One & Other

One & Other was a public art project by Antony Gormley, in which 2,400 members of the public occupied the usually vacant fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, London, for an hour each for 100 days. The project began at 9 am on Monday 6 July 2009, and ran until 14 October. The first person to officially occupy the plinth was Rachel Wardell from Lincolnshire. A documentary art book by Gormley, entitled One and Other, was published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 14 October 2010. The Wellcome Trust has posted online at its website its series of oral-history interviews of the 2,400 plinthers.

Opening
The project was opened by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Minutes before the official launch Stuart Holmes, an anti-smoking protester, managed to clamber onto the plinth and displayed a banner calling for a ban on tobacco. Gormley urged him to do the "gentlemanly thing" and give up his place to the first official "plinther", Rachel Wardell. He did so and descended in the cherry picker used to carry participants to and from the plinth.

Participants
Members of the public could apply for an hour on the plinth via the project's website. Gormley himself applied but didn't get a place. Reviewing the event afterwards, The Guardian's top ten "plinthers" were:

Asked for his favourite, in 2015, Gormley stated that choosing was unfair but, when pushed, selected an agoraphobic woman, who sat in the middle of the plinth, curled up into a ball. He also said he had liked a woman from the first day of the event, who was accompanied by a Cuban mariachi band that performed beneath the plinth, and people who used the opportunity to commemorate war dead.

On 14 July at 8.00 pm, poet R. N. Taber read a selection of his poems, while photographer Alex Boyd collaborated with Scottish Makar (Poet Laureate) Edwin Morgan for his time on the plinth. On 12 August at 1 am, a naked plinther was asked to cover up by the police.

Streamed live online by SkyArts, the exhibit quickly developed a cadre of regular Twitter followers who provided a running commentary of events on the plinth. The videos, later looked after by the British Library's web archive function, are currently not available and there are no plans for them to become available.