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Beautiful Angle progenitor Lance Kagey drew a few dozen people to Tollefson Plaza today with an invitation to capture shadows.

Relatively spontaneous and generally without official approval, a flock of Tacomans descended on the Plaza with chairs, set them in appropriately-angled sunlight, and taped over the shadows cast with blue masking tape. Dubbed “SIT IN,” and based on the work of local artist Joe Penrod, the event was a true-to-form Flash Mob extravaganza.

Flash Mobs started in Manhattan, where then senior editor of Harper’s Magazine Bill Wazik flooded hipster hangouts with carefully-coordinated groups of pranksters with the hopes of causing chaos. Wazik said he organized the mob-actions as a social experiment aimed at clowning on hipsters clamoring to be part of “the next big thing.”

Flash mobs, of course, immediately became trendy.

More recent manifestation still get points for generally involving large, guerilla-style invasions of public spaces, and for sometimes involving art.

The first 50 people that showed up today scored a Beautiful Angle poster featuring Tacoma poet William Kupinse and up-and-coming silkscreen artist Tyler Kalberg.

Tacomans at large are encouraged to create guerrilla chair art of their own, and leave it somewhere that makes them feel special.