This is an idea I circulated around with a couple of friends yesterday, before the dinosaur mob, and I submit it here for those (like glowlab, satan's laundromat and fancyrobot) who think the mob idea is just about played-out in its current form, and are brainstorming where it could go from here.
Little slips of paper with instructions distributed by single points of contact don't scale well (though they've admittedly worked so far). A better instruction-giving method is necessary to make these mobs perform more complex and interesting tasks. Mobile phone text messaging is an interesting idea and has worked in the past, but requires a list of all participants' cell phone numbers. So, my idea: radio-controlled flash mobs.
The mob in this case wouldn't necessarily all have to converge on one spot, but rather an area of a block or two, filling the sidewalks in a busy tourist/business area like Wall St or Ttimes Square. Mobbers would be instructed to bring FM radios and wear headphones, tune to a certain frequency, start walking around a fixed area and listen to the radio for further instructions.
The mob organizers would then use a backpack-sized low-power pirate FM transmitter to direct the mob. The possibilities are all fun/exciting: imagine everyone walking clockwise around a certain block, then spinning around quickly on command from their headphones and walking the other way, like a school of fish. Or everyone could stop, point at the sky, cover their mouth, and say "it's a bird ... no ... a plane ..." Or "Hi-five the person next to you!" then "Now get in a shouting match ('WHY ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME?') and storm off."
Organizers could play, say, a well-known song, the pledge of allegiance, a nursery rhyme, the gettysburg address, a repeated slogan, etc, and have everyone quietly repeat/singalong with the words to no one in particular -- multiplied by hundreds of pedestratian mobbers packing a small area this could have a sort of "I'm in the matrix!"-like effect. Or it could just erupt into a fit of giggling.
This could help kick the flash mob idea "up a notch," and I suppose more into the arena of "performance art" that people seem so eager to call it. It could also be a cool new technique for protesters/activists who want to make a dramatic message of some kind.
I have an 18 watt "pirate" FM radio transmitter that needs a little bit of repair but would fit in a backpack and has a pretty big broadcast radius. Not sure if the transmitter person would have to be a couple floors up in a building, or could broadcast from street level, and whether the antenna could be hidden in the backpack too and still get the same signal strength. Some field-testing would be necessary.
Feedback I've received from friends:
How important is it that there be a ton of people doing this? Could it be interesting to do with, say, 10 people?
Also, you mention "complex and interesting tasks." That's where people seem to diverge on the mob issue: what is the purpose of the mob? Is it Dada or demonstration?
Yeah, "complex and interesting tasks." Dada is great, sure, but it'd be hard to describe a large, orchestrated event like this as dada anyway -- not until the technology arises for people to initiate these things on a whim perhaps.
Again, I'm being too critical. Maybe the first few mobs (and the smaller mobs in other cities) were like this; I've only been to yesterday's, which was cool but also seemed like such an EVENT! With all the attention, as you point out with that scary tv crew photo, it can't still be dada for much longer.
I think the mob ideas thus far have been pretty benign/cute/innocent/silly, but if people are going to continue to show up for these things (as they probably will?), the ideas need to be more complex. Or the whole thing more secretive (i.e. no leaks to the press). Or perhaps they just stay as they are and I'm missing the point, trying to co-opt them for something they ain't.
... I suppose it could be done with 10 people, but to less effect, right? When I wrote this I was fantasizing about large-scale mobs, but I guess a miniature version could be possible. That would make it less a mob than just an interesting technique for artistic/political expression...
Posted by: chris at August 8, 2003 02:03 PMI refer you to my earlier question: shouldn't a flash mob be a mob that flashes people?
Go for that one. ;)
Posted by: julian at August 8, 2003 03:51 PMYeah, on that radio transmitter, uh... be sure not to change the "fine tuning" settings.
Posted by: Mike at August 8, 2003 05:41 PMflash mob is fucking stupid.
Posted by: poiesz at August 8, 2003 10:02 PMMobs are so yesterday. Today people should all go around randomly in a ten block radius around Ground Zero and punch people in the back. Craziness!
Posted by: electro mob man at August 11, 2003 02:04 AM