Oslo-based film-maker Greg Pope’s Light Trap is a performance with four prepared 16mm projectors and a sound artist. For this event Pope will be collaborating with the film-maker/performer Xavier Quérel and the master sonic improviser Mike Cooper. The work is a voluminous and spatial sound/light sculpture, performed live and in constant flux by factors both random and controlled. Without a screen, seating, or a traditional beginning and end, Light Trap explores the raw elements of cinema: the projector, the film material, the darkened room and synchronized sound. The imagery in Light Trap begins with loops of completely black film, a dark room filled with haze, and only the hum of the projectors’ motors. Slowly, the emulsion is whittled away on each loop with sandpaper and an array of hand tools, allowing bursts and streams of light to pierce through the darkness. Synchronous to the unfolding cascade of light emanating into the room, the aberrations on the film loops create pops, cracks, and hisses. This constant, reductive physical process applied to the surface of the film loops results in a slow transformation of the physical space; out of aural and visual darkness builds a cacophonous crescendo of sound and light.

After dabbling in punk rock bands and absurdist performance, Greg Pope founded Brighton based Super8 film collective Situation Cinema in 1986. From this group came Loophole Cinema (London 1989) - using 16mm multi-projection techniques, they were self-styled shadow engineers performing numerous events around Europe until their demise in 1999. They also produced The International Symposium of Shadows in London in 1996. Working collaboratively and individually, Pope has made video installations, live art pieces and single screen film works since 1996. He currently lives in Norway in a small wooden house and is active teaching, projecting and making film.

For the past 40 years Mike Cooper has been an international musical explorer, performing and recording, solo and in a number of inspired groupings and a variety of genres. Initially a folk-blues guitarist and singer songwriter his work has diversified to include improvised and electronic music, live music for silent films, radio art and sound installations. He is also a music journalist, writing features for magazines, particularly on Pacific music and musicians, a visual artist, film and video maker, collector of Hawaiian shirts and appears on more than 60 records to date.