The Soldier's Song

This is part of an ongoing investigation and challenging of the spectator's willingness to remain an audience, coupled with an invitation to question preconceptions about soldiers through the complicity of a mediated encounter with a serving soldier, offered through the form of an individual karaoke duet. The central question scenographically is how to effect the very personal engagement with a person who is certainly physically absent, but also perhaps culturally or politically removed from the viewer's experience. The constructed space: externally a wooden crate that implies the transportation of cultural/military cargo, and internally a meditative chamber, within which the spectator could choose to 'meet', (chosen from a karaoke menu) a soldier with whom to sing a duet. This was intended to allow, without prejudice, a consideration of the perhaps awkward and distant connection we increasingly have with serving soldiers who represent Britain overseas.