Watch a Group Pull Off a Giant Prank Involving 100 Cars...and Their Alarms

A car alarm going off incessantly can be a huge annoyance. Now, imagine a hundred car alarms going off at once. How would you react?

The group Improve Everywhere -- the same pranksters that flash mobbed a TED conference with a presentation of the Mac's "color wheel of death" -- recently conducted an experiment to find out.

Dubbed the "Car Alarm Symphony," the group pulled 100 cars into a Staten Island, New York, Lowe's parking lot and walked to an inconspicuous place around the corner. There they were instructed to push their panic or horn button on keyless entry systems.

Although the Car Alarm Symphony orchestra appeared to be enjoying themselves, some in the Lowe's parking lot exhibited confused and irritated emotions, while others laughed it off as a joke.

Watch the event for yourself:

According to Improve Everywhere's website, this piece was conducted as a part of the Guggenheim Museum exhibition stillspotting nyc. This project is conducting exhibits in each of New York's five boroughs.

In a behind the scenes blog post of how they conducted this latest event, Improve Everywhere explains that they were able to increase the range of the keyless entry system by putting the keychain under their chins. What? Here's more on that technique:

I did a little bit or research about keyless remote ranges and found out something really strange. If you put your remote underneath your chin and open your mouth, you can dramatically increase the range. I don’t know why but it works. We mostly stuck to lifting our hands in the air, but some participants used this method as well.

The mission was not without its challenges. The group had to remain inconspicuous, trickling into the parking lot to position their vehicle and avoid walking out looking like a line of ants around the corner. According to the website the biggest challenge was not conducting the experiment but getting the car alarms to turn off.

The idea for using the car alarms as instruments, it states, is a spinoff of its 2006 Cell Phone Symphony. As a bonus, here's footage of that park:

[H/T CBS Local]