Visual Rhetoric

iDance

Genre: Experimental/Documentary
Authors: Kjersti, Jenna, Danielle, Joel, Noah, Kaitlin and Bryan
Length: ~13 minutes
Size: ~88 MB (Use High Speed Connection)
Format: Quicktime Movie
Quality: Poor (Need to see DVD version!)

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Post-flashing Post

Ok. i thought it went very well, i think we got some great footage and accomplished our goal.  Yes it would have been great to see a million people show up but for La Crosse I think we got what we could in the time period alloted.  Also for the video, i definitley think we should have a purpose, talk about the original intent for the video on the video (virtual communities, some Bill Wasik quotes) and just not throw away all the reasons for what we have done.  We could make an artistic video and still keep in time with the purpose.

Sweet Victory....Kaitlin

Can't say that I expected much from this experimental flashmob idea that we took and ran with. Really can't. Even though the word of this mystical iDance was generating buzz through word of mouth and some facebook, I thought about how I would react and figured that most of the e-mailed requests were deleted without reading.

People thought it was a cool idea...they definitely thought it would be fun and some said they would come. And by come, they must have meant "I won't be there because it's much easier to say that I'm interested than actually subjecting myself to the stares and comments of other people when putting myself in an uncomfortable position." However, I think the fact that people genuinely were impressed with the idea and it spurred on many conversations about why, who and WHY...made us successful is one aspect.

After all of our hard pr work, the day came. Walking toward the clocktower after my 12:40 class...i began to feel butterflies. The clock read 2:06 and I saw no one getting up. As I made my way closer, I have to admit I thought all our efforts were going to be in vain. Then all of a sudden, white shirt got up (i found out later it was after some gentle prodding) and started grooving. Closer to the benches circling the clocktower...but after a few minutes of indulging herself in her music, she began to move closer to the tower.....once this brave, brave woman took the first step, a few others began to strap on their headphones and jam out. It turned out to be a total of 8-10 iDancers....a few of which were not even known to us!! They had just received the e-mail and thought it would be fun. That was our biggest success.

Some interesting things....sitting on the benches seconds before the scheduled start time, I overheard students talking about this crazy thing they only knew as an "iDance." Whispers and questions of it's originators circled up as they watched with guarded eyes, a few of La Crosse's hipsters get up and do their thing. As people were walking by and/or through, if they were not caught up in the dance themselves scurried past with wary looks (like, "Don't you dare try and pull me into that mess...") Secondly, one of my concerns before the event was the conflict of who could actually be counted on participating vs. the trendy technology required to do so. I thought that most likely La Crosse's version of hipsters would be the most open to the idea of free dancing....but would they have actually bought into the idea of an iPod, when everyone and their mom bought one? I thought not...but I was proved wrong.....in more than one way...by more than one person. Success, man. Rock on.

reflections from an iDance observer

Maybe I should start by saying that I am mildly surprised that anyone showed up to iDance at all. As I was recording from my very "sniper-esque" position in Cowley hall, I could hardly keep the camera steady as I realized... people were, in fact, dancing! 

Reviewing all the video footage was interesting, especially since my view was so far removed from the actually dance.  So many components that we have talked about over the course of the semester were illustrated in this one event--the "smoking and watching" turned into "smoking and dancing"--perhaps the smoking was enough of a critical distance, even though those smoking were actually dancing, for the iDancers to feel comfortable enough to get up and dance. 

Also, watching the footage of people actually getting up and slowly walking to clock tower was great. In the images alone, you could feel the hesitation, the struggle for the soon-to-be iDancer to decide between the safety of acting as the observer and the thrill of acting as the observed. 

The idea of incorporating iPods and MP3 players was successful.  Playing off of the isolation described in the panoptic model, the MP3 players added an interesting twist by isolating while, at the same time, connecting the dancers.   

I am not sure what this means as far as the dependability/effectiveness and authenticity of virtual communities like facebook.  Perhaps it just illustrates the superficiality of the communities, the fact that everyone wants to be involved in the community but only to the point where insecurities are not put on the line. 

It was interesting to talk to students and ask if they had heard anything about iDance.  Most of them, including a few of the actual iDancers at the event, heard about the dance through mass email.  I underestimated the power of email, assumed that no one would take the time to actually read, let alone pass along, the email.  We sparked interest.  We were able to get people to come out and dance. Amazing.

