Welcome to the only official site for People Like Us and Vicki Bennett
Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle, UK
15 October 2024 https://www.starandshadow.org.uk/
People Like Us perform The Library of Babel
People Like Us & Gwilly Edmondez perform Chart Sweep
Core of the Coalman screening Elegy For The Sherbet Fleet
Heads up, we’ll take over the Star and Shadow Cinema in Newcastle with the above performances and screening.
We’re delighted to announce that a new piece of People Like Us immersive surround AV cinema work will be previewed at the upcoming RECOMBINANT Festival 2024 in San Francisco! From November 21 – 24th, the renowned RML CineChamber returns to the Gray Area Grand Theater in San Francisco, collaborating with Spatial Cinema Studios. Global artists will showcase their cutting-edge panoramic performance installations in this unique and immersive experience.
Khroma
Vicki Bennett (aka People Like Us) previews Khroma, a New 360° Surround Movie A Journey Through Colour, Sound, and Myth in a Stunning Audio-Visual Experience
Acclaimed multimedia artist Vicki Bennett, also known as People Like Us, presents her latest creation, Khroma, a 360° surround movie that draws upon the ancient idea of “Khroma” as a goddess of colour and sound. The movie travels through a series of dreamlike, non-linear scenes, weaving a story that feels both fragmented and unified.
Bennett’s signature audio-visual collage technique is on full display here, recombining and reassembling digital narratives to reveal deeper meanings. A key feature of Khroma is its use of the ‘exquisite corpse’ method, where different elements come together in unexpected ways to form a cohesive whole. This process-led technique lets the film evolve in surprising directions, with each scene building on the last to create an immersive experience that invites multiple interpretations.
Early Bird Tickets
For early access to discounted tickets, text or call festival director Naut Humon at 650-255-8947. Early bird offers will be available before the official ticket sales launch.
Stay Tuned for More!
Keep an eye on this page for more exclusive updates throughout September, with further announcements coming soon.
About RECOMBINANT Media Labs
The Recombinant Media Labs organization is dedicated to exploring the frontiers of Spatial Cinema through Experiential Engineering, pushing the boundaries of panoramic audiovisual exhibition for artistic expression.
“Mise en Abyme” by Vicki Bennett (October 2024)
Museu de Aveiro/Santa Joana, Avenida de Santa Joana, 3810-329 Aveiro, Portugal
2-20 October 2024 https://www.aveiro2024.pt/en/
In this widescreen, multi-speakered spatial cinema installation created for Aveiro 2024, Vicki Bennett (People Like Us) delves into the existential depths of human experience, using dense collage and a recursive narrative to explore the intricate dance between dualism and interconnectivity. Entitled “Mise en Abyme,” the installation thrusts viewers into a realm where actors are liberated from the confines of their scripted existence, navigating a sea of pure, unmediated sensation. Traditional storytelling is reimagined, employing a fusion of audio-visual collage and sophisticated editing techniques to dismantle and reassemble digital narratives, creating a tapestry woven from images and sounds that resonate deeply within the collective unconscious through their historical associations. The thematic narrative, unbound by linear constraints, unfolds through a series of layered complexities, offering a fragmented yet coherent tale forged from a myriad of sources and the innovative ‘exquisite corpse’ technique.
“Mise en Abyme” aims to use storytelling as a vessel to navigate beyond preconceived notions and internal narratives, inviting audiences into a space where the boundaries between self and other, between individual and collective experience, begin to blur.
The Artistic Technique
Vicki Bennett creates a sophisticated blend of audio-visual collage, layering historical and contemporary images and sounds to create a rich, immersive experience. The recursive narrative structure allows for a non-linear exploration of themes. The use of the ‘exquisite corpse’ technique further enhances this experience, as disparate elements are juxtaposed and interwoven, creating a seamless yet complex narrative tapestry. This method not only highlights the beauty of randomness but also demonstrates the interconnectedness of seemingly unrelated elements.
Friday 13th September 2024 PEOPLE LIKE US perform The Library of Babel at Vostell Museum Malpartida, Caceres, Spain – the Fluxus museum!
Looking forward to this! https://www.cndm.mcu.es/node/23330
Update: THE THE is No.1 in the UK vinyl singles chart! So that means we just made a video with Tim Pope for a No.1 single 🙂
We’ve just completed editing the new single from the upcoming THE THE album, Ensoulment—the third single from this album, set to release in September. All three singles have been edited by us, with each one directed by Tim Pope. It’s been great fun – hope you get to catch them on tour.
We just worked on the video for the second The The single in the last month, “Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot”.
The new music video for ‘Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot’ was made in conjunction with long-time collaborators: directed by Tim Pope with editing and VFX by Vicki Bennett (People Like Us) and Peter Knight, with Anya Krasnikova as Director of Photography.
The lyrics for this song – which touch upon the nascent bio-security state – were written from Matt Johnson’s hospital bed, under the influence of morphine whilst recovering from a life-saving operation. As fate would have it, Johnson’s weeks in hospital had nothing to do with Covid, but occurred at precisely the time Covid reached crisis proportions, making for an even more surreal ordeal. The discordant interplay between horns and fiddle is redolent of Johnson’s hallucinogenic, surreal experience, which he tried to emulate by asking the musicians to improvise over the track, without hearing the other’s contribution, as he manipulated the sounds in real time.
