Gone, Gone Beyond 360 Real-Space Immersive Cinema

“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 (Vicki Bennett), which breaks the rectangle, smashing the thin screen into tiny fragments, looking beyond the frame, climbing through to see what’s behind.  

The initial work was commissioned by Naut Humon, the founder of immersive theatre project RML CineChamber, Gone, Gone Beyond is a 10 screen / 6 or 8 speaker piece, with seamless wrap around projection and surround sound where the audience sit inside. It comprises of movie and musical compositions, animated and sample-based/musique concrète collage juxtaposed with content filmed/recorded by the artist, all sewn together in a giant patchwork. Pull on a thread and watch whole new narratives expand and unravel all at once on a 360º palette. The project has been a work in progress since 2017, and showed for the first time in Autumn 2021 in feature length format.  

The work’s title and underlying concepts come from the Heart Sutra, a key Buddhist text, describing how all phenomena are empty in form yet ultimately interconnected. The last lines of the Heart Sutra say ‘gate gate pāragate pārasamgate bodhi svāhā’, which means “gone, gone beyond, gone beyond that a bit more, and then beyond that a bit further”. This reflects perfectly the action of going beyond the frame to where there are no edges to the narrative – just emptiness.

In this 360º format, time and space becomes elasticated, with the use of collaged video furthering the reflection on how information comes to us as fragments and that nothing is fixed. A new narrative-thread is woven in the mind of each viewer every time the work is seen, limited only to that exact time and space – just as the Heart Sutra reminds us that the only constant is change, and everything is related with no fixed source.

The initial in-process tester movie screened in San Francisco in October 2017 at RML’s own Recombinant Festival at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. Since then the work has been in development, with a private screening event in April 2019 Goldsmiths SIML for potential partners. The work will screen at nyMusikk, Oslo; SPILL Festival, Ipswich; Attenborough Centre (ACCA), Brighton; and London Barbican, in Autumn 2021. Version 2 of GGB screened in San Francisco’s Gray Area in May 2022 to great critical acclaim.

PAST:

SAN FRANCISCO Gray Area
12-27 May 2022 https://grayarea.org/gonegonebeyond/

OSLO Black Box Teater present KinoKammer with nyMusikk
13-16 October 2021 https://blackbox.no/en/e5115e56-702e-41a2-badb-cb21d1626082/

IPSWICH DanceEast as part of SPILL FESTIVAL
28-30 October 2021 https://www.danceeast.co.uk/performances/gone-gone-beyond-au21/

BRIGHTON Attenborough Centre (ACCA)
4-6 November 2021 https://www.attenboroughcentre.com/events/4028/gone-gone-beyond/

LONDON Barbican Centre
10-13 November 2021 https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2021/event/people-like-us-gone-gone-beyond

The Wire: Music By Any Means at Somerset House

A series of three talks programmed by The Wire magazine looking at different strategies and systems for making music and organising sound. 

Wed 20 October 2021 | 18.45 – 20.30 | In person £8
Lancaster Rooms, New Wing & Online
An in person event from Somerset House. If you are unable to join us on the evening, a recording will be archived and available to view via a ticketed link. 

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/vicki-bennett-opening-doors

This in person event will also be streamed live from Somerset House. If you are unable to join us on the evening, a recording will be archived and available to view via a ticketed link.  Music By Any Means has been designed to show how anything can become music, from objects to actions, archives to rituals, and how anyone can make it, regardless of any previous musical experience or ability. In the process of demystifying the processes of sound organisation and music making, the series will illuminate other ways of being in the world through sound, bypassing existing orthodoxies to enable and empower new creative activity.  
 
The talks, which will include demonstrations and performances, will be presented by O YAMA O (Rie Nakajima and Keiko Yamamoto), People Like Us (Vicki Bennett), and Elaine Mitchener; all artists who use aspects of film, theatre, performance, visual art and other practices to inform and develop new and distinctive approaches to making music and organising sound.  Music By Any Means will be available to audiences both onsite and online, with each event broadcast live from Somerset House Studios. 

Vicki Bennett explores the processes of making audiovisual content, working with archives and found footage.

Using collage as a compositional tool opens up endless opportunities to create and experience results that are more than the sum of their parts, opening doors (and windows) to let light in and move beyond limited and repetitive ways of creative thinking.  

