Thursday afternoon a few of my friends and I had the pleasure of experiencing an mp3 experiment in Madrid's Retiro park. While it's slightly complicated to explain, I'll try my best. (At any rate, I have a video linked to it at the bottom for fun!)
To begin, the idea for an mp3 experiment began with the group ImprovEverywhere (from NYC) that has been responsible for various flashmobs the last few years. A flashmob is when a group of people show up at a specifc location and time to perform a spectacle that the general public shouldn't be expecting. One of their most famous events was the "freeze" at Union Station when their accomplices all timed themselves to freeze in place for three minutes, much to the surprise of their fellow commuters. So an mp3 experiment is similar in the idea that the accomplices download a specific mp3 onto their device and show up at a specific time. Wearing one of four colors upon arrival, they all hit play in unison and the mp3 gives them directions to follow.
We came in as team blue and two of us participated while the other two observed the hilarity. Though we were told to look casual, there was a huge group waiting at the entrance of the park. We were filmed by so many different groups and participants too, and at 6 o'clock en punto we hit play. Some of the directions given by Bruno, the locutor omnipresente on the mp3, were to high-five a passerby (poor Kayleigh and Jen said about twenty people immediately swarmed around them), dance like they do in 2069 (harder to do than you'd think), form a human dart board separated by our colors, engage in an epic balloon battle, perform a Michael Jackson tribute and moonwalk, hug strangers, point to Nicaragua, and play Simon says.
Listening to the 35-minute track in Spanish was a little tricky, but it worked out since everyone was listening at slightly different times depending on when they hit play, so we looked casual in our confusion now and then. The entire time we giggled at the random instructions, met a few new people (including other Americans), and danced when there was down-time on the mp3. Kayleigh and Jen later told us that spectators kept asking them what was going and if they could participate too.
It was great seeing ImprovEverywhere's work extending internationally - just another sign of globalization, especially via Facebook where the event was publicized. Speaking of which, we're still struggling with our group costume for Halloween; apparently people love celebrating it here now too!
Saludos,
Natalia
P.S. El País' event! (A-la-Waldo, you can find Paige and me moon-walking for a split-second midway through the video.)
P.P.S. Where did October go?!
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