The fact that this "flash mob" was carried out, opens the door for future "flash mobs" on campus/in the community.  Our pioneer iDancers, the true hipsters, made this flash mob a success.

Post Mob Thoughts - Danielle

Really, really happy with the way things turned out.  People genuinely seemed to like the idea (well, the ones who showed up certainly did), and said that they would do it again if the opportunity presented itself.  I was just hopin' and prayin' all week that at least a few people would turn up and actually dance... so I got my wish.  Even if it meant that the dancers were part of our normal 'social circle' or whatever--they still did what they were supposed to and gave us what we needed for our experiment.

And yes, you can't look past the irony that it was holocaust survivor week/remembrance week/whatever.  Those black cut-out images fit right in with our posters on the clocktower--well, until they got taken down and set aside by the custodians.

I got some interesting pictures of the dancers around the clocktower--some action shots and short clips of video that might be useful for the final collaborative effort.  I'm just happy everything went the way it did--and goes to show you all that eek...facebook is taking over the world!?  But, can't rip on it too much, it got us our mob. 

the "mob"

Awesome, absolutely awesome! I had expectations of masses of people dancing...but those were just dreams and thankfully the group of 8 or so people who actually did dance made it the spectacle I was expecting. In no way was this experiment a falure! In fact, I think this was just a taste of what could be possible...especially in a larger setting with greater resources at hand. It will be interesting to hear the buzz that this small demonstration generates (if it does at all or if it is seen as a quirky happening of no consequence) The area was small enough that 8 people took up enough room to force people to see them, to force a reaction and a puzzlement which we saw in many spectators faces. The thing I found most interesting, is that when I tried to explain to people who had asked me what this iDance thing was, I explained it first superficially, and then appealed to the asthetic effect it would create...and many people latched onto that much more than the "just bring your iPod and dance" it created. Next time (I'm getting ahead of myself but I think another one of these would be amazing!) maybe it would be a more efficient form of rhetoric to appeal to the aspect rather than just telling people what to do. I think we also saw who "the hippsters" are on campus, all 8 of them! Ironically enough, these aren't hippsters in Bill's sense of the word, these people were on the fringe of a trend who either picked up an iPod for the pure convenience and not for the trend or borrowed one from a friend because they didn't follow trends. I think all together, there were 4 random dancers who showed up because of facebook, mass e-mail or whatever. As for the coincidence with National holocaust Remembrance Day....irony...OH! the irony....we should have listened to kjiersti's crazy day planner....but ohhwell, I think it actually produced more of a buzz than we thought. I still don't know how faithfully we stuck with the virtual community manifestation theme....I think that lagged behind but was still absolutely necessary in generating the buzz that was flying around, even though the people who knew about it from the internet weren't dancing, just commenting. I'm happy wiht the result, I think we have enough of an idea that we could easily create a much more succesful flash mob and we have enough date to at least make a descent critique of the idea, the phenomenon, and the event. It turned out! We won!!!! :)

Kjersti's Diary of a Flash Mob: The Aftermath

So I was right, the anticipated 50+ crowd did not show up, but I think I definitely proved myself wrong by thinking the iDance would be a flop!

I was unable to get any photographs from Trowbridge, but  instead took a few from the clock tower area.  That was until I felt the urge to go thrash dance with the fellow dancers!  I think after seeing that they, too, were flaying around for the most part, either disregarding the passers-by or trying to get them to dance, I lost any inhibitions about my ability (or inability) to bust a move.

From both experiencing the dance first hand as well as watching the video footage, I noticed that almost all the passers-by looked as though they enjoyed the spectacle as much as we the dancers did.  Everyone had smiles on their faces.  I think had we gone through with the "Killing Time/Great Smoke-Out" scenario, we may have gotten a different reaction, though I'm not sure what...

The Holocaust silhouettes certainly added a celebratory tone to the spectacle.  Not only did they resemble the iDance/iPod logo, but they were placed there in honor of a certain cause; we were placed there for our own cause, be it celebratory or just "for the helluvit."  I think a lot can come out of this once we actually sit down and review the footage and try to splice together a meaningful documentary of the iDance Phenomenon.  I invision the beginning of the film showing the interviews and the people's reactions following the dance (Reed's "THANK YOU SO MUCH!" cameo comes to mind), then a mix ("juxtaposition?") of the actual event and more of the behind-the-scenes stuff. 

