It’s been a very busy year for Kyle Whitehead. Not only is he production coordinator at EMMEDIA, but he’s also had time to create an installation piece that has traveled around the world.
“The piece that I’m showing is an installation and performance work called Circles of Confusion,” he says.
“It’s run on two Technicolor looping projectors, which are good looking objects to begin with. They are connected to a light-controlled Theremin with two sensors on each oscillator reacting to changes in luminence as the film is projected.”
This piece has been shown both as a performance piece, with Whitehead manipulating the films, as well as an installation.
“Motion sensors turn the system on, and as people walk around, they trigger the other sensor to alternate between the two projectors. People figure it out quickly. They can play it like an instrument.”
Because of the unique design of the projectors, Whitehead is able to change the film loops quickly and easily:
“Unlike standard super 8, there is no reel. It projects loops in 50 foot lengths, pre-loaded in cassettes.”
In Canada, it has been shown in Calgary at Mountain Standard Time and Soundasaurus, Eastern Edge in St. John’s, Gallerie Sans Nom in Moncton, and Antimatter Film Festival in Victoria. The highlight stop for the installation, though, was a group exhibition in the U.K. called Flicker: Artists and Super 8 curated by Smiths Row gallery and the Cambridge Super 8 group, which is a small film production co-op.
Circles of Confusion is the result of more than two years of research, and while it has been traveling around, he has been continuously shooting new footage to project.
“The motivation came from the desire to figure out a better way to make sound,” he says. “Kodak stopped making sound film in the ‘90s, so the situation was if you wanted to play a short film, you had to do it in wild sync. To me, it felt forced, like two separate processes and mashing them together.”
Whitehead has been able to manipulate the images to compose music on the fly, reporting that “It’s not precise, but there is a system.” But he is fascinated by the interaction of gallery-goers when the piece is exhibited as an installation:
“In a gallery, there is a kind of etiquette and people often have a hard time with interaction. The beauty of this is that they can play with it without touching it.”
Circles of Confusion will be seen next at Latitude 53 in June.
