The mysterious glitch preventing me from commenting on Morgue's blog is providing me with things to write about. 'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.
This time he talks about a lovely-sounding BBC-organized thingy. It's here. Go read it, it doesn't really matter if you don't come back. But in case you do...
Flashmobs never really worked because it's impossible to organize large number of people to do anything without actually organizing them. Part of the central design - no central organizing hub - made them unworkable from the start. And with nothing at stake noone feels any pressure to come up with any good ideas, or even to turn up. (I always thought there should have been an implication that you could meet fun members of your preferred gender attraction there. In the '60s people used to go to peace marches to get laid; according to John Waters they went to race riots for the same reasons. Why not play on the name Flash Mob t the same effect?)
Meanwhile the BBC has oodles of organizational power emanating from a central hub, and if this had failed someone's career was probably at stake. Add to that the presence of trained singers and tv cameras, and people actually have a reason to stand around and gawk, if not to get involved. (The possibility of sex could might helped here too.)
I am reminded somewhat of Hakin Bey's would-be inspirational TAZ. Which I will refrain from being too rude about because I know some people silly enough to think it's workable. I thought it was pretentiously written and quite naive, but never mind.
Nevertheless, I am definitely a big fan of disparate people getting together for no reason other than to have fun. But because people are people, any such get together needs some kind of incentive beyond "It'll be fun." Live music is a common one, but it can probably be anything - maybe an excuse more than an incentive, but it helps if you have a "Well if nothing else I'll be able to enjoy X or Y."
Posted by pearce at October 7, 2004 4:37 PM