Martin Conboy designed Project Vigil 1914-1918 that will project names and picture of First World War casualties onto the National War Memorial during Veterans Week.
An Ottawa man will bring Canada’s fallen soldiers home this Remembrance Day through a week-long vigil – the first of its kind.
Beginning Nov. 4 at sunset, the names of each of the 68,000 lost soldiers of First World War will be projected, in light, onto the surface of the National War Memorial in Ottawa. Nine thousand men or women will be cast each night, until the final name concludes the vigil at sunrise on Nov. 11.
Martin Conboy of Ottawa, together with partner R.H. Thomson and Canada’s National History Society, created Project Vigil 1914-1918 to individualize the courage that is commemorated collectively by the Confederation Park memorial.
“It seemed to be as if I was extracting from the stone the names that were already there,”
With the help of four other cities that have joined the project – London, Halifax, Toronto and Regina – the soldiers’ names will literally travel across nine time zones, starting from overseas and ending back in Canada. Thus, Conboy said, the project is a metaphor for the soldiers making the reverse journey.
Deborah Morrison, CEO and president of the National History Society, was drawn both to the personalization of the project and the compelling message it creates for a desensitized generation.
“That it takes fully a whole week to run through the list of names of those who died will be a powerful message for young people, especially for whom this moment in history seems so far away,” said Morrison.
To guarantee effectiveness of the vigil, both the City of Ottawa and the National Capital Commission are showing their support by dimming or shutting off surrounding lights in and around Confederation Park. Conboy also approached buildings in the area, such as the Chateau Laurier and the National Arts Centre. All have agreed to participate by cutting interfering lights for the week leading up to Remembrance Day.
For those who aren’t able to attend the memorial site, the vigil team has created its own website where people can watch the week’s ceremony via live webcast. They even added a database offering the exact time a soldier’s name will be projected onto the memorial’s surface.
Morrison expects the website to draw hits from soldiers’ relatives across the world.
“I suspect it will be viral among families who check to find out when their loved one will appear on the monument and share the information so that their cousins in other parts of the country can log on and watch it in their time zone,” said Morrison of the new www.1914-1918.ca website.
The nation’s last surviving World War I veteran, 107-year-old John Babcock, represents the last chapter of a courageous generation in Canada, and that makes the project even more important to Conboy and the nation.
“After this, when he dies, that book will close,” said Conboy.