Welcome to the only official site for People Like Us and Vicki Bennett
Since 1991 British artist Vicki Bennett has been working across the field of audio-visual collage, and is recognised as an influential and pioneering figure in the still growing area of sampling, appropriation and cutting up of found footage and archives. Working under the name People Like Us, Vicki specialises in the manipulation and reworking of original sources from both the experimental and popular worlds of music, film and radio. People Like Us believe in open access to archives for creative use. In 2006 she was the first artist to be given unrestricted access to the entire BBC Archive. People Like Us have previously shown work at, amongst others, Tate Modern, Whitechapel Gallery, The Barbican, Centro de Cultura Digital, Maxxi and Sonar, and performed radio sessions for John Peel and Mixing It. She has an ongoing sound art radio show 'DO or DIY' on WFMU. The People Like Us back catalogue is available for free download hosted by UbuWeb. Nothing Can Turn Into A Void – a doc film about People Like Us has been screening in cinemas and festivals since Autumn 2015.
Currently, Vicki is focussing on expanding a/v work for a multiscreen and multi-speakered environment with RML Cinechamber, with 10-screen work "Gone, Gone Beyond". Also a new People Like Us live performance "The Mirror" premiered at Onassis Cultural Centre Athens in Spring 2018 and now tours worldwide. October 2018 saw the release of a new CD/online album also called The Mirror. Vicki is a participant in Sound and Music New Voices 2018 programme, a-n Artist Bursaries 2019 recipient, and will be Hallwalls Artist in Residence from 2019-2020.
DO or DIYwith People Like Us will return to the airwaves for 3 hours on Wednesday 19 June from 9am-Noon (NY Time) ((which is 2pm-5pm in London)). This will be filling in for Station Manager Ken. You can tune in online and on the air (if local to New York) and follow a live playlists and comments through the front page here: http://wfmu.org
We broadcast an hour-long Stuart Maconie Freak Zone Playlistfor BBC 6 Music on 24 February 2019 at 00:00 (that’s Midnight Saturday night/Sunday morning) UK time. Iit will be archived on the Freak Zone Playlist page for a few weeks after.
Many thanks to Leon for having us on Reel Rebels Radio on The Avant-Garde for Middlebrows: a Some Bizzare label special. You can listen here:
Here’s the track list (selected from a much longer list): Soft Cell – Entertain Me (Richard Skinner session) Cabaret Voltaire – Sensoria People Like Us – Feel It Steal It Agnes Bernelle – Mother The Wardrobe Is Full Of Infantrymen Dave Ball – Sincerity Renaldo and the Loaf – Critical/Dance Coli – Who By Fire Marc and the Mambas – Untitled Psychic TV – Stolen Kisses The The – Perfect Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel – Descent Into The Inferno Swans – A Screw Val Denham and Farmacia – As I Walked Out One Evening Burmoe Brothers – Under The Blanket Of Love Marc Almond and La Magia with Nico – Your Kisses Burn The The – We Can’t Stop What’s Coming
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.
Since 1981, Negativland’s live mix, audio collage radio show, “Over The Edge,” has aired weekly for 3 hours at midnight, each Thursday on KPFA 94.1FM in Berkeley, California. Mixed for 35 uninterrupted years by founder Don Joyce until his passing in 2015, the show continues on, now helmed by Wobbly (2nd & 4th Thursdays) and KROB (3rd Thursdays, as a frequently-broken rule). OTE’s themed mixes are made live and spontaneously on the air from a variety of formats and equipment. There is a plan and there is no plan. The mix consists of found sound of many kinds and from many sources put together on the run as the continuous audio collage progresses.
People Like Us take over the airwaves for an hour from 3.30pm-4.30pm (UK time) on Resonance FM on Saturday 28 April 2018 on the Splice Festival Festival Radio Show. This coincides with our forthcoming performance at Splice Festival (12 May 2018).
People Like Us will be doing a fill-in slot for Station Manager Ken on WFMU on Wednesday 27 December 2017 from 9-Noon NY Time (2pm UK). Gwilly Edmondez will be joining Vicki to sing some selections from the LP box set Now That’s What I Call Music. Ergo Phizmiz PLC will also be popping in to sing a handful of songs. Tune in at http://wfmu.org – live playlist and comments here.
People Like Us will be on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb on Friday 8 December 2017 talking about scrolling culture (and google minds!) in relation to the creative process and The Fundamental Questions book, playing a specially made 3 minute group reading made from this.
Here’s the piece that we made : I Am A Poet (from The Fundamental Questions)
Group reading features: Jaap Blonk, Dylan Nyoukis, Leo Chadburn, Mark Gergis, Chris T, Bryce Kretschmann, Medaya Ocher, John Aage Nilsen, Abbie Minard, Colleen Lindsay, Simon Faulkner, Scott Williams, Falco Carey, Hearty White, Kurt Gottshalk, Rebecca Schnell, Roslyn Sargeant, Michael Newman, Steven Ball, Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee, Nancy Novotny, MC Schmidt, Adrian Testcard, The Weatherman, Annabel McCourt, HK Kahng, Austin Rich, Tim Maloney, Matthew Curry, Drew Daniel, Alma, Silas and Peter Jaeger, Casper Carey, Paul Abbott, Tom Comitta, Will Edmondes, Catherine Backhouse, Krys O, Elkka Nyoukis, Miller Sargeant, Jhh Löwengard, Mike Lupica, Dan Solenoid, Greg Scharpen, Nick The Bard, Jon Leidecker, Ranjit Bhatnagar, Brancois Bonnet, Andie Brown, Ada Graham-Löwengard, Duncan Harrison, Gregor Weichbrodt and Vicki Bennett.