‘Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot’ is unique in that it does not feature any of the core band members apart from Johnson on vocals, guitar and bass, plus guest musicians Sonya Cullingford on fiddle, Terry Edwards on horns, Gillian Glover providing backing vocals, and hand claps from percussionist Danny Cummings. Co-produced by Matt Johnson and Warne Livesey. Ensoulment will be released on 6th Sept (Cinéola / earMUSIC) and can be pre-ordered here: https://thethe.lnk.to/EnsoulmentPR Ensouled world tour dates can be found here: https://www.thethe.com/tour-dates/
Join us on Wednesday, 26th June 2024 from 9-Noon (NY time), artist and WFMU DJ Vicki Bennett, aka People Like Us, appears live on Ken’s show on WFMU. She’ll discuss her new album, COPIA, being a WFMU DJ, and presenting her latest audiovisual performance, The Library of Babel. You can watch the performance on Ken’s playlist page and through the WFMU front page.
Listen and watch at WFMU.org
Very nice review of COPIA In Igloo Magazine. Many thanks!
People Like Us will perform The Library of Babel at CON-STRUCT mini-festival
13 July 2024 | £12/£8 (concessions) | Pre-booking essential (limited capacity)
TICKETS confrontrecordings.bandcamp.com/merch/con-struct-ticket
RACHEL MUSSON / OLIE BRICE / WILL GLASER / PEOPLE LIKE US / ANIA PSENITSNIKOVA / DAVID TOOP / KHABAT ABAS / PHIL DURRANT / BILL THOMPSON / CATH ROBERTS / MARK WASTELL
King Alfred Phoenix. Ivy Wood, North End Road, London NW11 7HY
Supported by The Wire: Adventures In Modern Music
Great to see the long-awaited announcement of a new THE THE album. We made the video for the new THE THE single ‘Cognitive Dissident’ with Tim Pope 🙂
The new video for ‘Cognitive Dissident’ was made in conjunction with long-time collaborators: directed by Tim Pope with editing, VFX and projections by Vicki Bennett (People Like Us) and Peter Knight.
‘Cognitive Dissident’ (written by Matt Johnson and Barrie Cadogan) is the first single from Ensoulment, the first studio album from THE THE in a quarter century.
THE THE and Tim Pope have a long, shared history working on a variety of videos and projects, including The Comeback Special film of the concert at Royal Albert Hall in 2018, the legendary Infected The Movie in 1987 – the first ever long-form video album release – the Versus The World film of the concert at Royal Albert Hall in 1990, and From Dusk ‘Til Dawn in 1993, as well as many music videos over the years including ‘Pillar Box Red’, ‘The Beat(en) Generation’, ‘Kingdom of Rain’, ‘Gravitate To Me’ etc.
Vicki Bennett (People Like Us), acclaimed video collage artist, and Peter Knight (photographer) have also long been associated with THE THE having created the videos for ‘We Can’t Stop What’s Coming’ and the ‘Stolen Moments’ GlobalEyes remix by DJ Food as well as creating the kaleidoscopic, cinematic backdrop for The Comeback Special world tour.
“It’s always a pleasure to work with my dear friends, director Tim Pope, video collage artist Vicki Bennett, and photographer Peter Knight. Our times working together are not only very creative, but also full of joyful mischief.” – Matt Johnson
Ensoulment will be released on 6th Sept (Cinéola / earMUSIC) and can be pre-ordered here – https://thethe.lnk.to/EnsoulmentPR
Ensouled world tour dates can be found here – https://www.thethe.com/tour-dates/
“COPIA” by People Like Us (Cutting Hedge SNIP003)
CD & Digital Download
https://peoplelikeus-vickibennett.bandcamp.com/album/copia
People Like Us, the project of artist Vicki Bennett, announces the release of “COPIA” on June 7, 2024. This album marks the first new musical material since “The Mirror” in 2018, delving into the profound realms of existential collage and sampling, celebrating these forms as expressions of timeless connectivity.
The title “COPIA,” meaning ‘abundance’ and ‘copy,’ reflects the essence of collage and sampling — art crafted not in isolation, but as a connective thread through time and space, linking ideas across generations in a seamless tapestry. By reconfiguring preexisting sounds and images, Bennett highlights the non-dual nature of creation — where distinctions between past, present, and future possibilities blur, revealing a shared foundation beneath. The album marks a return to not just solo works but collaborations with notable artists.
Drawing from the new People Like Us live AV performance, “The Library of Babel,” sampling and edited sound collage, electronic music, combined with Ergo Phizmiz’s lyrics and melodies, “COPIA” weaves and recombines a timeless blend of diverse elements that transcends traditional musical boundaries. This creative process unfolded through the exchange of multitracks across both water and ether. Collaborating with the voices, instruments and editing timelines of Matmos, Hearty White, Gwilly Edmondez, Lottie Bowater, Buttress O’Kneel, Douglas Benford, Irene Moon, Jon Leidecker, and Matt Warwick, the work evolved exquisite corpse-style.
“COPIA” will be available on Bandcamp as both a physical CD and digital download. Accompanying the release, live performances of “The Library of Babel” will continue both in the UK and abroad in the coming months, including potential live collaborations with Ergo Phizmiz and Gwilly Edmondez.
“Bennett has proven herself an alchemist of popular music, able to push her source material into fresh and engaging places. Where some artists hack existing instruments and technologies to create their new sounds, Bennett has circuit-bent the songs themselves.” – Spenser Tomson, The Wire Magazine
“Listening to “Copia” is like hearing music for the first time, as if the concept was completely new. You keep creating art that feels like that first shock-of-the-new you get when you step off a plane after you’ve landed in a new country. Something that wasn’t known, or knowable, somehow appears.” – Charles Powne, Soleilmoon
About People Like Us
Since 1991, People Like Us has been at the forefront of audio-visual collage, opening up endless opportunities to experience results that are more than the sum of the parts. 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. Vicki Bennett’s project serves as a modern-day continuation of the collage tradition, highlighting the interconnectedness of all artistic creation.
For further information, promotional materials, or to arrange an interview, please contact us.