Today, at 12 pm, I go on the fourth plinth, to be part of Anthony Gormley’s One & Other project. If you haven’t heard about it – it’s a massively participatory project where the ‘art’ is, well, the person who’s up there in front of Trafalgar Square, London and the World!

To give you an idea of the location, here’s a Google Streetview link of what it looked like when the weird hotel was on it. On a busy day, thousands of people could be watching you, standing (or sitting or stripping). And of course, the voyeurs who are watching via the live webstream.

Those of you who know me know that I’m comfortable with presenting in public, to groups and the good and the great. However, I’m not really a big fan of being ‘on show’ and particularly not to a globally televised audience.

And I guess part of what happens later today might be a little bit about facing that fear.

Anyway, I tweeted a while ago that I’d got the spot and some useful suggestions came back to me. To be honest, I’ve not thought about it a great deal, as the idea suddenly became very daunting. In light of the fact that a) I haven’t been very organised but b) I should stick to doing something that I know, I’ve decided to try and make some of my own art, while I am.. well… being an artwork.

So therefore, what I hope to do is very simple. I’m going to take my camera and a couple of lenses and take as many pictures as I can of Trafalgar Square but, more importantly perhaps, of the people who end up wandering by and watching me.

This project, arguably, is as much about the audience and interaction as it is about the person up there. Hopefully, what I’ll be able to do is give people a chance to have their own participation recorded somehow – watching, waving, jeering, whatever.

Simple. I hope. Imaginative? Well, you know, art is in the eye of the beholder and all that. At the very least, I’ll have something to tell my kids.

And if you tune in over lunchtime – because yes, I am occupying a peak slot – then you’ll get to see me too. I’ll be checking Twitter and probably shoving a bit of live coverage online via Posterous and/or AudioBoo. So if you’re around and you want your picture taking, tweet me and remember to use hashtag #oneandother.

PS to celebrate mark this event, I’ve even changed my blog header. I’m so on trend.