Mobs from Dada

Imagine being on a city street in New York or San Francisco and suddenly a swarm of people are randomly gathering nearby. There seems to be no point to the gathering. And that is precisely the point. These “flash mobs” as they are called are reliant on new technologies such as email and mobile phone but are a decidedly Dada idea. Call or email your friends to show up at, say, a jewelry store in a mall and then have them disperse after 15 minutes. It’s the hot new thing. Marcel Duchamp would have loved it.