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Flashing in
Montreal
MIND MAGAZINE | At 17h22 PM,
on September 14 2003, Montreal was the host to the second Canadian
flash mob. A flash mob is a very short event in which participants
gather in a location to perform a silly and meaningless demonstration
just to have a little fun. On this bright Sunday afternoon, over a 100
participants gathered in downtown Montreal – on the corner of
Prince-Arthur and Coloniale – to draw arrows, drawings and figures using
chalks of different colours, just like kids would do during the recess.
Indeed, this pedestrian plaza, where a lot of popular restaurants are
found, rather looked like a playground after the participants left. The
group dissolved only 3 minutes after the event began. People were
invited through an Internet forum to meet in various cafés & bar at
exactly 17h00 to get instructions and a chalk from a person wearing two
hats. Arrows were drawn on the sidewalks of nearby streets, all
converging to meeting point. This bizarre crowd of people mesmerized
many bystanders, tourists and restaurant patrons. The mob went well
according to plan: “mobbers” performed with great enthusiasm and there
were no police intervention.
The first Canadian flash mob also happened in Montreal during the month
of August. Using a similar way of operating, around 40 participants met
outside the Place des Arts – a large downtown concert hall, – and
starting shouting “quack! quack! quack!” and tossed rubber ducks in a
large fountain. The event attracted the attention of many medias,
including Mind Magazine.
Dave, one of the event organizers accepted to answer a couple of
questions. When asked about the typical “mobber” profile, he said: “It's
the fact that the participants are diverse. Observers cannot pigeon-hole
the group they're seeing because its members are from all ethnic and
societal groups, all ages, both genders, etc. The only common link
between the mobbers is that they all want to mob”. Both Montreal events
were the fruit of the same group of people. “We met each other in
different ways, in real life or online. We are of different ages, walks
of life, backgrounds, genders, is more or less irrelevant. We're just
facilitators.” Dave also adds on: “The real power of a Flash Mob is in
its participants. They're the ones who show up, who form a huge body of
people inexplicably all doing the same thing. It's the scores of people
who are interested enough in doing something unique that they show up
and make it happen”.
The first mob occurred in May 2003, in New York city. The concept
caught on, and during the summer, mobs occurred all around the world. In
San Francisco, participants gathered around a life-size replica of
Tyrannosaurus Rex and stood in intense fear, as if they were just about
to be eaten alive by the giant beast. In Rome, a crowd swarmed inside a
book & music store and asked information about fictitious books. In
Central Park, a group of people stood around a large rock in New York’s
famous playground and started screaming and waving their arms to
imitated birds. All of the events were organized using Internet sites
that can be found easily on the web.
The source that inspired the originators of flash mobs is still
uncertain. But, it could come the work of Larry Niven, the science
fiction author of the Known Space collection. Stories of large
crowds of people meeting spontaneously in public places were often
depicted in his books, this might have illuminated the unknown creator
of flash mobs. Another explanation claims that mobs are a peaceful
protestation against the sense of entrapment New Yorkers feel since the
tightening of security after the 9/11 events. Yet, no matter from what
flash mobs originated from, it seems that the phenomenon is interpreted
according to everyone’s perception of its meaning. Flash Mobs are not
meant to be illegal, as laws do not interdict such innocent and harmless
actions.
Many websites, such as flashmob.com, use directory and other
services for people looking to join an organization. No matter where in
the world mobs occur, they are meant to be a game. They are
peaceful demonstration, with the only raison d’être to create
curiosity and interest so that more people join the fun.
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