Flash mob coming to Sheffield?

Chris | 04.08.2003 22:28 | Sheffield

Flash Mobs are seemingly unplanned gatherings of large groups of people that converge in public (or semipublic) places for brief periods of time. All members of a Flash Mob simultaneously converge to form the mob and then quickly disperse again at a given time, all members departing in different directions.

Europe's First Flash Mob in Rome

Some late night surfing led me to finding this site:

http://www.geocities.com/sheffmob/

It's a site advertising a proposed 'flash mob' for Sheffield in August.

I found the site by following a link from the London flash mob site:

http://www.geocities.com/londonmobs/

For more background info see the site that seems to have started this craze (I tried to access this site following a story about flash mobs on

http://slashdot.org/ -- the server has since recovered from that :-):

http://www.cheesebikini.com/

The photo above is from this site:

http://meeeow.textamerica.com/default.asp?r=18480&prev=1

Chris

Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

Whats the point?

05.08.2003 00:43

Is there any reason why people do this? Is it political or artistic or a way go shoplifting in saftey?

steve

That's the point...

05.08.2003 09:47

Fourth Manhattan Flash Mob

No it has _nothing_ to do with shoplifing. In fact one of the blogs I was reading about it last night said that if that ever happens then the flash mob is dead. They are probably right.

One aspect of it is to appear to be confusing to others... so your comment indicates that it is working ;-)

This text from the Birmingham flash mob site explains it more clearly:

The internet provides us with the ability to connect a network of disparate individuals together and then mobilise them as one; moving in unison for a common cause. The ‘mob’ appears without warning and dissipates as swiftly as it arrived. Like a school of fish or flock of birds, an amorphous, dynamic body is formed. It’s complexity the result of the path taken by each individual adjusting and readjusting to the rules of the group as it moves.

A smart mob is a group who synchronise their movements and convene momentarily, to become a startling intervention in the life of a city.

* We want to bring people together to have fun.

* We want to inject more quirkiness into people’s lives.

* We want to be altruistic.

http://mobstirs.no-ip.org/

Chris

shoplifters of the world unite

05.08.2003 09:50

erm what a slow news day here? oh please this is just pure hype or something..

mozaz

mozaz

Flash aaaaaaaarg!

05.08.2003 13:53

Consume the post-situationist wank.

Psuedo-rebellion for the style-over-content generation.

Are these the same adults that purchased microscooters?

Arrrrgflash
mail e-mail: flash@arrrg.com
Homepage: http://www.arrrrrg.com

It can be political

05.08.2003 13:59

Large amounts of people gathering in a place unnanounced, making a public space is political isn't it?

Reclaim the Streets have done that for a while. By disappearing and coming back somewhere else could be potentially used a t other protests as a tactic.

Also a "Flash Mob" could be a method for political actions of a specific campaign.

Ivan Agenda

Anarch's were 1st(?)

05.08.2003 15:02

This all seems rather similar to the Anachist strategy of the last few May Day's
just congegating and moving on. So'Flash mobs began in New York' Hmm. Where did
they get the idea from then?

But it's not...

05.08.2003 15:58

Ivan,

I had a glance at a couple of the flashmob sites and they seem to stress their 'apolitical' nature...

from

http://www.flashmob.co.uk/archives/000013.php

"As a result of my posting photos and news from the mobs I've attended, I've been approached by a number of journalists intersted in Flash Mobs. Without exception, they are all interested to know if there is any political dimension to Flash Mobs. In my experience there has not been, and I suspect that most would not attend if there had been any kind of political agenda. The news hounds are now on unfamiliar ground: "so this is a 'good news' story, eh?" Yup. "Why do you do it?" Er - because it's fun."

No-one has a monopoly on the idea though and hopfully its bastard offspring will sporn a more productive tactic as you suggest...

As it is, it smacks of lifstyle anarchy-lite.

Aaaaarggggflash
mail e-mail: aaarg@flash.org
Homepage: http://www.aaargflash.org

Lifestyle

05.08.2003 16:23

Ivan,

I had a glance at a couple of the flashmob sites and they seem to stress their 'apolitical' nature...

from

Aaaaargflash
mail e-mail: flash@arrrg.com
Homepage: http://www.flasharrrrrrg.org

Another yuppie fad

05.08.2003 22:33

like pokemon, and mobile phone texting. Only the coolest, brightest, richest upwardly mobile young professionals are seen at such gatherings. No ugly, poor or badly dressed working class people allowed. An trivial pastime pursuit for bored executives, secretaries and office clerks.

anything to alleviate corporate boredom and distract workforce's from tradeunion

uglymob

06.08.2003 09:28

sheff ugly mob faction
we sugguest a sheff mutation...situationist action against authority and consumerism

target police stations...cctv...meadowhall...banks etc
viv U_M_F

yuk_face

what a larf

06.08.2003 14:11

all power to the yuppies!
dont tell me when asked about this they say 'we are discriminated against for being smart and perfect in everyway'
what a joke!

anti-yuppy