A group of students intently listening to MP3 players drew strange looks from passers-by as it traveled across campus Sunday, throwing imaginary Frisbees and breaking into dance.

Students Organizing the Multiple Arts (SOMA) held an MP3 Experiment beginning on Shortlidge Road outside of Thomas Building. Participants downloaded a pre-recorded set of instructions, met in the same location and hit play at the same time.

Event organizer Devan Kochersperger (sophomore-history), who recorded the MP3 clip, said the New York City-based performance art troupe, Improv Everywhere, has held such events in the past. Penn State's own Full Ammo Improv staged a similar stunt in 2007. The experiment began with the participants simply standing up and waving to each other. The voice on the MP3 clip, calling himself Quetzalcoatl, gave commentary throughout.

"Wow, that's some great smiling and waving. Your mother must be proud of you," the voice said at one point.

Participants then lined up single-file behind Kochersperger and began walking to the HUB-Robeson Center, giving waves, thumbs-up and high-fives to passers-by the whole way.

Those who witnessed the strange behavior of the group's participants were largely confused and didn't understand what was happening.

"I don't know what the benefit is, but it's very interesting," said Josh Thigpen, Class of 2008, as he watched from a balcony as the group broke into dance on the second floor of the HUB. Kochersperger said he largely modeled the beginning of the experiment after Full Ammo Improv's 2007 performance. He then adapted suggestions he received at SOMA meetings to help create the rest of the experiment.

Other antics of the experiment included the students laughing at the television screen in the HUB as they walked past, crouching down and searching the floor in the HUB as though they had lost their student ID cards and playing "Simon Says" on the HUB lawn.

Some participants enjoyed the music of the clip the most.

"It was a good twist of surf rock and techno," Bill Nechamkin (junior-information sciences and technology) said.

Nechamkin also found some of the reactions of bystanders interesting.

"There was this one old guy watching us the whole time we were searching for the ID," he said, laughing.

Because of expected poor weather, Kochersperger said the group had been unsure if it would be able to do the experiment, and less people attended than planned. But despite these setbacks, the event ran very smoothly, he said.