Under the name “People Like Us,” artist Vicki Bennett has been making work available via CD, DVD and vinyl releases, radio broadcasts, concert appearances, gallery exhibits and online streaming and distribution for 25 years. Since her first publication in 1992, Bennett has developed an immediately recognisable aesthetic repurposing pre-existing footage to craft audio and video collages with an equally dark and witty take on popular culture. She sees sampling and appropriation as folk art sourced from the palette of contemporary media and technology, with all of the sharing and cross-referencing incumbent to a populist form. Embedded in her work is the premise that all is interconnected and that claiming ownership of an “original” or isolated concept is both preposterous and redundant.
People Like Us/Vicki Bennett Filmography
“Gone, Gone Beyond” 10 Screen / 8 Speaker work, in progress [2016-2017]
“Can’t Stop What’s Coming” video edit for THE THE [2017]
“Optimized! Expanded Radio & Artist Residency at WFMU with People Like Us & Let’s Paint TV” documentary film [2016]
“Optimized! Special: The Dusty Show with Clay Pigeon – At Union Square, Manhattan” documentary edited by Vicki Bennett [2016]
“Ultimate Care II Excerpt 5” – official video for Matmos [2015]
“Nothing Can Turn Into A Void” – documentary film about People Like Us edited by Vicki Bennett and directed by Carl Abrahamsson [2015]
“CCCitations” [2015]
“Citation City” (live performance) [2015]
“Art Heist” (film – under construction) [2015-]
“The Big Sleep” [2014]
“BLINK” [2014]
“Notations UK Tour Travelogue” documentary [2013]
“We Are Not Amused” [2013]
“The Golem – An Inanimate Matter” [2013]
“Notations” [2013]
“Gesture Piece” [2013]
“BWPWAP” [2013] Continue reading
List of Residencies, Commissions & Collaborations
Development of 8 speaker / 10 screen audiovisual installation with Recombinant Media Labs [2016/2017/2018++]
“Can’t Stop What’s Coming” video for THE THE [2017]
Curation of radio station and artist residency (with John Kilduff) Optimized! on WFMU funded by National Endowment for the Arts [June 2016]
No One Is An Island radio commission for WDR to be broadcast 9 April 2016 on WDR 3 [Summer 2015-Winter 2015]
Curation of films for Concert of Collage, Watershed, Bristol [September 2015]
Nothing Can Turn Into A Void, editing a feature length doc film by Carl Abrahamsson about Vicki Bennett/People Like Us [Spring 2015]
Arts Council England award creating a new live a/v performance Citation City and new short films with artist soundtracks pdf [Spring 2014-Spring 2015]
Book collaboration with Gregor Weichbrodt The Fundamental Questions [Summer 2014]
Those Who Do Not T Shirt Commission [Summer 2014]
Printed in a light blue and white on an electric blue T-shirt with The Wire logo and Vicki Bennett Those Who Do Not printed in light blue on the back of the neck. Limited edition of 100 shirts.
Solo gallery show Shutter at Leeds College of Art pdf [Winter-Spring 2014]
Touring award from Sound and Music for Notations [Autumn/Winter 2013]
Two short animation films for Animate Projects/Channel 4 television, UK as part of their Random Acts Series [March 2013-July 2013] broadcast on national television in Autumn 2013 pdf
Creation of online film with 7 artist soundtracks Gesture Piece, commissioned by Pixel Palace at Tyneside Cinema pdf [Spring/Summer 2013] Continue reading
Abridged Too Far album now on Vinyl on Discrepant
Featured
PEOPLE LIKE US – ABRIDGED TOO FAR [Discrepant LP CREP41]
Release date 31st March 2017 – available now!
ABRIDGED TOO FAR is the first of a series of vinyl by Discrepant to celebrate this being the 25th year of People Like Us publishing albums. First released in digital-only form in 2004 exclusively for UbuWeb, this album includes Vicki’s John Peel session and performances for WFMU, amongst others, both from 2003, and now comes packaged with brand new artwork designed by Vicki Bennett.
