William Davey

This project has culminated into two parts. The first integrates an onsite drawing of a battle re-enactment with the existing war memorial found on the ground floor of the Stevens building.

Both the memorial and the re-enactment are depictions of war with the intent of preserving a version of history. However, while the memorial commemorates, the re-enactment places its participants at a safe historical distance from the act of battle, creating a caricature of history.

The second part mimics a plotter table, again exploring distance and depictions of war. Assembled from archival oral histories collected from pilots it recounts a typical bombing raid made over Germany during the Second World War. It explores the official and unofficial language that was circulating between allied aircrew and how these voices are at odds with each other, the technical planning of war from a distance interrupted by uncertainty and chance.