This past Sunday, I volunteered to be a part of a group of EMAC students who were all collaborating to document the PAC-WE gathering. The idea behind the event was both a unique and noble one; one I was excited to be a part of. In brief, the idea was to gather all the Dallas area artists for both networking purposes but also to make a statement about healthcare. It is more difficult to obtain insurance when you work as a freelance contractor. Pretty cool idea, right? Unfortunately, the turnout was somewhat below expectations. I understood that something like three thousand ponchos were ordered for the participants and I would be shocked if there were more than two hundred and fifty people in attendance.
Why is this? Well, I bet that a lot of people who intended to show up didn’t because they were hung over or too tired or any of those other excuses we have for skipping out on our weekend obligations. Also, one may argue that we are in the conservative South and getting a bunch of liberal artists to come out and support health care reform is just not as easy as it would be in, perhaps, Chicago. Plus, being we are in Texas, let’s face it, Sunday morning is when “most folks go to church”.
Now, apart from these crass stereotypes, why was PAC-WE not a great success? I may be a terrible cynic, but I found myself more interested in capturing on film all the participants who were capturing the event on film. There was this great push to artificially manufacture something much bigger than it actually was. I would guess that of everyone who showed up and donned the yellow ponchos, fifty percent or more were walking around with cameras and interviewing their fellow participants. (“Okay, I’ll interview you first and then you can interview me…”)
What makes some “flash mob” attempts more successful than others? They took advantage of the primary networking tools in today’s communication landscape. There was a Twitter feed, a Facebook page, and of course, a website to drive the whole thing. Maybe it’s all perception, maybe to those whom orchestrated Sunday’s event, it was everything they hoped it would be. As the main organizer noted, “It’s a start.”
Clay Shirky touches on flash mobs in Here Comes Everybody, noting they have been a more recent phenomenon. We have new methods of organizing people in a relatively effortless and timely way. This kind of collective calls for no formal invitations or RSVPing, the time it takes to send the message out is instantaneous, all you have to do is have an idea and a couple of friends to help spread to message, and best of all, there is little to no cost. However, because of these attributes of flash mobs, the organizer can never know how many people to expect and perhaps that has to be considered when perceiving an event’s “success.” (That also may explain why there was about one police officer for every twenty people there, which is overkill if you ask me.)
It is probably worthwhile to consider just what sort of flash mobs we have seen documented. In the US the idea is really a novelty and that is what PAC-WE felt like. Regardless my feelings about the need for healthcare reform, putting on a poncho and trying to make a human Pac-Man in a parking lot in Dallas was basically a joke. To the few Youtube viewers this event might attract, I wonder what the arcane stickers on our ponchos will mean to them. I doubt they will take very much away from the experience that relates to healthcare.
By contrast, it was only a few months ago that thousands upon thousands of Iranians took to the streets in vocal protest of what they believed was a sham election. These people regularly organized, shared information and encouraged one another through “flash mob technologies.” That flash mob was not a joke, or something to do before free beer was served. It wasn’t hokey or something to do to “have a lot of jokes about later,” as I heard one girl remark to her friends. And above all, it wasn’t something that existed to be filmed.
On that note, I will close with what I thought was insultingly ironic: the main organizer, closing his debriefing pep talk suggested we read Guy Debord. Yeah, that’s right: the guy who is most famous for writing The Society of the Spectacle. Perhaps I misunderstood him, but I took his tone to suggest I read this book, if I haven’t already, so that I might better understand all of the manipulation that exists in our media and culture today. If he did, then that man is a hypocrite. If he did not, and he hopes that I buy this little book and suddenly realize that I spent my Sunday morning not saying a genuine word about anything, but manufacturing a spectacle, I would rather he keep his jokes to himself. Those people without video cameras were there because they cared about healthcare reform. The rest of us probably can intuit most of Debord’s thesis by our behavior on Sunday. But what a disappointing spectacle it was. . .
Wow, I actually think 250 is a remarkable turnout. Dallas is a very difficult city to rally for the arts--even artists among artists. However, I don't think it's so much about that as it is purely a matter of numbers. If 3,000 people were projected and 250 showed, that's 8%. Compared to an email campaign that asks only for the recipient to click on a link, getting a 5% response rate is typical. This is true even for a targeted mailing list that would have a vested interest in the subject matter. So getting 250 people gathered together is newsworthy and it did get some coverage which helped even more.
ReplyDeleteBut I agree with you that it shouldn't have been called a flash mob, and there should not have been any expectation of turnout. The Iranian example is on a different scale just based on the affected population. It also cuts deeper as a transgression of freedom. For us to be protesting about health care almost seems like a luxury in comparison. Not that I mean to downplay how important the healthcare issue is. The Pac-We event did a good job of exposing the vulnerability of artists to a system that almost everyone agrees is broken. The controversy lies in how we think the system should be fixed. After reading the comments on the DMagazine article, I think the event was more valuable for the discussion it created, though I wonder if anyone returns to read follow up comments after they've posted something (especially the haters).
Sounds like it was a good effort, and a good cause. I wish I had known about it ahead of time. I saw people's tweets about the event on Sunday, but had no clue what it was until the event was nearly over.
ReplyDeleteNow, looking at the website, I agree that this could not really have been called a flash mob, at least in the sense that Shirky defines it, because there was too much "official" organization and preparation ahead of time. The fact that ponchos were ordered, police were notified, and businesses were asked to donate food are signs of this.
On the other hand, the fact that 250 people showed up with as little real advertisement as there was shows that Dallas artists do care about the issue. Knowing many freelancers who don't have health care, I'm sure more people would have participated if the word had gotten out more.
So many events these day seem more about "capturing" rather than experiencing. Go to a concert and it more people are trying to take pictures and record than actually stop, listen, and enjoy the music. Flash Mobs, or other protests work when there are more people who want to contribute to the experience than people who want to capture it for later.
ReplyDeleteAs the previous posters have said, this doesn't qualify as a flash mob. Why not? Because there was too much "official organization and prep. Flash mobs don't generally have police officers assigned to an event...Anyway, it's too bad that so many people were more focused on documenting the event rather than experiencing it. It sounds like most of the attendees wanted to be there to say they were there instead of to actively participate and/or engage in the event's purpose - to promote health care reform. 250 is definitely not a drop in the bucket, though, considering the region. I, for one, would have loved to have attended but I was working at the DMA that day.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a good observation to note that our protests might turn out to be jokes to us affluent and free Americans, but in other countries protests might determine their destiny or even survival. The subject of healthcare reform is serious, especially to those poor whose destiny or even survival might depend on getting health insurance/care. Perhaps “those people without video cameras” might be in need of such insurance: I, probably like you, appreciate their participation in this event, even though it might have turned out to be a “spectacle.”
ReplyDeleteP.S. I don’t know the exact figure, but the money that my health insurance paid out for me in my (successful) cancer treatment in 2008 could have bought a nice house in Richardson.