The Project

A PeaceBugle will be made from specially manufactured brass sheet which will contain brass from cap badges, buttons, bullet cartridges, shell cases and other military related items that are connected with war and the armed services. It will also have buttons, buckles and other objects from associated non-military services such as ambulance, fire and rescue and civilian populations.

The badges, uniform and clothing items represent the range of people involved in 20th and 21st century war, civil conflict and genocide - the (often conscripted) soldiers, air crew and sailors of the armed forces, civilian services such as fire and ambulance crews who dealt with the effects of bombing or shelling, particularly in civilian areas, and civilians themselves who have been indiscriminately involved in war or civil conflict and have suffered trauma, injury or death and whose death rates often exceed military casualties. For instance, in 1900 the percentage was 5%, and in the late 1990s it was estimated at 90%. Drone strikes increase this again.

The bullet cartridges and shell cases reference the weapons used in modern conflicts. These create an equivalent of turning swords into ploughshares - turning instruments of war into instruments for peace - to have peace replace war and conflict and to replace destructive activities with constructive ones.

The brass objects will come from a variety of sources - bullet cartridges or shell cases from First or Second World War or modern battle sites, button or personal brass object from a concentration or extermination camp survivor, object held at a Holocaust site or museum, button or buckle from people affected by shelling or aerial bombing of their town or city, a person involved in a civilian conflict or genocide.

A new piece of music will be commissioned to be played on the bugle, as a call to peace. It will be titled FirstPeace as a deliberate foil to the Last Post. The objective is for it to have the same strong musical identity as the Last Post and a duration of one minute. It will be sounded to remember and commemorate all those who have died or been affected by war and conflict, and to encourage people to become active in support of peace and to oppose war and conflict.

FirstPeace will be filmed being played on the PeaceBugle at locations that are connected to war, conflict or genocide, such as battlefields, military or civilian cemeteries, concentration and extermination camps, cities heavily bombed or shelled with conventional and nuclear weapons, sites of civilian casualties or fatalities and cathedrals and churches damaged by bombing or shelling. The audio-visual installation is a major work. It will be taken into arts, community, education, faith and other venues in the UK and internationally.

An Outreach and Education Programme will support greater understanding about the importance of peace building. It will explore and explain the elements of each bugle's location and its history and related subjects. It will link to other peace-based education programmes, to strengthen and support a wider range of peace activities in the UK and elsewhere.

PeaceBugle will be introduced to a wider audience through web and print based information. A music programme will raise profile and interest and be a fund-raising mechanism.