Category: events

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People Like Us play Glasgow for the first time ever!

Book FREE tickets for all events right here:
http://www.eventbrite.com/o/gleam-2014-7530326867 All events are FREE.
Full programme details can be found at www.glasgow.ac.uk/gleam

We are pleased to announce that after 24 years of existing as People Like Us we play our first concert in Glasgow at GLEAM (Glasgow Electronic and Audiovisual Media) FESTIVAL.  This will take place at University of Glasgow Concert Hall on 31 October 2014.  So it is fitting that we will perform The Magical Misery Tour there.  Vicki will also do an artist talk on the same day at 2pm.

“The Magical Misery Tour” trailer

More about the festival:

To honour the centenary of Scottish-Canadian filmmaker and artist Norman McLaren (1914-1987), the first annual GLEAM (GLasgow Electronic and Audiovisual Media) Festival will celebrate his lasting influence, situating contemporary works of ‘visual music’ within the current context of audiovisual practice and providing opportunities for cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional collaboration.

It is only fitting that the McLaren centenary celebrations should extend to involve the city of Glasgow. McLaren spent three years at Glasgow School of Art studying art and interior design and it was here that he first began to experiment with the moving image, and discovered the work of Oskar Fischinger, which was to influence him profoundly.

GLEAM 2014 takes McLaren’s work as a jumping off point from which to discuss and disseminate contemporary sonic and audiovisual work, both theoretical and practical.

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InMute Festival, Athens

Notations and Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another)** will both be performed at InMute Festival, Athens Onassis Cultural Centre on 25 October 2014.

This time around Notations will be performed by the duo Acte Vide.

Festival Curation: Michalis Moschoutis 

PROGRAMME

Friday 24 October

Rhythmus 21 (Hans Richter, 1921)
Rhythmus 23 (Hans Richter, 1923)
Duration: 8′
Live score: Giorgos Katsanos (analog synth, amplified objects)

Dog Star Man: Part I (Stan Brakhage, 1962)
Duration: 30′
Live score: Yiorgis Sakellariou (laptop, tapes)

Emak-Bakia (Man Ray, 1927)
Duration: 18′
Live score: Balinese Beast (Giorgos Axiotis: electronics, Ilan Manouach: saxophone, electronics)

Aleph (Wallace Berman 1958-1976)
Duration: 7′
Silent

Early Abstractions Nos. 1-4, 7 & 10 (Harry Smith, 1946-57)
Preserved by Anthology Film Archives, New York
Duration: 22′
Live score: Mike Cooper (steel guitar)

Saturday 25 October

**Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) is not on the festival programme but will be a “parallel event” also on the 25 October at the same venue earlier the same evening at 7.30pm (25 October).
Details here http://www.sgt.gr/en/programme/event/2142

Notations (Vicki Bennett, 2013)
Duration: 30′
Live performance: Acte Vide (Danae Stefanou: piano, Giannis Kotsonis: electronics)

Cowards Bend the Knee (Guy Maddin, 2003)
Duration: 60′
Live score: Philip Jeck (turntables, electronics)

Sunday 26 October

Social Decay (audio-visual performance based on Stelios Tatasopoulos‘s 1932 film)
Duration: 25’
Live music & video: Voltnoi & Quetempo

The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
Duration: 82′
Live score: Jacob Kirkegaard (laptop)

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High Zero Festival Baltimore full concerts

Stop press: here are films documenting the full performances at High Zero:

People Like Us at High Zero Festival in Baltimore on 19 and 20 September, 2014

Friday 19 September is a night of improvisation, in which People Like Us performs two sets with other improvisers, the first time Vicki has done improvisation of this type in more than 10 years.
Doors open 7.30pm, performances begin at 8.30pm

Group One:
Jack Wright (saxophone)
Dafne Vicente-Sandoval (bassoon)
Paul Neidhardt (percussion, friction)
M.C. Schmidt (store-bought electronics)
Charles Dube (electronics)
Group Two:
John Kilduff (multitasking, live art)
Vicki Bennett (found footage sample collage)
Bob Wagner (percussion, friction)
Group Three:
LaDonna Smith (violin)
Paul Neidhardt (percussion, friction)
Harry Walker (electric bass)
Michael Fischer (saxophone)
Group Four:
JD Zazie (turntables, CDJ, mixer, found sounds)
Charlotte Hug (viola, voice)
Jenny Gräf (electronics, guitar)
Stewart Mostofsky (electronics)
Vicki Bennett (found footage sample collage)

