Non-Identity and GVB

Every year for Global Village Basketball, two colours are drawn at random from a list of colours in order to determine the team names and jersey colours — they have no significance other than that. Artist/athletes are assigned to each team at random (given certain time constraints specified in the application form), and in this fashion another of the tenets of modern sport is explored: team identification.

Each artist/athlete is essentially assigned a state of non-identity based on a randomly drawn colour. The interesting question to me is whether this state of non-identity is sustainable.

My guess is that this won't be sustainable once a critical mass of participant/spectators has been reached. The networked communication model of the Internet will allow smart mobs to assemble virtually and assume some of the artifacts of modern team identification: nicknames, cheers, logos, songs, etc.