We're all dividuals...

I want my hour on the plinth to about more than just myself, standing, alone. In talking with Andrew Cochrane (my collaborator), we’ve agreed that we think that there are some limitations to the idea that people are individuals. In life, we all depend on so many other people, other things to live, create meaning and in the end share something of the time we have with.

So Andrew and I are planning to explore dividuality – the partibility of persons, identities, images… We’re hoping to offer a work that both complements and critiques some of the assumptions of One and Other and perhaps Antony Gormley is making through the design of the project. We want to show some of the ways that even though someone stands on the plinth by themselves, this does not divide them from the relations to other people and things in the world.

Preliminary thoughts and mediations

So I've been thinking about what to do with my hour...

It's quite a tricky thing really. Do you do something that's funny to entertain? Do you do something that's 'meaningful'? Do you give up your hour to a cause or protest? Or do you just take in the atmosphere?

The interesting thing about this project is that it isn't just a location specific public art event - it's webcast and archived/rebroadcasted for eternity. So though many may be most drawn to entertaining the passing crowds, what of the legacy? But perhaps it's precisely this type of immediate response and agency that is what should be celebrated and memorialised...

For me, I think given the significance of the project, I am compelled to try to do something that transcends myself - or at least transcends a self-indulgent individuality or ego identity.

But if I'm being honest, this is also due to the fact that I'm on at 5am - the one time nearly no one is in Trafalgar Square. Since I won't have a default public present and am less of a spectacle on the spot, I feel I have to produce something more consciously makes use of the web dissemination and is very aware of the audio-visual recording of the event. So it's going to be something involving talking, something involving making and hopefully something fun/amusing to watch. Who'd want to watch me for an hour anyway unless what I was doing was interesting... particularly after so many others have gone before me...

Welcome

Welcome to the blog site where we will be documenting and developing our project for the plinth as part of the One & Other project.

Ian will be taking his place on the plinth on 25 September 2009 at 0500 (GMT). Check out his profile here.

You can watch it here.