Applications open today for the 2,400 participants in Antony Gormleys new project for the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square, the Guardian reports.

Over the course of 100 days, starting July 6, each successful applicant will have the chance to stand atop the plinth for a full hour. What they do up there is up to them, though the artist said yesterday, “I will be very upset if somebody doesn't take off their clothes when they get there.”

Gormley will be among the applicants — as will Sandy Nairne, the director of the National Portrait Gallery, which hosts a live camera feed to the plinth, and much of the staff of the Arts Council, partial funders of the project — but no one has a better chance of being selected than anyone else. The finalists will be selected randomly with the help of a computer program whose only mandates are to ensure equal numbers of men and women and representatives from all regions of the United Kingdom. The only application requirements are that participants be over 16 and U.K. residents.

“The idea behind One & Other [as the work is called] is a simple one,” Gormley said. “Through elevation onto the plinth and removal from the common ground, the body becomes a metaphor, symbol, emblem — a point of reference, focus, and thought. In the context of Trafalgar Square, with its military, valedictory, and male historical statues to specific individuals, this elevation of everyday life to the position formerly occupied by monumental art allows us to reflect on the diversity, vulnerability, and particularity of the individual in contemporary society. It could be tragic but it could also be funny.”

Despite the challenges of mounting such a highly visible and potentially dangerous work, the planning seems to have accounted for most contingencies. The participants will be lifted into position by a mobile platform, which is wheelchair accessible; stand-by participants will be on hand in case someone misses an appointment; security will be present, though not in an overbearing or overly visible way, should laws be broken; and the plinth will be surrounded by a protective net, just in case anyone feels a bit wobbly.

Registrations can be submitted online at www.oneandother.co.uk.