Notations at the Saturday Matinee, on 20 September 2014 at The Theatre Project, 45 W Preston St, Baltimore.
Doors open Noon, performances at 1pm. 
This time around, the performers to this live score are:
Bob Wagner (drums)
LaDonna Smith (violin)
Jenny Gräf (electronics, guitar)
“Notations” is a film by Vicki Bennett for live performance by improvising musicians and artists.  It has been created using collected and edited found footage from hundreds of different films, where the content conceptually or literally portrays different kinds of ‘instructions’ and content that can then be interpreted by musicians and artists with unique audio accompaniments.  Notations contains edits of the movies and sounds from the source films, separated into ‘sketches’ or stories that segue into one another, and it exists with a list of instructions (score) on how artist(s) working with this choose to work with these particular elements.

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People Like Us, M.C.Schmidt & Jason Willett Live at WFMU

People Like Us, M.C.Schmidt (Matmos) and Jason Willett will perform at WFMU‘s own performance space at Monty Hall, New Jersey on 13 Sept 2014 at 8pm.  Tickets must be bought in advance to ensure entry:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/819123 – there should be some tickets on the door but you have been warned since they are selling well and it’s a small venue.

We’ve not decided the order of the evening but it will include People Like Us with Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another), and then a joint improv performance by all three artists to Notations.

montyhall

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Consequences Exhibited at Sheffield Doc/Fest

We are exhibiting a rare stand-alone version of our (usually live performance) Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at Sheffield Doc/Fest, 7-12 June 2014.  The 40-minute musical movie is on a giant screen at Millennium Gallery from 10.00-17.00, and in the evening from 18.00-22.00 in Millennium Gallery. 

Sheffield Doc/Fest: http://sheffdocfest.com/articles/167-brand-new-for-2014-the-interactive-exhibition
Millennium Gallery: http://www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/museums/millennium-gallery/exhibitions/current/doc-fest-14

“Favourite new work at the festival so far; would happily have watched it 2+ times straight through.” – Tom Vincent (co-director, Bradford International Film Festival), on  twitter

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Consequences at Metamorf, Trondheim

People Like Us will perform Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) and give an artist talk at meta.morf / Here To Go Symposium in Trondheim, Norway at the end of May 2014.

Concert: 30 May 2014
Venue: Dokkhuset
Dokkparken 4, Trondheim, 7014 Norway
http://metamorf.no/?p=604

Conference: 31 May 2014
10:00 – 17:00 @ Dokkhuset
http://metamorf.no/?p=602

10:00 – Martin Palmer: HTG2014 Opening Remarks
10:15 – Carl Abrahamsson: Paul Bowles: Expat magic
10:45 – Vicki Bennett: ‘We Edit Life’ – a journey through cut and paste collage creations by audio-visual artist Vicki Bennett (aka People Like Us)
11:30 – Break
11:45 – Z’EV: The 3-Fold Ear and the Energies of Enthusiasm
12:30 – Alkistis Dimech: The Sabbatic Dance: Butoh’s interior landscape and the terrain of Witchcraft
13:00 – Lunch and book launch
14:00 – Peter Grey: Secrecy and Revelation: A New Vision of Talismanic Books
14:30 – Angela Edwards: Taking Fine Art into the Esoteric Context in Action
15:00 – Break
15:15 – Jesper Aagaard Petersen: Operatiaon Mindfuck, Viking Edition: How Fear of the Satanic and Cartoon Exoticism Fueled the Prank of the Century
16:00 – Martin Palmer: HTG2014 Closing Remarks / Q&A

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Andrew Sharpley – “Black Ships” on DO or DIY with People Like Us

Andrew Sharpley – “Black Ships” 
Monday 19 May 2014, 7pm
on DO or DIY with People Like Us
http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/pl

Listen online live at 7pm NY Time http://wfmu.org

This broadcast is a based on a series of translations and re-translations of a text in a not-very-good telephone translation app, going backwards and forwards between Japanese and Portuguese and at each stage rendering the result into english – kind of like Chinese Whispers, except not Chinese.  Whats starts out as a tongue twister over the course of 30 re-translations (25 of which are used in the broadcast) ends up as something that sounds like a deranged terrorist, manifesto, talking of bomb blasts and prophets and visas and pain and country.

