A flashmob on a space station, please. Flash mob. Flash mob. -- Anon Guest
[AN: First link leads to a video in which Musicians keep turning up to join in playing Beethoven's 9th, or Ode to Joy. There's even a Chorus. Second video features a dance performance that becomes a proposal.]
Art has many facets. There's even a form of art that aims to have the viewer question, "What is art?" Of the performance artists, there are more many and varied types than one might imagine. Which includes the Flash Mob. A group of individuals with nominal co-ordination who agree to do a public performance of something with little notice and the tools on hand.
All they needed was the ability, the time, and the tools. Convenience of transit to get to the site of the scene should have been, but it's amazing the lengths that Humans will go to in order to create weirdness. Anywhere that population might be available to view a live performance, Humans will make surrealism for everyone else.
For example, Passalong Station. A nexus in which the motto is Hurry Up And Wait. Those who work there gain entertainment from sharing Weird Customer Stories. The work is almost monotonous, save for that. At the end of a term, they fly home to the nearby planet and take some extended time in which routine is no longer necessary.
This is a place made for those who do not stay. It was a stopping point between destinations. At any given hour, there could be hundreds of people milling about in the main waiting lounge. Translation - it was the perfect place for a flash mob. The surprising part was that nothing of the sort had happened before.
Someone put down a speaker attached to a datareader, which started playing some sweeping orchestral music. The Human who had done so began performing some ballet in the widening open area centering on the dancer.
Another visitor, also wearing very comfortable clothes and a pair of sockassins, stood up from their seeming disinterest and then seamlessly joined the dance. A third stopped to put their food wrapper in the waste receptacle, then twirled into the performance.
More and more Humans joined the dance. They had come from different areas of Alliance space, some had been waiting for their connecting vessel for days[1]. Yet they were prepared to join the dance as it occurred.
By the time the dance ended, there were thirty dancers, and more than that in the watching crowd. Children were imitating the balletic leaps and twirls. People of all types were recording the performance. When the dancers took their bows, the watching crowd and even the vendor staff burst into applause.
Then every single one of them returned to their former activities - or lack thereof - as if nothing had ever happened.
Some were waylaid by other cogniscents asking what the heck that just was. Humans were reviving an ancient art. Organised, yet spontaneous performance. Because art does not belong in a locked box.
Some said, "Art belongs in museums, in theatres, in ampitheatres... That is where it stays."
"What do you think the locked box is?" said the Humans.
[1] Interstellar transit really puts the "wait" into waiting for a connecting flight. Systems are in place to accommodate for this.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / adam121]
If you like my stories, please Check out my blog and Follow me. Or share them with your friends!
Send me a prompt [54 remaining prompts!]