On Saturday 19 January 2019 22:15 (UK) on BBC RADIO 3 Vicki will be guesting on Hear and Now, presented by Robert Worby. She will be talking about her work, then the show will air a recording of the full 35 minute People Like Us concert The Mirror, which was performed at London’s Cafe Oto in Summer 2018. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00022k6
On 8 January 2019 Vicki Bennett joins Anne Hilde Neset on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction. Vicki will play one track from The Mirror and a couple of favourite picks of other people, namely Jacques Tati and David Lynch. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0001xwp
Live link then show archive (3 weeks) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001xwp
We have made a new film for improvising musicians and artists titled Objects In The Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear. This is part of our project The Mirror, which initially was and is an audiovisual performance by People Like Us, and the umbrella project also includes 3 new artist commissions and this film.
This is not the first film we have made of this type. Previous to this was Notations (which included a national tour in the UK (followed by further dates internationally) with a fantastic roster of improvisers, supported by Sound and Music), as well as some collaborations where we have made the film then made sections available to other artists and musicians to respond (Gesture Piece and CCCitations).
Much like the other movies, you can enquire about performing with this movie by way of our Contact Page. Our first performance will be in Newcastle, UK in June 2019, as part of a collaboration with Newcastle University Department of Music.
Our project The Mirror consists of an a/v performance (and sometimes stand alone movie), an album release, a film for improvisers, and 3 new artist commissions where they to respond to The Mirror with a new piece of work. All three artist responses by Dina Kelberman, Porest (Mark Gergis) and Hearty White are now available, so we’re putting them all together online here:
Reflects by Dina Kelberman (December 2018)
Media link: https://dinakelberman.com/reflects
Description: When I thought about the word “reflections” this is what my brain showed me. Something about reflects, reflex, reflection symmetry, shapes, walls, and now that i think about it it’s probably a lot to do with sitting in a tiny room full of corners all day every day. Also laptop symmetry. These might all just be portraits of my laptop.
Bio: Dina Kelberman is an interdisciplinary artist recently transplanted from Baltimore, MD to Los Angeles CA. Kelberman has created original web-based pieces for the New Museum and The Marina Abramovic Institute and has participated in numerous design and photography biennials. Her work has been written about in The New York Times, Art21, NPR, Known and Strange Things (Cole, 2016) and most recently The Focal Press Companion to the Constructed Image in Contemporary Photography (Routledge, 2018) and Olia Liliana’s “An Infinite Seance 3”. In 2018 she was invited to speak at the UbuWeb conference in Athens and the Post-Photography Prototyping Biennial in London. She is currently ranked 5th in the world for Most Lines in Tetris for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
We’re pleased to tell you that Vicki Bennett will be Hallwalls Artist in Residence (HARP) at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, NY from 2019-2020. We will start making a new project for them later this year and keep you up to date once we begin. We are doing the residency remotely until Fall 2020, when we will be there to output and broadcast the completed new work.
Hallwalls Artists-in-Residence Project (HARP) is a successful multidisciplinary artists residency program, which is funded in most years (with the exceptions of 1996–97, 1997–98, and 2004–05) by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; in most years by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (for visual & media artists); and from 2008 to 2010 by the Nimoy Foundation (for visual & media artists). Some musicians in residence since 2010 (Roscoe Mitchell in 2010, Wadada Leo Smith in 2012) have been supported in addition or solely by the Jazz Presenting Program of Chamber Music America (CMA). The goal of the project is to support invited artists through professional stipends, materials and fabrication budgets, workspace, access to equipment and technical support, public presentations of their work in solo exhibitions, site-specific installations, screenings, and concerts, and interaction with local artists and communities through collaboration, lectures, master classes, workshops, and in-school residencies. Coming next year, three new HARP projects, made possible with major grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the Cullen Foundation.
HARP Artists 2019-2020
Douglas Ewart, George Lewis, & Douglas Repetto
People Like Us (Vicki Bennett)
John Oswald
To coincide with a few concerts that we’ve been doing lately, we’ve put some “Retrospective” mp3s up on bandcamp from the first 25 years of People Like Us. You can download it here or click below.
