russell's blog about, you know…stuff

Well, it’s taken me some time to get my head around my plinth experience (was kind of dazed after an hour up there. severals pints of beer afterwards probably didn’t help either).

I wanted to throw just  few thoughts and reflections down here, but first a big thank you to everyone who sent me encouraging messages & tweets of support, and who checked out ColaLife’s website, started following @colalife on Twitter or became a fan of ColaLife on Facebook.

The Artichoke team were very welcoming & brilliant at calming my nerves before I went up, so thank you to them too. Everyone who came along to represent or support Colalife also deserves a big thank you, for working hard to make sure people in Trafalgar Square could find out more about the campaign.

So, the experience of being on the plinth:

• I don’t normally mind heights, but something about standing on a narrow strip of concrete, 8m up, in the wind, can trigger vertigo
• I am, as I said in my last post, shy. Standing on a plinth in Trafalgar Sq, being live streamed on the web, did not change this. in any way. but I am glad I managed to get up there – an achievement for me, as my instinct when I got there was to run away very fast. and I hate running
• I can’t multitask (tweet & talk at the same time) but I can talk nonsense. I hope I got in enough info about Colalife. & didn’t swear too much
• an hour is a long time & towards the end I did get bored. of the sound of my own voice mostly
• I think the project is art, even if my own contribution wasn’t particularly artistic. but feel free to think differently. after all, life would be boring if we all agreed on everything

I might add some more here later. or I might not.

Well, my slot on the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Square for the One&Other project is looming. And despite my huge ego, I’m getting a bit nervous (because I’m shy really. no, really, I am. really, really)

But I have a great cause to represent in ColaLife, a campaign to get Coca-Cola to open up its distribution channels in developing countries to save lives.

I’ll be taking the giant ColaLife aidpod up on the plinth with me to help promote the ColaLife campaign, but…

…I WANT YOUR HELP!!!!!

We want to make as big a splash as possible so we’re organising a ColaLife Twittermob – we want to fill Trafalgar Square! So please come along, wear something red if you can and show your support (oh, and help take some of the attention off me)

On the ColaLife website there’s some things you can do to show your support in person or online. Tell everyone you know!

Follow @colalife on Twitter to keep up-to-date with what’s happening

Hope to see you all there – 3pm Friday 17th July!