Pixiq

A group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology students who are touring the country and interviewing Americans for a school project have arrived in New York City where they have announced a flash mob in support of photographers’ rights.

The flash mob is scheduled for 7 p.m., Monday, June 30th, 2008 at Grand Central Terminal.

Wikipedia describes a flash mob “as a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse.”

In this case, the “unusual action” will be for everybody to whip out their video (and still cameras) and document the event as the group rides the train from Grand Central Terminal towards Wall Street.

The flash mob will be in protest against the ongoing battle between NYPD and photographers and videographers, the latest incident occurring this month in Coney Island.

Videographers and photographers are encouraged to meet outside Grand Central Terminal on the southside (E. 42nd St.) across the street and under the pedestrian bridge.

The students have been documenting their travels on their Website,  This American Summer, and even interviewed me in front of Tobacco Road while they were in Miami just over a week ago. That video will soon be posted on their Site as well as on this Site.

Here is how they describe tonight’s activist event:

Here’s how it’ll go down: we’ll meet up at 7pm (flash mob!). At 7:02, we’ll take out our cameras and start filming (make sure to bring enough tape/memory and battery). We will enter GCT at 7:03 and get on a train toward Wall St. (please purchase a subway pass or subway fare beforehand). Once we reach Wall St, we will disperse and everyone who took video will post a comment to this post with a link to their footage. That’s it!

After the event, upload your footage to a video sharing site (we like blip.tv for their ease of use and ability to download the original file). We’d like all footage to be released Creative Commons NonCommercial-Attribution-Sharealike for remixing fun.