At 2 pm in the middle of a packed city square a whistle was blown and for two minutes people froze.Conversations stopped abruptly, movements were paused and a lone saxophonist was silent.

The city streets become pedestrianised motorways on Saturday afternoons with people overtaking and being overtaken searching for places to pullover stop. Therefore the concept of a large group of people purposefully choosing to stop wherever they want is something that intrigues me. It is an idea that is not wholly new with purveyors such as Gandhi and his non-violent protests have shown. Nevertheless, what makes this particular type of protest interesting is its performativity.

I had been invited to the ‘event’ via facebook, told when and where to be and at what time. At 2pm a whistle would be blown and we would all freeze until a second whistle was heard. However, this wasn’t about all gathering together in a group and then just freezing; it was something much more subtle. It reminded me a lot of performances I had done in the past when sat camouflaged in the audience, taking pleasure from my position of temporary omniscience. However, when in public outside of the safe haven of the theatre the sense of omniscience only occurs when the ‘performance’ begins, as many of the ‘audience’ look startled and perplexed at the sight in front of them. Another reason for this is that I didn’t really know who else was taking part in this protest. According to facebook, we had over 300 people attending, and it was great fun in the lead up to the event trying to determine who was public and who was performer. We had no banners to differentiate ourselves, no snappy chants but just a shared instruction: to not move for two minutes. I was in two minds as to whether I should take part or just watch and document it. However, my performing nature won out against academic research and at 2pm I froze with the others.

This type of protest is referred to as a ‘flash mob’, due to its speedy organisation, thanks to the modern miracle of the internet with sites such as facebook and twitter acting as catalysts for the organisation of protests and rallies. The ironic thing is that the word ‘mob’ originates from the word mobile, which is exactly what we were not doing. We were the ones getting mobbed, by the perplexed members of the public walking through us. Although we were not moving, we upset their habitual perambulation prompting annoyance from some and curiosity from others. Either way, it wasn’t a routine Saturday anymore.