons of photos and video of all their work.
If you are interested in getting involved in New York you can sign the NY Agents List on the site. If you are interested in getting involved in your own town, join the global agents forum here: http://improveverywhere.ning.com
Sources: boingboing, Kottke, Gadgetell
Flash Mob:
A large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via social media or viral emails, rather than those organized by public relations firms or for a publicity stunt.
A similar stunt to the one performed at Central Station in New York a few months ago happened in Martin Place this afternoon. - image: mattbooy
The first flash mob
The first flash mob was created in Manhattan in May 2003, by Bill Wasik, senior editor of Harper’s Magazine. The origins of the flash mobs were unknown until Wasik published an article about his creation in the March 2006 edition of Harper’s. The first attempt was unsuccessful after the targeted retail store was tipped off about the plan for people to gather. Wasik avoided such problems during the second flash mob, which occurred on June 3, 2003 at Macy’s department store, by sending participants to preliminary staging areas—in four prearranged Manhattan bars—where they received further instructions about the ultimate event and location just before the event began.
More than 100 people converged upon the ninth floor rug department of the store, gathering around an expensive rug. Anyone approached by a sales assistant was advised to say that the gatherers lived together in a warehouse on the outskirts of New York, that they were shopping for a “love rug”, and that they made all their purchase decisions as a group.
Subsequently, 200 people flooded the lobby and mezzanine of the Hyatt hotel in synchronized applause for about 15 seconds, and a shoe boutique in SoHo was invaded by participants pretending to be tourists on a bus trip.
Wasik claimed that he created flash mobs as a social experiment designed to poke fun at hipsters and to highlight the cultural atmosphere of conformity and of wanting to be an insider or part of “the next big thing”. The Vancouver Sun wrote, “It may have backfired on him… [Wasik] may instead have ended up giving conformity a vehicle that allowed it to appear nonconforming.
Precursors
Flash mobs began as a form of performance art. While they started as an apolitical act, flash mobs may share superficial similarities to political demonstrations. Flash mobs can be seen as a specialized form of smart mob, which is a term and concept forwarded by author Howard Rheingold in his 2002 book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution.
Literary precedents
In 1973, the story “Flash Crowd” by Larry Niven described a concept similar to flash mobs. With the invention of popular and very inexpensive teleportation, an argument at a shopping mall – which happens to be covered by a news crew – quickly swells into a riot. In the story, broadcast coverage attracts the attention of other people, who use the widely available technology of the teleportation booth to swarm first that event – thus intensifying the riot – and then other events as they happen. Commenting on the social impact of such mobs, one character (articulating the police view) says, “We call them flash crowds, and we watch for them.” In related short stories, they are named as a prime location for illegal activities (such as pickpocketing and looting) to take place.
Use of the term
The first recorded use of the term flash mob was in 2003 in a blog entry posted in the aftermath of Wasik’s even. The term was inspired by the earlier term smart mob.
Webster’s defines flash mob as “a group of people who organize on the Internet and then quickly assemble in a public place, do something bizarre, and disperse.” This definition is consistent with the original use of the term; however, both news media and promoters have subsequently used the term to refer to any form of smart mob, including political protests; a collaborative Internet denial of service attack; a collaborative supercomputing demonstration; and promotional appearances by a pop musician. The press has also used the term flash mob to refer to a practice being used in China where groups of shoppers arrange online to meet at a store at the same time in order to drive a collective bargain with the store owner
19th century usage
In 19th century Tasmania, the term flash mob was used to describe a subculture consisting of female prisoners, based on the term flash language for the jargon that these women used. The 19th century Australian term flash mob referred to a segment of society, not an event, and showed no other similarities to the modern term flash mob or the events it describes.
Links:
Author Howard Rheingold - Smart Mobs
Today I stumbled across FlashMobbing. The spontaneous formation of “mobs” through the use of email, weblogs or other messaging systems seems to be becoming something of a fad. Basically the mobs are being synchronized using say email to go to a particular place at a certain time and do something “strange” - then the mob breaks up. Here is an article on how it all started. Here is a directory of upcoming or past FlashMobbing events.