In this talk, Vicki Bennett discusses and demonstrates her creative process making audio-visual content, working with archives and found footage, showing how she sources and organises this material into finished works which break the rectangle, smashing the thin screen into tiny fragments, looking beyond the frame, climbing through to see what’s behind. The talk will be followed by a Q&A session. 

Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio Suffolk

People Like Us will guest on Jon Wright‘s show on BBC Radio Suffolk on Monday 12 July 2021 – in a segment called SPILL Spins – selecting 4 significant tracks and talking about them. We will be on after 7pm (UK time). “SPILL” is SPILL Festival, who are partnering with the BBC on this project, pending an announcement very soon!
LISTEN : https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09m8qmm

Afterwards it will post as a stand alone programme up for 30 days.
LISTEN HERE:
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09p5hlb

30 Years of People Like Us – Cafe OTO gig with PLU and friends

30 YEARS OF PEOPLE LIKE US – PEOPLE LIKE US + POREST + GWILLY EDMONDEZ + IRENE MOON + ERGO PHIZMIZ at CAFE OTO London

CAFE OTO, LONDON
TUESDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2021, 7.30PM
£16 DOOR | £14 ADVANCE | £8 MEMBERS

An evening hosted by Vicki Bennett (People Like Us), featuring live performances from Porest, Gwilly Edmondez, Irene Moon, Ergo Phizmiz and People Like Us.

Get tickets well in advance here because Cafe OTO gigs are selling out quickly.
https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/30-years-of-people-like-us/

Oscillation: Tuned Circuits

Online and Brussels Mill, Belgium
29|04|2021 – 02|05|2021

Four day festival in Brussels taking its name from radio pioneer Daphne Oram. The festival will also broadcast audio via its website regardless. Featuring talks, concerts and workshops from People Like Us, Catherine Lamb, Daphne Oram, Farida Amadou, Lucretia Dalt, Goodiepal & Pals, Áine O’Dwyer, Jessica Ekomane, Jonáš Gruska and Lukas De Clerck. Online and Brussels Mill, 29 April–2 May.

Here’s an interview conducted by Henry Andersen of Oscillation Festival Vicki Bennett about process.

People Like Us will have a special one hour audio mix broadcast on the radio, and you can watch The Mirror online via their website, for the entirety of the festival.

https://oscillation-festival.be/

People Like Us 3-Hour WFMU Radio Shows for 4 Weeks

People Like Us have returned to the radio on WFMU for a 3-hour radio show from 9-Noon EST (that’s 2pm-5pm UK) for 4 CONSECUTIVE THURSDAYS filling in for DJ Trouble.

Listen: http://wfmu.org / DO or DIY http://wfmu.org/playlists/PL
Playlist and archive for Week 1 (26 November 2020): https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/98773

Playlist and archive for Week 2 (3 December 2020):
https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/98923
Playlist and archive for Week 3 (10 December 2020):
https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/99138
Playlist and archive for Week 4 (17 December 2020 – Matmos Special)
https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/99330

In week 4 (17 December 2020) we’ll be joined by M.C.Schmidt and Drew Daniel, aka Matmos

MAAT Lisbon: Porest & People Like Us exhibition

DO YOU MISS THE PRESENT?
6 November 2020 In the gallery at The Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), Lisbon
Tickets Free with museum ticket
Curator: Gonçalo F. Cardoso
Av. Brasília 1300-598 Belém, Portugal
https://www.maat.pt/index.php/en/event/do-you-miss-present

People Like Us will screen The Mirror, and Porest will screen their new film here at 7pm (UTC): https://vimeo.com/476324332

People Like Us and Porest were both due to perform live concerts at MAAT in Lisbon on 6 November but unfortunately because of the pandemic we will not be travelling. So instead our work will be screened in the gallery on the same date. Details above.

Cancelled: The Mirror Paris BBMix

This is now cancelled because of the current global situation – more specifically because of the French month-long lockdown.

People Like Us will perform The Mirror at BBMix Festival on Saturday 21 November 2020
at Carré Belle-feuille, Paris in the 3pm to 7pm portion of the festival. The festival has adjusted hours to allow for the curfew. / € 11

Tickets available in advance on the above link. Unlike most of our activities this year, we will be there in person performing it, so long as we are able at the time of travel (in accordance with the ongoing global situation). Please continue to check the festival website for updates.