Terrorism. Security. Extremism. Iran. Iraq. Afghanistan.

None of Britain’s recent conflicts; the Falklands, the Gulf, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq have taken place on home soil. The fear created by them is real but the feared has barely revealed itself in Britain. Because they are mediated and not experienced first hand these wars are surrounded by a great deal of outspoken controversy, conspiracy and anxiousness because the second hand experience allows people to be objective and to actually distrust and question their sources of information. The controversy does not only exist within the people. Opinion, particularly to do with the war in Iraq has been strongly divided within political circles.

‘I did what I thought was right’ is a reenactment by the general public of speeches made by main stream pro-war politicians and also from less well-known politicians and congress men who have made cases very strongly against going to war with Iraq. I wonder whose words will go down in history?

Speeches are routinely written for politicians by others, they just contain words but words which seductively promote a particular political agenda. And when looked at extremely close up, words are just shapes formed with the mouth as air is expelled. Filming members of the public echoes a sense of vulnerability and indoctrination, which we all find hard to escape from. They are dominating and powerful. They are telling us what we think and feel. The people in the piece never express their own opinion but only use the words of others to convey a feeling of our time.