Abridged Too Far LP – UK – price including P&P: $21.50
Abridged Too Far LP – EUROPE – price including P&P: $22.50
Abridged Too Far LP – ELSEWHERE – price including P&P: $24
People Like Us LP launch at Cafe Oto
DISCREPANT PRESENTS: PEOPLE LIKE US, MIKE COOPER + TYPHONIAN HIGHLIFE (SPENCER CLARK) at CAFE OTO, LONDON
TUESDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2017, Doors open 7.30PM
£12 (door) £10 ADVANCE £8 CAFE OTO MEMBERS
People Like Us will perform at Cafe Oto in February as part of an evening hosted by the label Discrepant, to celebrate the release of LPs by People Like Us, and Mike Cooper. People Like Us will be doing a combination from four different previous performances, commencing at approximately 8.30pm. Full listing here.
“Abridged Too Far” is the first of a series of vinyl by Discrepant to celebrate this being the 25th year of People Like Us publishing albums. It has only ever been available in digital form on UbuWeb.
The LP pressing has been held up at the pressing plant and will not be ready for the concert, but you can pre-order direct from us NOW: http://peoplelikeus.org/2017/abridged-too-far-album-now-vinyl/
OR… IF you come to the concert you can fill in your email address at the merchandise table to exclusively purchase Abridged Too Far for £10. This is exclusive to this concert only. The Mike Cooper album is already available on Discrepant’s site.
No One Is An Island now on UbuWeb
No One Is An Island, a radio piece by Vicki Bennett originally broadcast on WDR in 2016 is now available for listening and download at UbuWeb. http://www.ubu.com/sound/plu_noone.html
Thanks to the following for taking their time to give their thoughts about ideas:
Ergo Phizmiz, Savanna, Rowen, Mathilde, Lila, Andrew Sharpley, Ava, Cameron, Katja Seltmann, Rick Prelinger, Iain Chambers, Jeff Carey and Falco, Graham Duff, Kenneth Goldsmith, Charlie Lewis, Henry Lowengard, Tim Maloney, Kevin Hamilton, Akāshamitra, Dorian Jones and Lenny, Marcus Boon and Jesse, Saraka, Suddhaka and Sunayaka.
No One Is An Island
Where do ideas come from? Are they our own or are we channeling some spark from a larger flame? In this programme we examine the relationship between artists, writers, scientists and philosophers and the receiving, possession and transmission of ideas.
Culture is a complex process of sharing and signification. Meanings are exchanged, adopted, and adapted through acts of communication. The tools we use – the photocopier, camera, computer, encourage, in fact insist upon the act of cutting, copying and pasting – it is second nature. Through mimicry and repetition we learn.
Original post with more info on the initial broadcast: http://peoplelikeus.org/2016/radio-premiere-wdr-no-one-is-an-island/
Interview – filling Station Issue 63
Here is an interview with Vicki Bennett by Peter Jaeger conducted over the course of Summer 2015. It was published in filling Station Issue 63. Download as a pdf.
Exhibitions and Editions
To date, People Like Us/Vicki has had 5 solo exhibitions and participated in 19 group shows at MAXXI (Rome), HMKV (Dortmund), Centro de Cultura Digital (Mexico), Hatton Gallery (Newcastle), Vitrine (London), alt.gallery (Newcastle), Greene County Council for the Arts Gallery (NY), Peacock Visual Arts (Aberdeen), Pallant House (Chichester), Engramme (Quebec), La Scatola Gallery (London), Changing Room (Stirling), Franklin Street Works (Connecticut), Usurp Gallery (London), University of Greenwich Galleries, Matthew Gallery (Dundee), Edinburgh Printmakers, Millennium Gallery (Sheffield) Leeds College of Art and Sunbeam Studios (London).
Also featured in Sounds Like Silence – 4’33’’ Silence Today (Spectre Books 2012), The Journal of Writing In Creative Practice (Vol 7 Issue 1 2015), The Fundamentals of Sonic Art and Design by Tony Gibbs (Ava Publishing 2007), Cutting Across Media by Kembrew McLeod (Duke University Press 2011), Here To Go – Art, Counter-Culture and the Esoteric (Forum Nidrosiae 2014), Incredible Machines by Danny Snelson (avant 2014), and writing for The Wire’s Collateral Damage (February 2012).
