Art 2.0 part 2: "Streetpianos"

Over the past month Luke Jerram's streetpianos project has placed thirty pianos in public places in and around London, open for anyone to play. The project comes to an end this weekend in London and the pianos will now be removed and sold.

I've particularly enjoyed this Art 2.0 experience: looking for the pianos took me on a tour of familiar and unfamiliar London, and it's been fun watching the mini-events, friendships and collaborations form spontaneously around the pianos, playing or singing along myself, and meeting other piano-seekers of all abilities. Different locations have drawn City professionals or citizens, travellers or tourists, giving the crowd around each piano it's own feel.

I'd like to acknowledge D-n-K, the awesome musical trio that were aiming to produce a charity album on all 30 pianos in one day; the lovely Korean illustrator who accompanied my Bridge Over Troubled Water at the Millenium Bridge; the young girl whose parents couldn't tear her away from the Liverpool Street piano; the duo who filled the Plaza with Hero; a chance meeting and chat with fellow blogger and underground chef MsMarmiteLover at Devonshire Court, and everyone I met who also just felt like having a go.

Streetpianos and One&Other have in common an artist who, instead of creating the art themselves, is facilitating involvement by hundreds of users. Of the two, Streetpianos feels more spontaneous. Both Art 2.0 projects say something about our willingness both to participate in creativity and to watch others; the friendly supportive crowds make these events very different from the sinister world of reality TV as there's no competitive side. Streetpianos is a nomadic festival moving from city to city and I look forward to a return to London some day.

Art 2.0 part 1: "One&Other"

Over the past decade the Internet has shifted from owner-generated to user-generated content (Web 2.0 - blogs, wikis, video sharing, social networking, auctions, Squidoo lenses etc.) Some recent art events in London point to a similar trend - instead of creating their own content artists are creating spaces to facilitate creativity by hundreds of users.

Anthony Gormley's Art 2.0 installation, One&Other, has taken over the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square, where members of the public, chosen by lottery, are hoisted up to the plinth and make use of it for an hour. So far a popular use has been charity or environmental campaigning; however other plinth users have sung and played guitar, bassoon or other instruments, photographed people in the crowd, or written random slogans on a chalkboard. It's YouTube - on a stick.

This morning saw singer-songwriter voluntas on the plinth with a series of witty, sometimes bawdy and very original songs. voluntas is lift consultant and self-taught guitarist Michael Bottomley IRL; his wife and daughter were present to give moral support and record the event, and he drew a small but appreciative crowd.

As a work of art One&Other is engaging and entertaining. Anthony Gormley is an artist who usually puts himself into his artwork in a very genuine way - often literally as in the case of his many body-casting installations. Here participants are sharing in the same experience of self-projection. The Trafalgar Square plinth is a good public space for this kind of event even though there's a slight sense of publicity stunt; for this reason though it may not be the best gallery in which to hang a Gormley.