How the video will be put together and what music/commentary we choose to overlap it with will be essential in creating the "aura" of the film as well as what kind of message or meaning we wish to portray with it.  Regardless of whatever we choose to do from here, I think the iDance was an extraordinary event that I wish we could've configured earlier in the semester, as well.  Also, I want to do another one!  Now that we have the experience and are comfortable collaborating with one another, it's almost unfortunate that there's not enough time to throw together another one.

Flash log

Flashmob, iDance......FLASHDANCE. my presuppositions of this monster are positive. I won't listen to the back of my head screaming at me, "Nothing will happen damn you! Nothing!" I believe people will dance, why? for two reasons. The first is that (in the words of David Bowie) " Dancing is stupid."  People on campuses, luckily a positive many, like doing things that they know will embarass them.  The cultural code of a college campus entails acting out in public and showing zero insecurity in the face of your peers.  One derives a great feeling of growth from it.  This is the main reason that i think people will show up.  Many people will walk by and judge these brave few, but they will go home with the bitter knowledge that somebody, somewhere, is dancing in public for no appareant reason, to music that they, quite simply cannot hear...  P.S. has anyone thought of how druidian (is that a word?) this is going to look?  a lot of people dancing around a large obelisque looking tower.  all we need is a bon fire, a few masks and some sacrificial offerings and we can have ourselves a burning man festival. -

Diary of a Mobber -- Kjersti

I've officially run out of flyers. 

When we first settled on the idea of the iDance Flash Mob, I have to admit I was a bit skeptical.  I was not doubting our group's ability to think collaboratively and work effectively to create a random and exciting event, but I doubted the actual reaction of the rest of the campus.  Would a fairly decent-sized group of college students actually pick up on the mass fliers, the Facebook blogs, and the relatively anonymous emails and create a spectacle with such little direction?

I know I wouldn't.  Though I'd definitely walk by at that time to see if anybody would start dancing at 2:07.  And that is my personal preference; the iDance idea is fantastic, but I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I'd be self-conscious about dancing at the clock tower, especially if there were only about five other people doing it, too.

So yes, over the past few weeks I've come to the conclusion that no matter what happens, we'll be able to make a valid argument as to "what occurred" at 2:07 on 04/25.  I'm still a bit pessimistic about the overall turnout, and I do plan to send out another "reminder anonymous email" this evening to my friends again.  In retrospect, I think that had we had the entire semester to work on this project (and indeed keep it strictly virtual), I think I would be more optimistic about the reactions of our fellow UWL students.  But then again, the whole purpose of the flash mob IS to be an instantaneous collaboration and event.   The whole situation is ironic, really, and hopefully I will be proven wrong when the masses descend upon the clock tower tomorrow afternoon, iPods silently ablaring.

If that does happen, it would be interesting to see which people came because Facebook/email told them to, which people came because they saw the flyers, and which people came because a friend told them to.  So now we wait.

See you all at the secret meeting place at 12:30 tomorrow.  I'll have the duct tape.

Diary of a Mobber - Danielle

I know we've succeeded in generating some buzz... Walking around campus on Thursday putting up the mini flyers with Kjersti generated some interesting feedback.  We talked to a girl at the front desk of Angell who just happened to be logging into facebook as we showed her the flyers and she had just received an email about iDance. 

I've spent most of my time working through facebook to get the word out and experimenting with different ways to get people to see the message.  Our initial plan to create an event and invite people to it was a good first step, but i realized that we didn't even need to individually invite people to the event.  So, I've spent the last four-five days doing searches on people who are interested in theater, music, art, english, etc and just sending them a copied message that will show up in their school email as a message from facebook giving them all the info on iDance.  there are about 10 people who have rsvp'd that they want to attend, another 10 maybes, and our iDance account on facebook had some interesting replies from people who had absolutely NO interest in what we were doing and asked that they be taken off the "list" which I found humorous.

In any case, we will have somewhat of a turnout.  People can't resist their curiosity and because this is taking place in the middle of campus, there will probably be a few people who just stumble their way into the middle of this without realizing what they've just walked in to. 

It will be interesting to see what kind of footage we get with two videocameras and maybe 4 digital cameras... It'll take a while to sort through everything but the footage from 4/25 combined with the footage from last Tuesday should provide a good start for our final video.  As I envision it now, there will be elements from new video present in our compilation.  The video will include our purpose in making it (a social/psychological experiment on people and their behavior...), how/why, and the overall video should illustrate major concepts that we deem important from the readings of earlier in the semester.