I know, I know, flash mobs are so last year. But I hadn’t seen this one yet and thought it was a good example of the concept as art. This must have been a pretty surreal scene to randomly stumble into, although I would have to think that most New Yorkers are pretty jaded to these sorts of stunts by now. The real trick would have been to do this in the 1930’s or 40’s. It would have caused a city-wide panic, people would think it was the rapture or something.
I’ve never seen one of these in person, but here in San Francisco I’ve witnessed Critical Mass a few times. It’s a pretty amazing sight to behold except for the part where I can’t walk across Valencia to get a falafel.
There was one in Stockholm on April 1st that I took part it. It was quite fun to do. The only thing I didn’t like was everyone started clapping at the end, it would have been much better if everyone just walked away after.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWXphPdyMwU
nice, that seems like it would be fun. so was it the performers clapping? I thought it was the crowd clapping and that the performers just kept walking?
yeah its a classic, i attended the Bath (UK) event earlier on this year (08), everyone just walked off at the end.. no clapping or anything. people were freaked out. the video is on youtube somewhere.
i took part in one in utrecht about a month and a half ago. only a small amount of people turn up for it but it was interesting nonetheless. some people did get a little freaked out by it, most just went about there business though. i walked away straight after but some people clapped etc, takes away from it.
There was another “show” I heard about, didn’t get to witness a month or so ago where they setup a mirror image in subway cars to freak people out:
http://improveverywhere.com/