There’s an article in today’s Guardian’s that talks about a new craze called flash mobs:

“Python-esque street theatre events organised by email. Big crowds of strangers suddenly materialise at a predetermined location, act out a series of actions and then melt away, leaving bystanders bewildered and amused.”

There are some examples, like the large group of people who turned up together at a department store in New York, stood around discussing a pile of carpets and then left shortly afterwards. In an event in San Francisco, “hundreds of people spun around in circles like children”, and in Dortmund, “a mob invaded a department store and everyone ate a banana.”

That’s just fantastic. I think this appeals to me in much the same kind of way as the fake Amazon reviews I was talking about yesterday. People just collectively deciding to do something just for the hell of it.

Even better, someone has suggested a new twist: the Antimob, where the exact opposite happens (everyone stays away from a designated place):

“In Antimob, we all agree not to be at a certain location for a brief period of time. If all humanity participates, the sudden ghost town appearance of a place like Grand Central Station or the Motor Vehicle Bureau in Chicago will be stunning. Antimob requires little of its participants, so that billions of people, without even knowing of the non-event, will be participating in this first example of non-performance art.”

The only problem is, if no one turns up, how will anyone know it happened?