White Star Cluster: The Third Sonic Reenactment of Operation Iraqi Freedom

Piotr Szyhalski

10 November 2009

Installation: 16 sound streams, video, custom software, furniture, audio CDs and printed matter. Production: LABoral

White Star Cluster focuses on footage captured in Ramadi, Iraq, on December 4, 2006, when US soldiers came under friendly fire attack. The spoken texts were transcribed from videos recorded by cameras mounted on the helmets of American soldiers. The dialogue was then performed in the studio by a cast of players. From quiet, intimate voices to aggressive and confrontational language and sounds, the recordings span the range of human emotions as the soldiers’ reenacted dialogue reflects a sobering and at times discomforting truth. Dissecting the minutiae of the adrenaline-induced dialogues, the project follows a slow, labyrinthian path of self-destruction.