Documentary Response To 'Dulce Et Decorum Est'

Unit 1: documentary Response
‘Conflict’

“Dulce et Decorum Est” Exploration

During this session our stimulus was the poem by Wilfred Owen “Dulce et Decorum Est,” this showed us a version of conflict which is externalised: war. Our group took on the middle two stanzas of the poem and explored them:

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! —An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime. —
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

We decided to use the explorative strategies of thought tracking, still images,

Our first explorative activity was to walk around using the objects in an iconic fashion for example when I came to a bed sheet I wrapped it around me as if I were cold. Once we had finished that exploration we re-did it but this time instead of using the objects in an iconic way; we used them symbolically for example when I revisited the bed sheet I wrapped it around me and acted as if it were trapping me and I couldn’t get out. These two explorations showed me the diversity of the uses an object can have when dramatically exploring something. We then chose objects (in pairs) and displayed them in an area, in a certain way to create an installation (see photo). In our teams we then mind-mapped the different ways one could interpret the stimulus. We chose to interpret the binoculars as parents looking over their child; the log and binocular case and block of wood symbolised childhood and the helmet, keys and bed sheet symbolised his profession. Because we used the stimulus to explore the man’s past we thought we could explore the man’s present and future. First we created the characters through some brainstorming and decided their basic history; we decided to have four characters, mum, dad, and two sides of the man’s schizophrenic mind. Once we finished that we explored the characters by using the explorative strategy of hot seating. This allowed us to pinpoint the exact parts of information we wanted for example his time in war and what things he experienced. Then we used improvisational role play to further explore the character’s feelings and really let loose both of the man’s schizophrenic sides; we did this through setting up to arguments between the mother and the father about sending the man to a ‘mental institute’ this helped explore the torment which the parents endured when sending their child to war,