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The Miami University Flash Mob has been in full swing fall semester performing random spontaneous actions anytime, anywhere on Miami's campus.
"A group of people who appear from out of nowhere, to perform predetermined actions, designed to amuse and confuse surrounding people," is the definition of a flash mob according to Urban Dictionary.com.
Since the start of the Miami flash mob in 2007, there have been five spontaneous events on campus. During the first event in winter 2007 the mob froze in place at the hub for four minutes during a busy period between classes. In spring 2007, a member of the mob dressed up as a milkshake and the rest of the mob chased him from the Shriver Center to Bell Tower with straws in hand.
Earlier this year, the mob dressed in business attire and kneeled on the ground outside FSB and worshiped the building for four minutes before separating. The second flash mob occurred on the hub when the mob suddenly broke into a pillow fight for five minutes.
The most recent event was Nov. 10, when the mob gathered in the King Library lobby for a silent flash dance rave. Participants started silently dancing in the lobby while library-goers crowded around to watch.
Colleen Payne, a library staff member, witnessed the event from the circulation desk. She said at exactly 4 p.m., a large group of students gathered in the lobby and broke out into spontaneous dance moves. She said at first bystanders were confused, but a lot of them took out cell phones and recorded the event while laughing.
"The whole event was silent, so it was fun to see people dancing differently; some were quirky, others kind of flailed around, and some were a little more self-contained," Payne said.
Payne said the flash mob did a great job of executing its event in an unsuspecting venue.
"The goal of the flash mob is to take people by surprise, but mostly to provide entertainment and to break up the monotony of daily school life," Payne said.
Zach Heimach, member of the flash mob, agreed.
"Ninety percent of the time, college is all business," Heimach said. "Anything you can do to make people laugh can only improve things. People try to take it too seriously and search for a political reason; this is just innocent and fun."
Heimach defined the flash mob as an underground campus organization.
Zak Shugart, the flash mob leader, said he wants to brighten people's days and surprise them.
"We are not trying to overthrow the government or anything," Shugart said.
Random people approach Shugart about their fascination with the flash mob.
"Everyone seems to appreciate it a lot and have fun watching it," Shugart said.
All flash mob business is conducted from the Facebook.com group, Miami flash mob.
If you would like to view the past flash mob events, they can be viewed on YouTube under Miami flash mob.
