Centraal Station Antwerpen gaat uit zijn dak!...

Wherein accounts of various mass outbreaks of random creativity are given.

...Is what I found whilst trawling my way through Youtube memes.

Greetings Dissidents and Anarchists!

I will admit right now that my adventures began with Susan Boyle who is rapidly conquering Rick Astley in the Number one spot on Youtube with her wonderful rendition of I Dreamed a Dream. I really enjoyed the Susan Boyle clip but as she's EVERYWHERE now, (I mean, Perez Hilton has done a post on her for the gods' sake!) I shan't go over the same material again.

Besides, I found something much more intriguing in an endearingly creative anarchic way. And it had this title: Centraal Station Antwerpen gaat uit zijn dak! Which, to my mono-linguistic eyes meant either this was a European language, and judging by Antwerp was possibly Belgium, or that it had something to do with aliens with congestion attacking central Europe. (My apologies Belgium, But I am from the colonies, so do forgive my ignorance.)

The clip is shown above and is, wonderfully chaotic and totally (I think I really must use this word here, although I mean it in its correct context) random.

What isn't there to love about four hundred strangers who are totally indistinguishable from the rest of the commuters beginning a fully choreographed routine to 'The Sound of Music'! And how that must of lightened up the peoples' day.

So I started looking around. And then I found a similar occurrence in Liverpool U.K. of mass choreographed dancing. And then I found New York Grand Central Station had, not a spontaneous attack of dancing, but instead was confronted with no less than 207 regular commuters suddenly freezing in position simultaneously for five minutes! People stared in mute bewilderment as commuters around them suddenly froze on the train platform mid tying up their shoelace or talking on the phone. Observe:

But this isn't all! Improv Everywhere (responsible for the Grand Central freeze stunt) who are basically a performance art group, have held annual 'No Pants on the Subway Day' which involved 2500 commuters all claiming to have forgotten their pants when they left for work, while riding the subway. Along with numerous other wonderfully irreverent occurrences of mass mayhem. And they aren't alone.

It's a phenomenon called Flashmobbing, smartmobbing or even glamour-bombing! Using our new Social Networking media, we funny little naked apes can collect an enormous amount of people together via, relatively anonymous and hidden means and then get together and do something totally unusual in a public arena leaving the wider community reeling and totally perplexed as to what just happened.

And it is World Wide.

For example: This smartmob occurred in Paris.

Whereas this flash mob involving hundreds of people blowing bubbles occurred in Budapest.

Then there is the 100 strong 'Silent Disco' that occurred in Brighton Train Station that involved a crowd of people simultaneously dancing to silence.

Not to mention the spontaneous Pillow Fight Day That occurred in such cities as Monterrey, Beirut, Shanghai, Sydney, Philadelphia, Basel, Dublin and Copenhagen!

This is a phenomenal expression of humanity here, people! It's brilliant in its collaborative yet anarchic whimsy. But what is it an expression of?

Sociodynamics (according to Wikipedia, and how can they be wrong!) often refers to a point in a culture where it can influence outside influences amongst a crowd. For instance, one person looking up at the sky generally has no effect on other pedestrians on a busy street. Similarly two or three people staring at the sky, but five people staring at the sky has what is called 'Critical Mass' and it is a powerful force. Look again at the youtube clip in Antwerp, and check out the people who are not part of the performance joining in.

The Internet is providing us with the means to make critical masses wherever our whims desire. Globally if we need to. And, although this all appears extremely silly in comparison to the great moratoriums of previous decades, look again at the display in light of the term 'culture-jamming.'

Culture-jamming is a practise (but not apparently a movement) whereby large groups of people gather together using guerrilla communication (-Thanks again Wikipedia) to do everything from reawakening a sense of wonder and awe in other people's everyday surroundings, or pointing fun and mocking the herd like mentality of everyday life, to ridiculing consumerist ventures, or simply getting people to connect with others in random but fun and intense ways.

So although it sounds like a lot of fun with a great deal of whimsy and entertainment, at it's heart we are seeing a series of sophisticated and extremely well-orchestrated demonstrations against...well, against Western culture.

And there is a phenomenal occurrence here. Because these events are growing.

Anyone who may have looked at fractals may recall how when a sequence repeats itself while building upon itself, the structure becomes more complex leading to an inevitable weakness or series of weaknesses throughout the sequence.

I would argue that we are looking at the weaknesses in the structure of Western civilisation here.

And it is building in its critical mass. Take for instance the 'Anonymous' Web group. They are nameless, faceless, and basically run around the virtual world causing a bit of harmless fun.

But then some of them got it into their heads to protest Scientology.

Suddenly, in 93 cities around the world thousands of people turned up, many of them dressed in Guy Fawkes masks (alla V for Vendetta) blaring Rick Astley songs from their stereos outside of Scientology churches in protest!

This, from bored hackers having fun! We are looking at a new anarchic and artistic form of modern protest here. These people aren't protesting war, or capitalism or cruelty against animals. This is a new form of protest that is leveled at the heart of our modern society as we know it. Because its a war against the mind-numbing boredom of a nine to five life.

And they're growing in popularity. How fabulous. Do keep it up!


V for Vendetta, Flash mob, smart mob, glamour bomb, pillow fight, culture jamming, culture jam, protest, moratorium, anarchy, social criticism, public performance, performance art, group mentality, herd mentality, critical mass, Chaos theory, social dynamics, memes, youtube, Rick Astley, Guy Fawkes, Anonymous, Scientology, bubbles, dancing, mob mentality, Susan Boyle,