Kyle Whitehead: Strange Loop

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Kyle Whitehead, "Strange Loop," nd

Opening reception Friday January 13, at 8:00 PM

A "strange loop" is a logical inconsistency that manifests when, by moving upwards or downwards through a hierarchical system, like the linear sequence of images imprinted onto a length of film, one finds oneself back where one started. Like an M.C. Escher drawing, "Strange Loop" is a self-referential paradox. Composed of a single length of un-split 8mm film spliced end-to-end with a half-twist to form a Möbius loop - a non-orientable geometric object with one single and continuous surface and boundary - this generative expanded cinema installation is the physical realization of its namesake.

An 8mm film projected as a 16mm strip, Strange Loop presents four images on-screen simultaneously. With each pass of the loop through the projector, the images re-orient themselves horizontally with one vertical-half of the images moving forward and the other vertical-half moving in reverse.  

The sonic element of Strange Loop is a mirror of the visual. A contact and induction-coil microphone pair routed through the projectors built-in speaker via a passive ring-modulator creates a closed feedback loop that generates a drone in the form of a dyadic tone pair. In music theory dyadic tones are sets of two notes or pitches, and perhaps not so coincidentally, when represented geometrically dyads also form a Möbius loop.  

Taken together, these peculiar formal and material qualities present a logical incongruity; this loop, as a form, has no clear beginning, middle, or end, and follows an identical trajectory regardless of the direction the film travels through the projector.

Kyle Whitehead

Kyle Whitehead is an artist and filmmaker working primarily with small-format cinema, experimental sound and electronics. He prefers a careful and considered approach to image making; which should not be confused with best practices, as his work is more about embracing the potential of an indeterminate process. What he wants is the definitive by chance - leveraging trailing-edge technologies often with unusual or startling effect. His films, performance work, and installations have been shown nationally and internationally with recent exhibitions at Antimatter Festival (Victoria, BC), The 8 Fest (Toronto, ON), Paved Arts (Saskatoon, SK), Smiths Row Gallery (Bury St. Edmunds, UK) and in solo exhibitions at Galerie Sans Nom (Moncton, NB), Eastern Edge (St. Johns, NL), and Latitude 53 (Edmonton, AB). Kyle is a graduate of the Alberta College of Art + Design and currently resides in Calgary where he spends most of his time in the dark. 

A "strange loop" is a logical inconsistency that manifests when, by moving upwards or downwards through a hierarchical system, like the linear sequence of images imprinted onto a length of film, one finds oneself back where one started. Like an M.C. Escher drawing, "Strange Loop" is a self-referential paradox. Composed of a single length of un-split 8mm film spliced end-to-end with a half-twist to form a Möbius loop - a non-orientable geometric object with one single and continuous surface and boundary - this generative expanded cinema installation is the physical realization of its namesake.