Final 24 hrs

At 9am tomorrow it all ends. We are in the final 24 hours of plinthing and there are a lot of people out there who are going to miss their live view of Trafalgar and the plinth. You can sense the sadness on the blogs, and in subtler ways like the feed freezing up. Last night was my second last night I get to watch live plinthing, from a quiet, middle of the morning Trafalgar Square. And just as Antonia comes out to shake her ass the feed starts freezing. Seems many of the people who have stopped in during the project are checking in at the start of each new plinthing session to catch one more phenomenal experience before the fourth plinth goes bare.

I've realized that it is the early morning plinthing that is by far my favorite. With the five hour time difference, most of my plinth watching has been in the late night / early morning hours. Dawn is still my fav and I will likely go back and watch many of the dawn sessions that I missed as long as the site is up. But even when I visited the plinth in person, I stopped by Trafalgar twice late night, and only once during the day. I have almost no recollection of the plinth during that day stop. That is especially strange since both times I was there late at night, I was a bit drunk and seriously overtired.

It is the late night cocoon of light that I better understand and relate to. It is the intimacy of being in public, lit up like a billboard, while the city (mostly) sleeps that is the most intriguing side of the project. In general I feel like we've seen a more honest side to the late night plinthers. There is less of a live audience, less reason to act unlike yourself. Day plinthers end up playing to the crowd in one way or another and modifying their behavior. I feel like we glimpsed people's personality more readily at night. And when watching at home, on the live feed, you almost feel as if you are the only one watching. And like maybe you are almost up there with the person. That one on one feeling is incredible. When else do you feel that close to a stranger you've never met?

For a few reasons I hope to keep this blog going. I haven't yet updated with photos from my own experience in Trafalgar. I've missed watching the plinth the last few weeks because of travel and recovery, and I came into the project just before the half way point. There are a lot of plinthers I'd still like to watch and I'll update with highlights as I make my way through them. The official blog says the One & Other website will remain up through the end of the year at least, maybe longer. But now, we still have time to watch a bit live...and hopefully the feed will hold out to keep us connected live to a blank chunk of granite in a square in London that has been animated by so many different ideas over the last 3 + months.