This is a 100 track compilation, over 6 hours duration, representing some of our favourite tracks and collaborations over radio, on stage and in the studio from 1991, which was when we released our first album. Each track has a different flavour, from a different time, another place, and often associated with a different recording medium or varying groups of individuals who inspired or actually took part.
Thank you friends, listeners and collaborators for being around, and for all those who inspired and supported the journey so far. Making this available at a Nice Price considering the ridiculous volume of content, and as is the case for much of People Like Us, you can quite possibly find a lot of this in various forms elsewhere on the internet for free, either put there by us, or others. But if you’d like to support us, then we thank you and welcome that. It will help make more happen.
Bandcamp requires that we upload in lossless form, and we will be honest and say that a lot of this only exists as mp3, but really…. most of what we sampled was also initially in mp3 form.
PEOPLE LIKE US “THE MIRROR”
LIMITED EDITION (500) CD & DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
Cutting Hedge SNIP002 (available initially mailorder only from us)
RELEASE DATE 1 OCTOBER 2018
We are now taking orders for a brand new People Like Us album! This will be available as both a CD and also digital download. If you purchase the CD it will come with the digital download for free.
This album contains all new audio work, sourced from both our live a/v performance The Mirror [2018], and also from Gone, Gone Beyond [2017+], our ongoing 360 surround cinema work. It also contains additional tracks composed during the creation of these pieces that never were used.
We are joined on two tracks by Ergo Phizmiz, and the packaging has artwork from the above works and also specially made for the CD. Two collages are made in collaboration with other artists Peter Knight and Hearty White. The CD was mastered by Mark Gergis.
Order directly from us now by Paypal:
If you would prefer just as a digital download please click below:
We are pleased to announce a new audiovisual immersive cinema performance by People Like Us called The Mirror, performed (and screened in Theatrical form if in the US) from March 2018 worldwide.
The Mirror is a live a/v performance which splices together movie snippets with unique sample-based music exploring the masks that we wear represented through the lens, using parallel narratives across the screen to depict an ever-changing stream, rather than a singular, fixed being, narrative or moment in time.
“A feat of research and craft, this new work is a spellbinding inquiry into editing and juxtaposition; a collage one can unthread allowing the viewer to discover hidden stories through familiar images. The soundtrack is performed live, made up from hundreds of preexisting songs, as well as particular sounds from the original film clips.” — Flatpack Film Festival
18 March 2018 – World Premiere: Athens Greek Film Archive Foundation (as part of Shadow Libraries: UbuWeb in Athens, organised and produced by the Onassis Cultural Centre-Athens) – tickets/info
13 April 2018 – UK Premiere: Liverpool FACT – tickets
17 April 2018 – Belfast Film Festival at Crescent Arts Centre – tickets
20 April 2018 – London Cafe Oto – tickets
21 April 2018 – Birmingham Flatpack Festival – tickets
12 May 2018 – London Splice Festival, at Rich Mix – tickets
11 July 2018 – London Cafe Oto, double bill with Carl Stone – tickets
19 July 2018 – Gijón LEV Arenas Movedizas – free entry
26 July 2018 – MACBA, Barcelona – tickets
17th September 2018 – Theatrical Screening (not live) – Bryce’s Show on WFMU
19th & 20th September 2018 – Theatrical Screening (not live) – Spectacle Theater, Brooklyn – tickets
20 October 2018 – 100 Years of Copyright Festival, Berlin HKW – tickets
2 November 2018 – Spill Festival, Ipswich – tickets
10 November 2018 – Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo Norway – tickets
15 November 2018 – Brighton “Cinecity” Film Festival at Fabrica – tickets
30 November 2018 – Theatrical Screening (not live, we do not perform in concerts in the US) Recombinant Festival, Gray Area, San Francisco – tickets
27 March 2019 – Musikbrauerei, Berlin – tickets
June 2019 – Newcastle – (details tbc)
If you are a festival organiser with a budget and are interested in booking this, please get in touch by way of our Contact Form. If you are in a country requiring a work visa to perform we can in very special circumstances make this work into a stand alone movie, but generally this is only available as a performance with the artist present and you will need to gain necessary papers for us to agree.
