Crowd-Driven Pattern Formation

摘要

Every year the Arirang Mass Games held in Pyongyang, North Korea, organises an impressive spectacle of perfectly choreographed dancing and gymnastics in what might be the most incredible example of human coordination in the world. Every 20 seconds, for a period of two hours, a human mosaic composed of thousands of people switches the panels of coloured flip books to create pixellated images honouring the country's cultural heritage and political regime. In the words of photojournalist Jeremy Hunter, a crowd-driven display of this magnitude 'could only be achieved in a place where you have an unlimited resource of humans who do whatever they are directed to do. Every breath of these people is coordinated.'1 Despite its tyrannical undertone, such a display encapsulates a stunning example of coordinated human workers collaborating to assemble an emergent large-scale form.