These short texts, read by my daughter Lia, are set against a backdrop of shifting electronic patterns and acoustic piano that mutates gradually over time as the texts themselves do.

The title, Black Ships (in Japanese, 黒船, kurofune, Edo Period term) was the name given to Western ships arriving in Japan in the 16th and 19th centuries.

In 1543 Portuguese initiated the first contacts, establishing a trade route linking Goa to Nagasaki. The large ships engaged in this trade had the hull painted black with pitch, and the term came to represent all western vessels. A modern day equivalent for the surprise and confusion the presence of these ships caused, would perhaps be someone in a modern city apartment trying to go to sleep with 4 big black flying saucers hovering outside their window…

With a nod of recognition to the WFMU presenter and exponent of ‘ uncreative writing’ – of which this is an example – I am dedicating it to Mr Kenneth Goldsmith.

– Andrew Sharpley, 16 May, 2014.

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SHUTTER – solo exhibition

14 February – 7 March 2014 (Preview 13 February 5-7pm)
Leeds College of Art Blenheim Walk, Leeds, UK

Shutter
Shutter is a new audio-visual exhibition by film and sound collagist Vicki Bennett that enables us to peer into a parallel cinematic world that exists between the edits, when we are not looking at the screen. http://www.leeds-artexhibitions.co.uk/?p=1180
The exhibition consists of three a/v video works (one projected and two on video monitors) and nine prints.  There is also an edition of 20 of two of these prints.

“The Big Sleep” [2014] Video (19 mins, 12 secs)
Sleep deficient actors drift in and out of consciousness.

“Blink” [2014] Video (1 hour, 35 mins, 39 secs)
Every frame missed while watching A Nightmare on Elm Street.


“Dreaming” [2011] Video (4 mins, 16 secs)


Nine 12×12 inch B/W and Colour Giclee PrintsThe 9 Prints

VICKI BENNETT “SHUTTER”

“Shutter” is a new audio-visual exhibition that enables us to peer into a parallel cinematic world that exists between the edits, when we are not looking at the screen.

Actors aren’t seen to rest a lot in films, considering people on average sleep 8 hours a day.  More often than not, feature films contain a stream of attention-grabbing imagery and noise, and if the mood does slow down there is still dialogue, music and other distractions.

In feature films we don’t see the real-time flow of everyday life, we don’t see the actors queuing, watching TV, reading a book, sleeping.  Nor do we witness the mundane – we see the James Bond car chase but no stopping off to eat a panini.  Reality can be brought back into film by revealing actors in their normal, uneventful moments.  Actors need to sleep as well.  Where do they go after a film has ended?  What do we miss when we blink while watching a movie?  What is it really like on the other side of the screen?  This exhibition addresses these subjects and attempts to take us to these places.

Vicki Bennett - press photo
Vicki Bennett – press photo

2 editions of 20 (below) – purchase from our shop

Bio

Since 1991 Vicki Bennett has been working across the field of audio-visual collage, and is recognized 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 have previously shown work at Tate Modern, The Barbican, Centro de Cultura Digital, Maxxi and Sonar, and performed radio sessions for John Peel and Mixing It.  In 2006 Vicki was the first artist to be given unrestricted access to the entire BBC Archive.  The ongoing sound art radio show ‘DO or DIY’ on WFMU has had over a million “listen again” downloads since 2003.  The People Like Us back catalogue is available for free download hosted by UbuWeb. https://peoplelikeus.org/category/biography/

Shutter

Documentation – Setting up and Preview night
vwithprintsDSC_3585 previewDSC_3702 printsonwallDSC_3643 settingupDSC_3583 puttingupprintsDSC_3604 PreviewDSC_3717 PreviewDSC_3722