Although at the moment the events seem like fun, imagine what they could do. Howard Rheingold’s book Smart Mobs details how mobile phones are being used to do this in Japan and how a world of “ad-hocracy” is being created.
- via The Silent Penguin
Flash Mob Bang:
A type of flash mob where a group of people meet in a specified area pretend to shoot each other with their fingers until everyone but one is on the ground.The trend owes much to uses of modern communications technologies, including decentralised personal networking, known as smartmobbing. Word of the events spreads primarily via digital means, usually on the internet via email, chat rooms and text messaging which result in seemingly spontaneous mass gatherings.All the people meet in a pre-decided area. It starts by one person raising his hand like a gun and pointing it at another person. That person will point his hand at someone else, and so forth until everyone joining has their hands pointed at someone. Then someone will yell bang and the person who they were pointing at will be “dead”. This continues until everyone but one is on the ground.
The aftermath of a Flash mob bang in Strøget, Copenhagen - image: Wikipedia
Mobile Clubbing:
Is an event where 2 or more people meet in a public place to dance, each listening to their own music using a Portable audio player such as an mp3 player while wearing headphones. To an observer it would appear that the participants are dancing for no apparent reason. Mobile Clubbing is also referred to as Silent disco and events are organized using mass-emails, word-of-mouth and/or social networking websites such as Facebook.
Dancing commenced at 1853 hrs precisely, and occupied most of the concourse. www.mobile-clubbing.com - image: chrisjohnbeckett
History: Mobile Clubbing was founded in 2003 by London based artists Ben Cummins (also founder of Pillow Fight Club) and Emma Davis. Since 2003, such events have taken place in many cities all around the globe, most commonly in public spaces such as train stations.While each of these events are different, all incidences of Mobile Clubbing share these common rules:
* Dance to the music of your own audio device
* Use the entire space
* Be aware of the safety of non-participants
There is still some dispute over whether Mobile Clubbing are a type of Flash mob, however, mobile clubbings are not limited to a specific time-frame, with some sessions lasting up to 12 hours. There have been flash mob occurrences with mobile clubbing as the basis, i.e. “spontaneous” 5-minute dance sessions.Mobile clubbing may allow for development of new dance styles. For example, one can try dancing on trees or other objects (as people did at Loveparade). With more space that most clubbers enjoy in normal clubs dancing is generally more expansive. Success of mobile clubbing is based on the fact that little if any sound is produced, reducing the possibility of the event being closed down. If perchance authorities do not approve, as the name indicates, participants are mobile and moving to another location is a simple task.In Vienna, Austria, the mobile clubbing scene has become a regular occurrence with monthly (and often bi-monthly) meet-ups at random (indoor and outdoor) locations and has even developed to regularly include themed events such as wearing costumes to celebrate Carnival or elegant wear for fake Prom Night.
Optional equipment: Using multiple splitters along with a small battery-powered amplifiers such as the Boostaroo, small to medium groups (2-20) may also be formed which include many people listening to the same source of music. This is especially useful for several reasons:
* If an audio device runs out of battery power
* Facilitates meeting of new people, as all listeners are in very close proximity* Discovering new music
* If a passer-by wishes to also join in, assuming (extra) headphones are available
100 people, 100 mp3 players, 1 small tesco and one phat remix! - via gladys2010
Mobile Clubbing Links:
http://newdancealliance.org/performance-mix-festival/mobile-clubbing
http://www.mobile-clubbing.com
http://www.mobile-clubbing.com/Seedsprouts/MobileClubbing/Display/EventList.aspx (All past events list)
Video clip at the Royal Exchange, City of London
Subway Party:
A subway party is a celebration that occurs on a mass transit system. Generally, people meet at a predetermined station in their city’s mass transit system, wait until their numbers have achieved critical mass, and board the train. From there, revelers may engage in many different activities, from playing music and dancing to exchanging gifts.There are several kinds of subway parties, the two most distinct being the rush hour subway party and the late night subway party.
