Smart Mob book received!

Email from Anna our librarian, saying that she received the book and that we can come pick it up.

Project specification

Personal Project Specification

Guiding question: How can I create a dance choreography and teach it to a group of people to perform in a flashmob?

A flash mob is a spontaneous performance that many people have learned in secret and then perform it in a big public place. The people in the flash mob don't arrive to the performance place together, but they may come in and start at different points of the performance. A flashmob could be a dance routine, a singing performance, a big freeze, or a sleeping-event, and whatever you could possibly imagine. The reasons for flash mobs are to spread joy, and just have an awesome time!

I would like to spread joy in a creative way. Around Christmas time, it’s the season to be jolly, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to make a flash mob about Christmas! A flashmob is also an opportunity to be heard, and we would like as many people as possible to see our performance. The best place for this is at Stortorget, the big “square” in Lund. On Saturdays, there are the most people around because they are all out shopping. Especially for christmas gifts since it is quite close to Christmas. My flashmob will be performed at 14:00 on Saturday, December 17^th.

Area Of Interaction: Human Ingenuity

Human ingenuity questions why and how we create. What the consequences are of creating, and how humans think, create and initiate change. This area of interaction fits in with our flash mob because we are creating a dance routine, and we have to figure out how to design our performance in a way so that it will look good, that it is noticeable, and so that it makes people happier on a grey, dull day in Lund.

Questions/problems:

Problems that we have right now are…

• Who will document the performance
• Organizing the dance so people don’t start dancing all at the same time. When me and Johanna have danced one round of the song, 6 other people join in, and on the third round, everyone else joins in.
• Everybody needs a red Santa Claus hat
• How to make the music heard by everybody
• How will people really learn the dance we have and be able to memorize it to the day of the performance?
• Find 50 people before December 1^st

Here is an example of a disastrous flash mob event which we don’t want:

Santa Claus Invasion!

Materials I need:

• 3 Cameras (one for pictures, two for filming) for documentation
• Speakers
• Red santa claus hats
• iPod that has the song playing the song 6 times in total
• Public communication site to give information (facebook)

Specification

What: Dancing Santa Claus Flash mob!

When: Saturday, 14:00, December 17

Where: Stortorget, Lund

Who: Lotta Sandborgh and Johanna Jonsson + at least 50 people

Why: To spread joy and bring out the christmas spirit in Lund!

How: We will dance to the music..

Johanna and Lotta starts off...

After song has played once, 6 more people will join in, and after the song has played twice, another 6 will join, and when the fourth time will come, everybody else joins in...

When we have finished the dance after a total of 6 rounds, everybody walks away like nothing has happened...

Everybody will keep their santa claus hats on...

Success!

Instructional website I have followed:

http://www.wikihow.com/Organize-a-Flash-Mob

How To Smart Mob

Source: http://www.howcast.com/videos/88587-How-To-Smart-Mob

Flashmob = smartmob

Smart Mobs : The Next Social Revolution is a book written by Howard Rheignold. In the book he discuss the social, economic and political changes affected by the new technology. He specifically writes about the SMS-ing trend and wireless internet development, as well as highlighting the many ways in which technology changes and impacts the way people live and think.

Definition: A group of people who mobilize on short notice to perform a collective action to get a point across.

Flash Mobs are a more specific way of Smart Mobs using media, and other social network to organize it.

Source: http://www.smartmobs.com/book/book_summ.html

Santa Claus Dance!

Lyrics:

Santa Claus, Santa Claus, Santa Claus, Santa Claus

Christmas tree, Christmas tree, Christmas tree, Christmas tree

Leave the presents, Leave the presents, Leave the presents, Leave the presents

Eat the cookies, Eat the cookies, Eat the cookies, Eat the cookies

Indigestion, Indigestion, Indigestion, Indigestion

Pepto, do the pepto, do the pepto, do the pepto

Now up the chimney, up the chimney, up the chimney, up the chimney

Ride the sleigh, Ride the sleigh, Ride the sleigh, Ride the sleigh

Movement:

Santa Claus – hold stomach with both hands, swing from side to side

Christmas tree – shape christmas tree with your hands

Leave the presents – pretend to be leaving presents with your hands

Eat the cookies – take hand to mouth, first right then left

Indigestion – hold stomach and forehead

Pepto – thumb to mouth

Up the chimney – climb up and down

Ride the sleigh – ride around yourself

Hmm...

Santarchy History: The Early Years

posted by Santa Melmoth on December 21st, 2005

Dateline, San Francisco: Midget Dressed as Santa Disembowels Carmelite Nun with Teeth While Hundreds of Yobs Dressed as Santa Cheer

Now that I have your attention:

Santarchy: a brief history.
Santa names have been obscured to protect the guilty.

Talk about an absurd one trick pony event with a half-life of Strontium 90! The first â€œSantaCon” took place in San Francisco in 1994 and was sponsored by The San Francisco Cacophony Society. The original inspiration came from an earlier SF adventure club called The Suicide Club. The Founder and Avatar of The Suicide Club, Gary Warne decided to organize a non-political, purely surreal Santa prank event after reading a Mother Jones article about a Danish political group dressing as Santa’s and mobbing a Copenhagen Dept. store just before Christmas. Gary’s untimely death and the demise of the Suicide Club put the kibosh on this super obvious, (destined to be) Yule-time tradition. Gary’s idea, which was eventually given life years later by Cacophony was simply to play with the archetypal image of Santa using a barrage of many Santa’s (hopefully) inducing a psychedelic reaction from the public while the core of Santa’s had a real adventure and a lot of fun while goofing it up at various downtown X-mas locations. Had the Suicide Club organized the event it would have fit in nicely with other Club winners such as Clowns on the Bus (dozens of seemingly unrelated clowns going to work, all waiting at succeeding bus stops along the Geary bus line on a commute morning,) The Mud People (the mechanics should be obvious; this event was reprised with great success on Rodeo Dr. by L.A. Cacophony in ’94,) and many other public pranks pulled in the late 70’s & early 80’s. Alas, it was not to be. The Suicide Club, best known for climbing major suspension bridges, throwing insane costumed events in cemeteries, abandoned breweries and sewers, and for infiltrating cults such as the Moonies and the American Nazi Party left only a forlorn Suicide note from the Caliph of the North Pole.

source: http://santarchy.com/santarchy-history-the-early-years/

It all started with an email..

Back in the day in 2003, Bill used an email account called themobproject@yahoo.com to circulate emails that invited people to convene in a public place and take part in a random act in the purpose to confuse others. The first successful mob took place in a New York Macy's store. The hundreds of participants were all acting as if they were in search of a "love rug."

The love rug

After that, another event was held where 200 people flooded the lobby of a hotel and applauded for about fifteen seconds, and next a shoe boutique was invaded by participants pretending to be tourists on a bus trip.

The man known as "Bill" turned out to be Harper’s Magazine editor Bill Wasik. According to an interview with stayfreemagazine.org, his goal was to create an internet meme where people would simply be invited to do nothing to become part of the next big thing.

Source: http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall07/Picataggio/history.html