Getting Massive... Art & Masses

Improv Everywhere:

• Comedic performance art group based in New York City, formed in 2001 by Charlie Todd.
• Its slogan is “We Cause Scenes.”
• The group carries out “missions”, in public places. The stated goal of these missions is to cause scenes of “chaos and joy.”
• Some of the group's missions use hundreds of performers and are similar to flash mobs, while other missions utilize only a handful of performers.
• No Pants Subway Ride
• Frozen Grand Central

Flash Mobs:

• A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual act for a brief time, then disperse.
• The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.
• The term is generally not applied to events organized by public relations firms, protests, and publicity stunts.
• The first “flash mobs” were organized by Bill Wasik in NYC (though a variety of similar types of events have been organized before):
• For example, more than 100 people converged upon the ninth floor rug department of the store, gathering around an expensive rug. Anyone approached by a sales assistant was advised to say that the gatherers lived together in a warehouse on the outskirts of New York, that they were shopping for a “love rug”, and that they made all their purchase decisions as a group. Subsequently, 200 people flooded the lobby and mezzanine of the Hyatt hotel in synchronized applause for about 15 seconds, and a shoe boutique in SoHo was invaded by participants pretending to be tourists on a bus trip.

Silent disco: Another example of a well known flash mob was the April 2006 silent disco in London. At various London Underground stations, people gathered with their portable music devices, and at a set time began dancing to their music. It was reported that more than 4,000 people participated at London Victoria station. This had an impact on the regular service of the system enough for the city's police to begin crowd control and slowly clear people. Since 2006, there have been several flash mobs in the London Underground, including subsequent silent discos comparable in size.

Worldwide Pillow Fight Day: A pillow fight flash mob that took place on March 22, 2008. Over 25 cities around the globe participated in the first “international flash mob”, which was the world's largest flash mob to date. According to The Wall Street Journal, more than 5,000 participated in NYC. Word spread via social networking sites, including Facebook, Myspace, private blogs, public forums, personal websites, as well as by word of mouth, text messaging, and email.

Burning Man is an annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, The event is described by many participants as an experiment in community, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance.

Critical Mass is a bicycling event typically held on the last Friday of every month in over 300 cities around the world. The ride was originally founded in 1992 in SF with the idea of drawing attention to how unfriendly the city was to cyclists.

Reclaim the Streets (RTS) is a collective with a shared ideal of community ownership of public spaces. Participants characterize the collective as a resistance movement opposed to the dominance of corporate forces in globalization, and to the car as the dominant mode of transport.

Parking Meter Parties
Zombie walks
Wifipicning
Silent Disco / Mobile Clubbing
Bread & Puppet Theater

And MORE!