Created by: Charlie Todd & Tyler Walker
All music by: Tyler Walker
Brainstorm Committee: Jason Eppink, Charlie Todd, Tyler Walker
Shot by: Gabriel Chai, Andrew Flynn Soltys, Cameron Frittz, Keith Haskel, Kristopher Knight, Ryan Nethery, Corey Richardson, Charlie Todd
Photography: David Bledsoe, Ilya Chigirev, Brian Fountain, Chad Nicholson, Arin Sang-urai, Ari Scott (full flickr sets for each photographer at the bottom of this post)
For our latest mission, over 3,500 people downloaded an MP3 file and pressed play simultaneously. The event began at sunset in two starting points by the Hudson River. The masses converged on Nelson Rockefeller Park as twilight ended and participated in a series of synchronized activities involving flashlights, camera flashes, glow sticks, and masks. This was the 8th installment in our Mp3 Experiment series.
Enjoy the video above first, and then go behind the scenes with our photos below. We’d like to thank the River to River Festival for hosting the event.

pre-mission documentation team meeting

Pier 25


Black shirts at their meeting point further south

The start time was 4 minutes after sunset

Preparing to press play


Synchronized jumping

Handshake

Bow

Dance


“See how many strangers you can high five.”


A woman snaps a photo of the group walking away












Handshakes

Slow dancing

Flashlight tag, where everyone named Mike and Sarah were “it”

1996 Rave with Glow Sticks

Some decided, unprompted, to throw their glow sticks in the air




Glow sticks flying through the air

“Hold your bright object up to the sky”








Pretty cool that the Green Lantern showed up
Agent Ann Kirschkins used one of the aerial photos to attempt to count the participants by circling their heads with a red pen. It was almost impossible to count every head since it was so dark out. I think 3,500 is probably a pretty accurate guess. We had 3,044 last year, and this group was definitely a bit bigger.

Mission Accomplished.
OTHER RESOURCES:
PHOTOS
– Agent Chad Nicholson’s photos
– Agent Brian Fountain’s photos
– Agent Ari Scott’s photos
– Agent David Bledsoe’s photos
– Agent Arin Sang-urai’s photos (rooftop photos!)
– Agent Ilya Chigirev’s photos
AUDIO
You can download some of the songs from The Mp3 Experiment on Tyler Walker’s site.
HIRE US
We regularly tour The Mp3 Experiment around the world to places like Berlin, Germany and Adelaide, Australia and to college campuses in the US like UNC and Texas Tech. If you’re part of an organization (festival, university student activities board, arts group) that is interested in commissioning an Mp3 Experiment, get in touch via our contact form.
AGENT REPORTS
Check out first hand reports from participants in the comments section on this page.