For gallery concerts and festival film screenings please also see Selected Performances and Screenings
Selected Performances and Screenings
People Like Us/Vicki has performed and been screened at hundreds of venues (Tate Modern, Whitechapel Gallery, the National Film Theatre/BFI, Purcell Room, Barbican, ICA, V&A., BBC Proms, Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Sonar (Barcelona), MAXXI/National Museum of XXI Century Arts (Rome), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis) and Centro de Cultura Digital (Mexico City)) and radio stations – created radioworks for John Peel and Mixing it (BBC Radio) and WDR (Germany), and since 2003 has a radio show on WFMU(.org). Vicki’s work has been archived on UbuWeb since 2003, with hundreds of thousands of downloads.
May 2017 – week of performances/screenings for school children, Oslo
March 2017 – Citation City at Hull UK City of Culture (ReROOTed)
February 2017 – Selection of previous works at Cafe Oto
December 2016 – Shopping from Citation City at Other Cinema, San Francisco
November 2016 – Citation City at Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland
October 2016 – Magic (from Magical Misery Tour) and Magic (with Ergo Phizmiz) at Magic Late at the Horniman Museum, London
October 2016 – Nothing Can Turn Into A Void at Spectacle Theater, Brooklyn
July 2016 – Nothing Can Turn Into A Void at Norberg Festival
June 2016 – Optimized! Radio Residency at WFMU
May 2016 – Citation City at Delco Festival, Nimes
April 2016 – Citation City at Sonic Protest, Paris
March 2017 – Citation City at Hull UK City of Culture (ReROOTed)
February 2017 – Selection of previous works at Cafe Oto
December 2016 – Shopping from Citation City at Other Cinema, San Francisco
November 2016 – Citation City at Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland
October 2016 – Magic (from Magical Misery Tour) and Magic (with Ergo Phizmiz) at Magic Late at the Horniman Museum, London
October 2016 – Nothing Can Turn Into A Void at Spectacle Theater, Brooklyn
July 2016 – Nothing Can Turn Into A Void at Norberg Festival
June 2016 – Optimized! Radio Residency at WFMU
May 2016 – Citation City at Delco Festival, Nimes
April 2016 – Citation City at Sonic Protest, Paris
April 2016 – We Are Not Amused screening at Apordoc, Lisbon
April 2016 – No One Is An Island broadcast on WDR, Germany
March 2016 – Screening of the new Matmos video made by People Like Us at Other Cinema, San Francisco (March 5)
February 2016 – Friday Late at V&A, London
November 2015 – improvisation at Cafe Oto with M.C.Schmidt and Jennifer Walshe
November 2015 – Nothing Can Turn Into A Void at Fylkingen, Stockholm
November 2015 – Citation City at Brighton Cinecity Festival
November 2015 – Nothing Can Turn Into A Void at Brighton Cinecity Festival
October 2015 – Work, Rest & Play at Curtocircuito. Santiago de Compostela Film Festival-Santiago de Compostela
October 2015 – CCCitations at Other Cinema, San Francisco
September 2015 – Citation City at Walter Benjamin Now, Whitechapel Gallery, London
September 2015 – Citation City at Encounters Short Film Festival Bristol UK
August 2015 – Screening of We Are Not Amused at Usurp Zone5 Film Festival, London
February 2016 – Friday Late at V&A, London
November 2015 – improvisation at Cafe Oto with M.C.Schmidt and Jennifer Walshe
November 2015 – Nothing Can Turn Into A Void at Fylkingen, Stockholm
November 2015 – Citation City at Brighton Cinecity Festival
November 2015 – Nothing Can Turn Into A Void at Brighton Cinecity Festival
October 2015 – Work, Rest & Play at Curtocircuito. Santiago de Compostela Film Festival-Santiago de Compostela
October 2015 – CCCitations at Other Cinema, San Francisco
September 2015 – Citation City at Walter Benjamin Now, Whitechapel Gallery, London
September 2015 – Citation City at Encounters Short Film Festival Bristol UK
August 2015 – Screening of We Are Not Amused at Usurp Zone5 Film Festival, London
April 2015 – Citation City at SMUP in Parede, Portugal
Discography
This is by no means the full list, but it’s what we remember!
