Your humble narrator was one of the combatants in a recent “flash mob” pillow fight at the Vancouver Art Gallery. (I have come to realize that using quotation marks absent of a direct quotation has taken on the appearance of using “air quotes” in personal conversation. The only person to effectively do this was Chris Farley as Matt Foley. Alas, Chris Farley is died a tragic, and arguably, pre-mature death. So should all people who use “air quotes” in conversation…)
As in most things in modern life, there were more spectators than participants.
Though the large number of participants (and admittedly, the tipped off spectators) made for an interesting display, I would rather have been involved in a flash mob with a few dozen people arriving surreptitiously, performing our action and departing unceremoniously.
In anticipation of the proposed mob, I readied my gear, hiding my pillow (containing a shameless photo op for my blog) as directed and jumped on my bike to enjoy the all too rare sunshine. My usual online spelunking turned up another event, the Grand March for Housing. Is there anything better than biking around downtown on a sunny day, taking in the city, the people and experiences? In a word, no.
As I waited on the other side of the Gallery as the Grand March for Housing ended, I attempted to identify other participants. As per the rules for this flash mob, people were not to hang around and were to hid their pillows. I detected a half dozen mobsters surveying the area, planning their approach. Two younger women had smaller pillows secreted under their sweater as though they were pregnant with decidedly square babies. Another young woman had a star shaped pillow strapped to her back like a backpack. One tall gentleman had a leopard-patterned pillow secreted in a plastic bag. All the participants were attempting to look nonchalant and doing a pretty good job. As I counted down the minutes, my mind raced planning numerous scenarios for mass participation in such an action. I could have procured one of the work vans and filled it full of pillows. Next I could have organized a number of confederates to all take the same bus wearing business suits and direct them to get off at the nearest bus stop. I could park the van by the stop and direct my troops to report to the van single file while checking their watches as though they were late and distribute pillows to each of them before leading them into battle. Nice.
Actually, this gives me some other ideas…stay tuned.
Back to the mob, at 2:58 pm I locked my bike and walked over to the other side of the gallery, unsheathing my pillow from my backpack. I noted a congregation of people in the area and a few other people walking towards the area with pillows. While this fueled my anticipation, what I saw when I arrived changed everything.
Yes, there were people with pillows. Hundreds of them. But there were as many people on the steps with cameras. And someone with a megaphone giving directions. And it was not some annoying VPD stormtrooper. And no one was fighting with pillows or otherwise. So much for spontaneous action. So much for impromptu performance art. So much for shocking an unsuspecting public.
At several minutes after 3:00pm following a garbled message on the megaphone, the fight began. And it was fun. I guess. More people arrived as the fight raged on. A few people forgot the ‘No Feathers’ rule. Other than that everything appeared to go off without a hitch.
My lack of experience with flash mobs does not allow me to label others as poseurs or an entire event as poseur-ish. So I won’t. I have never been fond of pejorative labels (or hipsters for that matter…note to self: write future blog post on things that annoy me); I would rather celebrate the positive. In this sense, the event was cool but it could have been cooler. Less overt structure. Less suspecting spectators. This also raises a number of questions about how to organize an effective, large scale, public action without overt structure. It simply puts the onus back on the individual to know what to do when the time comes. And then to do it. You just need the right individuals.
Dr. G
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