SUPPORTING WORKS AND ARTICLES
3 artist commissions : we have commissioned new works by artists responding to The Mirror:
Reflects by Dina Kelberman (December 2018)
Abject Mirror by Porest (Mark Gergis) (January 2019)
The Mirror by Hearty White (January 2019)
(view all three on one url)
The Mirror CD/digital download contains music from The Mirror, and tracks from Gone, Gone Beyond
New Film for Improvising Musicians and Artists – titled Objects In The Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear. This is not the first film we have made of this type. Previous to this was Notations (which included a national tour in the UK (followed by further dates internationally) with a fantastic roster of improvisers, supported by Sound and Music), as well as some collaborations where we have made the film then made sections available to other artists and musicians to respond (Gesture Piece and CCCitations). You can enquire about performing with this movie by way of our Contact Page. Our first performance will be in Newcastle, UK in June 2019, as part of a collaboration with Newcastle University Department of Music.
Interview on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, 8 January 2019
Interview and performance of The Mirror on BBC Radio 3’s Hear and Now, 19 January 2019
Graham Duff – The Mirror a reflection upon the work and surrounding subject matter
Interview in The Wire Magazine in a phone conversation with Emily Bick of The Wire Magazine, Vicki Bennett reflects on The Mirror, Gone, Gone Beyond, and working with preexisting footage.
Shortcut for this url is http://peoplelikeus.org/themirror.html
New longer trailer, Summer 2018: https://vimeo.com/peoplelikeus/beyond
“Hey, hey, have you ever tried… reaching out to the other side?”
Gone, Gone Beyond is an immersive a/v spatial cinema work by People Like Us, which breaks the rectangle, smashing the thin screen into tiny fragments, looking beyond the frame, climbing through to see what’s behind. It uses appropriated edited collage sewn together in a giant patchwork. Pull on a thread and watch whole new narratives expand and unravel all at once on a 360 palette.
The initial 47-minute film premiered in San Francisco 11-14 October 2017 at Recombinant Festival at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. We have been making this movie for Recombinant Media Labs own Cinechamber for quite some time now – it is a stand alone piece that you watch and listen to from the inside.
Stage 2 is currently in production through 2018 and we are looking for partners to present the hour-long piece from 2019 onwards.
Q&A with Hearty White: http://peoplelikeus.org/2017/gone-gone-beyond-qa/
The initial 47-minute film “GONE, GONE BEYOND” by People Like Us premiered in San Francisco 11-14 October 2017 at Recombinant Festival at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. We have been making this movie for Recombinant Media Labs own Cinechamber for quite some time now – it is a stand alone piece that you watch and listen to from the inside. Stage 2 is currently in production through 2018 and we are looking for partners to present the hour-long piece from 2019 onwards.
Now available for online viewing! The documentary about People Like Us.
British artist Vicki Bennett takes you on a roller coaster-ride with her art project People Like Us. In performances, videos, collages and music, her amazing editing techniques and sense of humor leave you flabbergasted and enthusiastic at the same time. People Like Us is like free-zone where appropriation meets alchemy, humor meets social critique and the boundless imagination meets reality.
A film by Carl Abrahamsson, Sweden, 2015. 58 min. Produced by trapartfilm.com
Placed here for reference/viewing purposes only. If you would like to screen it contact jakob AT trapartfilm.com or carl AT trapartfilm.com
Download at UbuWeb
We’re pleased to release the last our 3 artist commissions made in response to The Mirror.
The first was by Dina Kelberman, the second was a 50-minute new audio piece by Porest (Mark Gergis) and now we’re presenting a brand new 50-minute audio work by HEARTY WHITE. You can listen here and download at bandcamp.
https://peoplelikeus-vickibennett.bandcamp.com/track/the-mirror-2
(Please note, this is a piece of audio by Hearty White, and the link embed above lists it as People Like Us purely because it’s on our bandcamp page)
Bio: Hearty White lives and doesn’t work in Lexington, KY, birthplace of Richard Hell. His radio non-career spans decades. He loves you in theory. Listen to Hearty White’s WFMU radio show:
wfmu.org/playlists/HA
More info on The Mirror by People Like Us and these artist commissions:
peoplelikeus.org/2018/the-mirror-a-new-live-a-v-performance-by-people-like-us/
NOTATIONS a film for live improvisers
(People Like Us, 2013)
Our film for live improvisers was performed at the School of Music Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Greece on 29 May 2018, and it’s just been put online.
