Those people sitting on Broadway were part of The Connect Movement
Yes, it’s kind of strange
If you were wondering who the little people staring daringly into each other’s eyes outside of Tisch on October 15th, read further.
And I’m about to offend some people, eh, here goes….
This is The Connect Movement or “World’s Largest Eye Gazing Movement” (of course they picked Tisch as their NYU location — sorry had to be said), with their first NYC event which took place all along Broadway between Houston and 47th Street.
So, very few of the helpers could actually explain to me what this movement was…thus, I had to dig for info from various sources. Alright little teacups let’s break it down:
The idea: Sit on the ground for a minute staring into a stranger’s eyes. Holding a sign. (see below for directions). Feel inspired…or whatever…”feel the connection”…
This is going to be super impractical in the winter…
On the ground explanation: According to Yadira (not pictured), a team leader who “just jumped onboard” for The Connect Movement’s first NYC event, the point is to “focus on finding intimacy and human connection in cities where we are always on our phones living a fast paced life”.
Unfortunately she was unable to tell me how it all started. Why sitting not standing? Why staring not talking? Why would you start your first sitting down event just as it gets cold? Conspiracy? So many questions left unanswered.
Actual explanation: Between all of their “eye gazers, team leaders, location leaders [(why so many leaders…?)], volunteer photographers and volunteer videographers” according to Amy Silverman, one of the co-founders, they had “around 380 people” on Thursday.
The staring was advertised on Facebook. Around 4,500 people were invited and apparently 90 other cities with nearly 100,000 people participate in this around the world. Sadly NYC let them down with a shaky 380.
Heartbreak.
So there you have it, perhaps not earth-shattering but interesting nonetheless. I can’t say I’ll be joining them for a ‘sit down’, just because, you know, I have other things to do.
But it’s cute. Real cute.