“If I told you the location, it would ruin the surprise,” said Emily Hollander, a second-year psychology student at Carleton who is organizing a freeze flash mob in Ottawa Feb 12.
A flash mob is a group of people who get together and perform a spontaneous action then quickly disperse as if nothing happened.
The term coined by Bill Wasik in 2003 “was originally an assault on hip culture,” said Kevin Bracken, the creator of interactive public art group Newmindspace.
The idea for an Ottawa flash mob, which began two months ago between Hollander and a small group of her friends, now has more than 1,300 people confirmed on their Facebook group with a possible 5,000 more that could be attending.
“I’ve never organized, let alone participated in a flash mob,” Hollander said.
She said she was inspired to bring a similar event to Ottawa after watching a video of a Paris flash mob on YouTube.
Organizing this event has been very time-consuming, Hollander said, who is both scared and excited about the number of people attending.
Hollander said she thinks around 800 people will attend.
“For the public it’s strange, but it’s also a lot of fun.”
Chelsea Renaud, a second-year social work student at Carleton who is attending the event said she was persuaded to join after seeing the improvisation group Improv Everywhere.
“I can hold a pose for five minutes unless I have to sneeze,” Renaud said. “But I’m especially pumped since we are actually going to freeze during our harsh Canadian winter.”
In order for the event to be successful, people need to be co-operative because the effect is at its best when it is organized, Hollander said.
The most important part of the flash mob is the cuers, she said.
The cuers start the domino effect. Their job is to be as subtle as possible to the public, but easily identifiable by the participants, many of which will be scattered in the crowd to give the signal for everyone else to freeze.
Bracken said there are few places where young people can gather in large numbers for playful social activities, and this is what draws them to this concept.
While there have been flash mobs in Ottawa in the past, they were a lot smaller and were relatively unknown.
Renaud said the event will bring an exciting art form to the city.
“It’s kind of like art, using people,” Renaud said. “It becomes both something captivating and neat to watch.”