A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, respect or artistic expression. Flash mobs are often organized via telecommunications. social media or viral emails.
The term flash mob, first coined in May 2003 in Manhattan, has became one of the defining terms for a urban, liberal and richly cultural city. Most of the major cities in the world, for example, New York City, Shanghai, Sydney, Paris, etc, have had flash mobs in the urban center. Surprisingly, even Austin has its own flash mob organization, see here.
Flash mob shows how closely related the city is. With the aid of current technology, almost everybody can participate in a flash mob despite his color, race, language or culture. Words spread via social networking sites like Facebook or blogs, as well as by word of mouth, text or email. Various groups of people converge together and function as a whole. Flash mob reveals a city's unity at its best.
These are the cities where the most famous flash mobs happened.
NYC
Sydney
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ReplyDeletegreat idea for a post, Luke. the neat thing about flash mobs to me is that they seem to rebel against the anonymity of the smart city. as the austin flash mob blog claims, their mission is "to spread city-wide fun one spontaneous event at a time." in this sense, they refuse to be simply replaceable cogs in the wheels of hyper-mechanized urban space. BUT, as you say, these events are often organized using the very technologies celebrated by the smart city--as in the AT&T commercial. perhaps this reminds us that no matter how smart our cities become, we can still be in control of these technologies.
ReplyDeleteMonday morning there was a flash mob here in Austin, http://www.gamefront.com/awesome-a-mario-bros-flash-mob-descended-on-austin/ I actually first found out about it on Craigslist when I found an ad looking for people to dress up as Mario... http://austin.craigslist.org/crg/2683821316.html
ReplyDeleteI like how everyone comes together for a common goal... FUN! Seriously though, people of different ages, genders and races all unite to create something that is so amazing. Thank goodness for technology that helps us get it organized!
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to point out that sometimes legal actions have been enforced to stem down flash mobs. Therefore, flash mob, though fun to organize and exhilarating to watch, could be viewed as detrimental towards the city's efficiency. For example, in the U.K., the British Transport Police demanded flash mob organizers to "refrain from holding such events at railway stations" as they might cause safety and traffic concerns.
ReplyDeleteWow. Nice post. I never even heard of flash mob before, so it was really cool to read about it in your post. Use of technology to communicate is one of the biggest ways that society uses technology to their advantage. Social networks had become very popular with facebook and twitter. As you pointed out Luke, technology helps to create a better sense of community because communication is easier through technology.
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