Watch other performances of Notations here: http://peoplelikeus.org/2013/notations/
NOTATIONS at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Excerpts from a workshop and improvised performance by σ.π.Α.Μ.*
*experimental and improvised music ensembles
Above is the trailer for the second of our 3 artist commissions made in response to The Mirror. The first was by Dina Kelberman, and now we’re presenting you this 50-minute new audio piece by POREST (Mark Gergis).
Available January 7, 2019 (free download)
https://porest.bandcamp.com/album/abject-mirror-2
POREST • ABJECT MIRROR
Porest is dragged through an inconvenient network of paranormal subterfuge after exposing something significant that may have happened 33 days from now.
Audio-drama with advertisements and musical accompaniment.
Porest, etc: Mark Gergis
Dr. Lumen / Mr. Fleckt, etc: Jake Rodriguez
Acoustic guitar on THROUGH YOU: Robert Millis
Recorded and produced by Porest until 2019
Thank you: Vicki Bennett
Published by Porestsound – 2019
(Porestsound 010-DI)
In Spring 2018 we completed creation of and started touring the a/v performance The Mirror, which in Autumn 2018 was accompanied by the release of an OST of the same name. Now it’s time to start publishing three artist commissions we have made in relation to this. The first work is an a/v piece by Dina Kelberman. The title is “Reflects”.
Click on the Media Link to view the work and please enable pop-ups and turn your device sound on since they form an essential part of the piece.
The other two artists (Porest & Hearty White) new works will be revealed in the coming weeks.
Title: Reflects
Description: When I thought about the word “reflections” this is what my brain showed me. Something about reflects, reflex, reflection symmetry, shapes, walls, and now that i think about it it’s probably a lot to do with sitting in a tiny room full of corners all day every day. Also laptop symmetry. These might all just be portraits of my laptop.
Bio: Dina Kelberman is an interdisciplinary artist recently transplanted from Baltimore, MD to Los Angeles CA. Kelberman has created original web-based pieces for the New Museum and The Marina Abramovic Institute and has participated in numerous design and photography biennials. Her work has been written about in The New York Times, Art21, NPR, Known and Strange Things (Cole, 2016) and most recently The Focal Press Companion to the Constructed Image in Contemporary Photography (Routledge, 2018) and Olia Liliana’s “An Infinite Seance 3”. In 2018 she was invited to speak at the UbuWeb conference in Athens and the Post-Photography Prototyping Biennial in London. She is currently ranked 5th in the world for Most Lines in Tetris for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Media link: https://dinakelberman.com/reflects
On Wednesday 21 November 2018 at 8-10 pm (California time) People Like Us guested on the radio with Irene Moon doing a 2-hour fill in slot on KCSB in Santa Barbara. Listen to mp3s of the two hour show here:
29 November/30 November 2018 midnight on Thursday going into 3am Friday morning, California time. In the UK that is 8am-11am Friday
KPFA 94.1FM, online at https://kpfa.org/player?audio=live
We returned to the radio to guest with Jon Leidecker (Wobbly) on Negativland’s “Over The Edge” on KPFA Radio for the first time in 16 years, and this represents the 20 year mark of first appearing on Over The Edge.
You can tune in online, the show is 3 hours long. https://kpfa.org/program/over-the-edge/
People Like Us will perform The Mirror at Kunstnernes hus on Saturday 10 November 2018. It will be followed by a Q&A with Rob Young and then a screening of Nothing Can Turn Into A Void.
Tickets Kunstnernes Hus, Wergelandsveien 17, NO-0167 Oslo
19.00-19.40: Live performance: The Mirror
19.45-20.15: Q&A with Rob Young, from The Wire
2015-2045: PAUSE
20.45-21.45: Documentary: Nothing Can Turn Into A Void- An Art Apart: People Like Us. By Carl Abrahamsson