Party on the London Underground circle line on the eve of the new London Mayor Boris Johnson’s alcohol ban. 31 May 2008 - image: hoffman
Rush hour subway parties: The stated goal of the rush hour subway party is to spread joy to commuters, whose daily treks into the center of their metropolis can be long, boring or stressful. Several subway party groups have boarded subway cars dressed in costumes to give presents to commuters, and have been known to play drums, wear wings and sprinkle glitter on the willing.Critics of these kind of subway parties say that, by introducing chaos, these activities may place the already-crowded subway riders in danger or cause delays. Also, some people are simply annoyed by them.
Late night subway parties: Late night subway parties are for the enjoyment of the attendees. Party-goers don costumes, decorate the subway car, bring musical instruments and sometimes the parties have a theme.With the advent of email and cellphones, invitations to subway parties can now be distributed electronically. The party usually starts at one subway station and acquires more participants as it proceeds through the system. The instructions often ask people to meet by the last car of the train.
Other subway parties: On nights that are especially festive such as New Year’s or World Cup victories, a spontaneous subway party may occur. People may already be drinking above ground and decide to board the subway. When this happens, the general feeling of revelry continues below ground.In 2005, the Toronto Transit Commission declared October “culture month”, perhaps inspired by recent subway parties in the city. This campaign included “culture cars”, which were randomly-selected cars that contained spontaneous, professional singing, dancing and music.
History of the subway party: In 1904, the New York City Subway System opened. Photographs from the event show people dressed in tuxedos and top hats and drinking champagne to celebrate.In the 1980s, Michael Alig and the Club Kids threw parties on New York City subway trains where they purportedly took the drug ecstasy. The events were promoted through word of mouth and telephones. These parties are detailed in the book Disco Bloodbath.Today, subway parties are only loosely related to the flash mob phenomenon. The details for subway parties are published on blogs, websites and mailing lists. People assemble seemingly spontaneously in dozens of cities throughout the world.
Pillow fight Flash Mob:
A social phenomenon of flash mobbing and shares many characteristics of a culture jam. The flash mob version of massive pillow fights is distinguished by the fact that nearly all of the promotion is Internet-based. These events occur around the world, some taking the name Pillow Fight Club, a reference to Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk in which anyone could join and fight as long as they fought by the rules. Both the London and Vancouver Pillow Fight Club’s rules reflect that described in the book and feature film.The trend owes much to uses of modern communications technologies, including decentralised personal networking, known as smartmobbing. Word of the events spreads primarily via digital means, usually on the internet via email, chat rooms and text messaging which result in seemingly spontaneous mass gatherings. Pillows are sometimes hidden and at the exact pre-arranged time or the sound of a whistle, the pillow fighters pull out their pillows and commence pillow fighting. The pillow fights can last from a few minutes to several hours.The largest pillow fight flash mob was the Worldwide Pillow Fight Day (or International Pillow Fight Day) that took place on March 22, 2008 (the third saturday). Over 25 cities around the globe participated in the first “international flash mob”, which was also the world’s largest flash mob to date. According to The Wall Street Journal, over 5,000 participated in New York City alone. Participating cities included Basel, Beirut, Boston, Budapest, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dublin, Houston, Innsbruck, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Monterrey, New York City, Paris, Pécs, Philadelphia, Shanghai, San Francisco, Stockholm, Sydney, Vancouver, Washington, D.C., and Zurich.
International Pillow Fight Day
In front of the Art Institute of Chicago,
April 4th, 2009 - image: ::Katrina::
Origins: While ordinary pillow fights have existed for as long as there have been pillows, the difference here is that these events are massive in scale, occur in public and are promoted primarily via the Internet. Many massive pillow fights have been organized in an effort to break Guinness World Records, but the current record a pillow fight between 10,000 at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta, Georgia October 6, 2006. Others have been organized by university students around the world for fun.
Events: http://www.pillowfightday.com/index.php
Flash Mob Links:
Vimeo videos tagged with “flashmob”
Flickr results matching “flashmob”
Flickr flashmob clusters
Further Reading:
Flashmobbing for a Cause in China
MashFlob.com The Worldwide Flashmob Community
FlashMob.com Events
See Also:
