Three hundred people wearing headphones in brightly coloured tshirts, strewn across Camps Bay beachfront on a Sunday afternoon is perhaps what some people might call a little strange. Especially when all 300 are checking their watches anxiously waiting for precisely 3pm. For those that were adorned in yellow, blue, red and green, 3pm was the start of the mp3 experiment and time to push play and the show to begin.
After downloading an untitled mp3 off of the website, participants were instructed to:
a) show up before 3pm on event day
b) bring a deflated balloon
c) wear a green, blue, yellow or red tshirt
d) bring a mp3 listening device (ipod/phone) loaded with the untitled mp3 (no listening before the event!)
Arriving at Camps Bay, a group of friends and I took our positions under the trees, unsure of what on earth we would be doing, or what would happen at exactly 3pm after pressing play. What followed were 45 minutes of random craziness- our narrator “Steve” took us through a spectacle of various activities including dancing with strangers, playing tag with people wearing the same colour tshirt as you, coming together to create a human dart board using the different colour tshirts, playing thumb wars with the person standing closest to you, stalking non-participants along Camps Bay main road and falling onto the ground every time we heard the words “nap time”. The highlight of the afternoon was the “Epic Battle” (cue dramatic music) where the blue and green and yellow and red teams battled against each other using only balloons”¦there were lots of giggles and people falling all over the show! We ended off the afternoon with Steve’s brother taking us through some meditation and relaxation.
The event was just a bit of random fun, a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon interacting with other interesting people (great ice breaker!)
The mp3 experiment was part of the Design Indaba, organized by Charlie Todd of Improv Everywhere.
You can check out the video for the event at http://urbanchoreography.wordpress.com/2011/02/18/mp3-experiment-cape-town-ready-for-joy-and-chaos/ Look out for other fun improv events at http://improveverywhere.com
