sierra_le_oli

Apart from leaving Amnesty wonderful books, people leave wonderful things in the books. Photos, letters, tickets, drawings, etc. This is one of the oldest finds and still one of my favourites:

"To Rosalie with lots of love from Elisabeth"

Googling turned up a little bit of info on the photographer, Philip Gotlop, but nothing on her.

For a while I wasn't sure what to do with all these finds, but I've finally started scanning in some more of the best and have put the first dozen or so in a found objects gallery. Let me know what you think!

This is seriously brilliant. London, Paris, Rome, etc. turned into Wee Planets by Alexandre Duret-Lutz. There's an older set of photos of Paris and France too. (via @LDN)

After 100 days, the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square is empty once more. 2,400 people all spent one hour on the plinth doing whatever they wanted in the name of Antony Gormley's One & Other project.

The project attracted the predictable "but is it art?" wankery, even before it ended on Tuesday. Well, it might not always have been art, but what it was, was absolutely worthwhile.

I managed to get to Trafalgar Square a couple of times, most recently while searching for Unseen Academicals. But mostly my experience came courtesy of the excellent coverage provided by various O&O droids. I'll miss having the live feed sitting in the corner of my screen and the accompanying Twitter convo alongside it.

There's a very nice final highlights video available. The rest of the highlights are worth browsing through as well.

The thing I'll remember most about this project is just how lovely the participants were. There were a few randoms up there but people seemed so stoked at being able to take part. Have just noticed the Telegraph say they "seem to symbolise something about the indefatigability of the human spirit", which is a more arty way of putting it. :-)

I hope there'll be a similar project sometime in the future, but outside of London.

Ever since I moved here, there've been painted potatoes with spikes in the area. They live on top of numerous bus shelters, usually alone, but sometimes as a couple, from east of Liverpool Street Station to at least as far as Hackney.

Occasionally I've tried to take photos through the top window of a double-decker bus. (Almost four years in and I still love being the "driver"!) Unfortunately, the photos didn't really work out.

Turns out what was needed was a 6'5" Dutchman, Freek, who could stand on the pavement and just stick his arm over the edge to take the shot...

Going on the plinth

David Byrne (Talking Heads) invited Amnesty to his concert at the Barbican. We had a couple of petitions for people to sign and handed out flyers. Some kind person donated us the spare ticket of a sick friend. Only two of us knew who David Byrne was, so I got the first 45 minutes and another volunteer took the rest. I'd never heard any of the songs before, but it was very enjoyable and the dancers and choreography were beyond fabulous. Also, first big concert I've ever been to without a bag check, that was kinda weird.

( Read more: Paper cranes on the plinth )

( Read more: Climate Camp in London )