From social network to urban intervention: On the scenographies of flash mobs and urban swarms

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe urban scenographies created and inhabited by flash mobs are participatory, temporary and ephemeral. They are designed in online communities and social networks and it is argued here that the ‘grammar’ of the social network provides the model for the flash mob's spatial figure and scenography. And while digital scenography is usually associated with an image-producing process, its spatial faculties become legible if virtual communities and networks are looked upon as social, scenographic spaces.It is further proposed that a potential for artistic intent and social critique inherently exists in the flash mob's appropriation of the city as a scenographic, performative space. Where the consumerist city and its uphold depend on the perpetuation of eternal mobility, flash mob scenographies form an orchestrated spatial figure of resistance.Relating examples of mob practice (New York 2003, London 2007 and Munich 2009) to spatial and critical theory (de Certeau, Debord), it is argued that the desire to engage with the city forms the central motivation for flash mob activities. However, whether self-organized or commercially hijacked, the artistic language and agency of realized flash mobs so far appear largely repetitive, unimaginative and underdeveloped. This article can thus be read as a plaidoyer for contemporary performative, participatory and scenographic practices to critically engage with the flash mob genre in a proposed shift towards urban commentary and critique.