“Another Kind of Humor Another Kind of Murder” (split with Abraxas) World Serpent (CD/LP) 1992
“Lowest Common Dominator” Staalplaat (CD) 1994
“It’s Terrorific!” Staalplaat (DAT) 1994
“Guide To Broadcasting” Staalplaat (3″CD) 1994
“Beware The Whim Reaper” Staalplaat(CD) 1996
“Jumble Massive” Soleilmoon Recordings (LP) 1996
“File Under Easy Listening/File Under Sleazy Listening” (split with Sniper) Kleptones 1 (LP) 1996
“Lassie House” Staalplaat (10″ Picture Disc) 1997
“Blundersonix/Special Mix” (split with TFU) Kleptones(LP) 1997
“People Like Us and Sniper Play The Three DJs of The Apocalypse” (with Sniper) Kleptones (LP) 1997
“Hate People Like You” Staalplaat (CD) 1997
“People Like Us Meet The Jet Black Hair People In Concert” Audioview (CD) 1999
“Hate People Like Us” (remix of PLU by Coil, Negativland, Death in June, Barbed, Christoph Heemann, Bruce Gilbert, Stock, Hausen & Walkman, Rehberg & Bauer, Mika Vainio, Boyd Rice, Dummy Run, Farmer’s Manual and Sons of Silence. 2CD features additionally Cyclobe, Req1, V/VM, Sniper, Mr Rotorvator, Felix Kubin, Xper. Xr, Venoz [TKS], Katy Brown and Dr P Li Khan. There was an additional remix by Andy Votel/Badly Drawn Boy, excluded for legal reasons. Caciocavallo/CAD1 (CD) and Staalplaat (2CD) 1999 2CD
“Thermos Explorer” Hot Air (CD) 2000
“A Fistful of Knuckles” Caciocavallo (CD) 2000
“Swing Largo/Going Out Of My Town” Klang Galerie (7″) 2001
“Home-Roam-Play/Work-All-Day” (split 12″ with remix by Matmos) Wicked Witch Records (12″) 2001 recalled due to faulty pressing
“Recyclopaedia Britannica” Mess Media/Mess (CD) April 2002
“Preserved Cowgirl” Asphodel – remix of Tipsy (CD) August 2002
“Stifled Love” – Mess Media/Mess 2 (12″) October 2002
7″ single – Rough Trade label For Us Records October 2002
“Volatile Media” Lovebytes label (DVD) March 2003
“Wide Open Spaces” Tigerbeat6 label (CD) collaboration with Matmos and Wobbly May 2003
“Nothing Special” Mess03 (CD) collaboration with Kenny G June 2003
“A Call For Silence” – (CD) Sonic Arts Network February 2004
“Abridged Too Far” – (mp3) online album at Ubuweb. August 2004
“Windpipe Moods” – (CD) Mukow October 2004
“Story Without End” – (DVD) Sonic Arts Network October 2005
“Fom Fom” – (CD) – track for Chicks On Speed’s compilation Girl Monster – Chicks on Speed Records Summer 2006
“All Together Now” – (CD) – self released August 2006
“Honeysuckle Boulevard” – (10″) – self released collaboration with Ergo Phizmiz January 2007
“Perpetuum Mobile – (CD) – Soleilmoon Recordings April 2007
“On The Rooftops Of London” – (CDS) – self released May 2007
“Rhapsody In Glue” – (online album) – bleep.com May 2008
“Smiling Through My Teeth” – (CD) – Sonic Arts Network May 2008
“Withers In The Waking” – (7″) Touch October 2008
“Le Xerox et l’Infini” – (cassette) Tapeworm June 2009
“Music For The Fire” – (CD) – Illegal Art June 2010
“This Is Light Music” – (LP) – Edinburgh Printmakers/Prints Of Darkness exhibit – August 2010
“Welcome Abroad” – (CD) – Illegal Art May 2011
“The Keystone Cut Ups” – (DVD) – with Ergo Phizmiz – Illegal Art May 2012
“Magic Moon” -(7″) – with Ergo Phizmiz – Illegal Art May 2012
“Don’t Think Right, It’s All Twice” – (CD) – Cutting Hedge October 2013
“Dreaming” square flexidisc postcard – (8′) – Hasenbart Records 2014
“A Fistful of Knuckles” and “Nothing Special” reissued on cassette – Megaphone Records 2015
“Abridged Too Far” – (LP) – Discrepant March 2017 Continue reading