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GESTURE PIECE – a film with a score by 7 artists

A film by Vicki Bennett [2013]
Soundtracks by :
Andrew Sharpley [00:06] | Matmos [01:02] | Wobbly [05:08] | Gwilly Edmondez [07:48] | Dave Soldier [09:38] | Jason Willett [11:02] | Ergo Phizmiz [13:23]

Gwilly Edmondez, Matmos, Ergo Phizmiz, Andrew Sharpley, Dave Soldier, Jason Willett and Wobbly each composed a score for a chapter of GESTURE PIECE, without any knowledge of who else was collaborating on the project or what the rest of the film would look or sound like.

The completed film stitches back together the seven chapters with their individual soundtracks, creating new connections between apparently unrelated film sequences. The result is a fascinating and witty reinterpretation of familiar film footage, with scenes arranged in surprising and often very funny combinations.

The title of “Gesture Piece” is partly self-explanatory – within human communication it is part of our hard circuitry that for instance we use hand gestures to articulate our speech, which is essentially graphically describing/enforcing audio or spoken discourse. Even when spoken language is not present, a whole series of hand and facial gestures are available to us to communicate expressions. By making a film that both contains human gestures (hands, facial, movement) as well as gestures made by natural and mechanical occurrences we are setting up the conditions for a dialogue between the graphical elements on the films and the improvisers, both with the film as well as with each other.

Background info
Gesture Piece @Tyneside Cinema
Review in This Is Tomorrow Magazine
Interview with a-n Magazine
Interview with SyncTank
Interview with Dominic Smith

Screenings
October 2014 – Other Cinema, San Francisco
October 2013 – Gesture Piece at High Zero Festival, Baltimore

Click on thumbnails to download stills:
GESTURE PIECE-2GESTURE PIECE-5GESTURE PIECE-3

Diagram of subjects - created in the development of the film by Vicki Bennett
Diagram of subjects – created in the development of the film by Vicki Bennett
Still from Gesture Piece by Vicki Bennett
Still from Gesture Piece by Vicki Bennett

Gesture Piece has a sister project, Notations – a film created for live performance by selected improvising musicians and artists.  When these two projects began, they shared the same umbrella name of Gesture Piece (the live performance was tested at Tectonics Festival in Reykjavik and Tel Aviv), but as the work developed it felt natural to separate them out into different names as they became two unique and separate entities.

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People Like Us Solo Show: Centro de Cultura Digital, Mexico City

Curated by Kenneth Goldsmith, at the Centro de Cultura Digital, in México City, 27 July-4 August 2013.

http://www.centroculturadigital.mx/es/actividad/people-like-us-muestra-individual-del-trabajo-de-vicki-bennett.html

Solo show at Centro de Cultura Digital, Mexico City
Solo show at Centro de Cultura Digital, Mexico City

Coincides with Kenneth Goldsmith‘s Printing Out The Internet show.
http://www.labor.org.mx/kenneth-goldsmith-printing-out-the-internet/

People Like Us solo show
People Like Us solo show

People Like Us solo show
People Like Us solo show

 

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Secret Monsters: Random Acts screenings on Channel 4

TheGolem-15
Still from The Golem – An Inanimate Matter (2013)

THE GOLEM – AN INANIMATE MATTER

Press release: 2 May 2013

Secret Monsters: 10 fiendish Random Acts
Premiering: Channel 4, Autumn 2013

Animate Projects is pleased to be producing an array of amazing animations for Channel 4’s Random Acts that will provide an insight into the world’s hidden or secret monsters.

The slate considers the pseudo-science of cryptozoology – the search for creatures whose existence remains unproven. Many of these creatures feature in myths, legends and folklore across the globe, and include thunderbirds, the Loch Ness Monster, phantom cats, Bigfoot, colobockle, and the Chupacabra.

Animate has commissioned and acquired works from artists based in Austria, Japan, South America, Spain and the UK that respond to the theme. The artists bring inventive character design, hair-raising stories and a mix of animation techniques, to delight one and all.The artists are: Vicki Bennett, Elizabeth Hobbs, Clemens Kogler, Mandy McIntosh, Jossie Malis, Motomichi Nakamura, Sean Vicary and Atsushi Wada.Animate’s Random Acts will be broadcast on Channel 4, randomacts.channel4.com and animateprojects.org from Autumn 2013.

-Ends-

***************
October 2013: please note – these films are now available to view online:
https://peoplelikeus.org/2013/we-are-not-amused/
https://peoplelikeus.org/2013/the-golem-on-channel-4-tv/
***************

For more information visit: http://bit.ly/10i44v4

Download stills and photos of work in progress from both We Are Not Amused and The Golem – An Inanimate Matter
https://peoplelikeus.org/piccies/random/pictures-and-screenshots.zip

TheGolem-4
Still from The Golem – An Inanimate Matter (2013)

We Are Not Amused: Who knows where ideas come from? You or me? Or THEM? The Muses are angry and they want their ideas back! This is a story of thieving and reappropriation, staged on a mythological platform.

The Golem, An Inanimate Matter: The Golem, a monstrous being of inanimate matter from Jewish folklore, is accidentally summoned from a book and wreaks havoc through a public library.

WeAreNotAmused-2
Still from We Are Not Amused (2013)

About Random Acts
Random Acts is Channel 4’s short-form arts strand airing five nights a week and online at randomacts.channel4.com; over the course of a year it will showcase 260 specially commissioned three minute films chosen for their bold and original expressions of creativity. Visit http://randomacts.channel4.com/

Ergo Phizmiz as "Simple Stephen doodle drawing..."
Ergo Phizmiz as “Simple Stephen doodle drawing…”

About Animate Projects
Animate Projects is the only arts charity in the UK dedicated to championing experiments in animation. Our ambition is to support artists to use animation in new ways to create innovative and thought-provoking projects. We nurture the creative talent of artists, and encourage them to apply their skills to respond to briefs in unexpected ways. We enable artists to push the boundaries of what is possible – whether embracing advances in digital technologies, or reinventing the possibilities with traditional craft skills. To ensure all our projects reach the widest audiences, we work in partnership with leading broadcasters and national cultural organisations including Tate, Art on the Underground, Barbican, Channel 4, BFI, and Crafts Council.

Experiments in animation – http://www.animateprojects.org
Arts Council EnglandChannel 4

The Golem - clay figure created by Martha Moopette
The Golem – clay figure created by Martha Moopette

 

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Tectonics Festival, Reykjavik

18-20 April 2013
TECTONICS FESTIVAL, Reykjavik

Curated by Ilan Volkov, Tectonics brings together musicians from different worlds and backgrounds for an audience that’s open and ready for new experiences and surprises. The festival will include young composers and pioneering figures, chamber music, orchestral music and electronic performances.

People Like Us are currently creating a new work entitled GESTURE PIECE*, which will premiere at Tectonics Festival in Reykjavik.  This is a film created for accompaniment by live improv musicians, who in this case will be the following performers: Skúli Sverrisson, Davíð Þór Jónsson, Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir, Hlynur Aðils.

Earlier that same evening, People Like Us will perform CONSEQUENCES (ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER).

Full festival schedule here.

**Please note: The film for live improvisers Gesture Piece has now changed its name to Notations