Welcome to the only official site for People Like Us and Vicki Bennett
People Like Us recently did an interview with Bleek Swinney for the program “Exquisite Corpse”
Listen to the mp3 here. And the interview alone is archived here, in case the other mp3 ever disappears!
Also interviewed on this episode is Mark Hosler from Negativland.
People Like Us were broadcast on “Twenty Minutes” on BBC Radio 3 yesterday – about the Light Music composer named Roger Roger, who we have played a lot of on radio shows. The interview features the usage of it on DO or DIY with People Like Us on WFMU.
“GENRE COLLAGE” by VICKI BENNETT
The new A/V performance by PEOPLE LIKE US (created March-October 2009)
Media: Music and Moving Image
Length: 45 minutes
By combining compositing techniques, audio/music collage, and animation, People Like Us (in collaboration with Tim Maloney) examine the concept of “genre”. By manipulating patterns, syntax, moods, narrative elements, recurring icons, characters and film stars held within selected movie genres/sub-genres (i.e. action, adventure, comedy, crime/gangster, drama, epics/historical, horror, musicals, science fiction, war and westerns), we are creating a humorous, surrealistic, yet informative take on the content held within. The sound is partially taken from the films and partly from music holding corresponding messages, mood and lyrical content. The moving parts are cut around and collaged into each scene, complete with the source’s accompanying audio and added contextual musical collage.
People Like Us – The Sound Of The End Of Music [2010]
Since 1991 British artist Vicki Bennett has been an influential figure in the field of audio visual collage, through her innovative sampling, appropriating and cutting up of found footage and archives. Using collage as her main form of expression, she creates audio recordings, films and radio shows that communicate a humorous, dark and often surreal view on life. These collages mix, manipulate and rework original sources from both the experimental and popular worlds of music, film, television and radio. People Like Us believe in open access to archives for creative use, and have made work using footage from the Prelinger Archives, The Internet Archive, and A/V Geeks. 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 Tate Modern, Sydney Opera House, Pompidou left and Sonar, and performed radio sessions for John Peel and Mixing It. The ongoing sound art radio show ‘DO or DIY’ on WFMU has had over a million “listen again” hits since 2003. The People Like Us back catalogue is available for free download hosted by UbuWeb.
This work replaces my previous live performance, which you can now only watch and download at UbuWeb.
We are taking bookings for this concert, which can be performed in cinemas, auditoriums and concert halls. If you are funded festival organiser or curator get in touch through the Contact link on the front page of our site.
Here is a presentation from Vicki Bennett, creator of Genre Collage – at AV Festival 2010.
Recycled Film Symposium: 08 Vicki Bennett (People Like Us) from AV Festival.
Genre Collage has been screened at:
October 2011 – Almost Cinema, Ghent Film Festival, Belgium
June 2011 – The Sage, Gateshead, UK
May 2011 – Auditorium of Rome, Italy
May 2011 – Mapping Festival, Geneva, Switzerland
May 2011 – Online on Ken Freedman’s Show, WFMU.org
April 2011 – Open Ears, Kitchener, Canada
March 2011 – Ambulante Festival, Mexico
February 2011 – Transmediale, Berlin
January 2011 – Art’s Birthday Party/Swedish Radio, Stockholm
November 2010 – The British Film Festival, Kiev, Ukraine
September 2010 – Press Play Film Festival, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
August 2010 – Vintage Goodwood Festival, UK
August 2010 – Genre Collage in the Ukraine (Lviv and Sevastapol) presented by Forma and the British Council
July 2010 – Bristol Arnolfini in conjunction with Encounters Film Festival, UK
June 2010 – De La Warr Pavilion, UK
June 2010 – tv.dk – cable TV in Copenhagen, Denmark
May 2010 – Liverpool Sound City, in conjunction with Sound and Music, UK
April 2010 – Baltimore Transmodern 2010
April 2010 – Issue Project Room, Brooklyn
March 2010 – AV Festival, Newcastle, UK
December 2009 – BFI Southbank, London
December 2009 – Grand Café Zum Rothen Krebsen (IFEK Institut für erweiterte Kunst), Linz, Austria
November 2009 – NEW NEW! 2009 – Fleda, Brno, Czech Republic
October 2009 – WFMU Record Fair, NYC
October 2009 – Vancouver New Music Festival, Canada
| Here are some stills from Genre Collage. Click on images below to download a larger version. Please note: the film stills are from the original QuickTime movies, and therefore the maximum original size you get them is the size that they will always be, in 72dpi resolution. We have resampled the originals in Photoshop to make “higher resolution” images. If you need it to be a different dpi then do go to Photoshop and resample the image as such yourself. | ||
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Article on Genre Collage in Film Comment, January 2010
Download the magazine version here
It’s the end of the Summer Season on WFMU and so time for DO or DIY to unplug the ethernet cable, give the ol’ modem a bit of a dust and take the next season off. But before we go we haven’t forgotten that it’s somewhat a tradition to make a downloadable collection of the best of all things avant retard for your ears and eye-pods, you lucky people – complete with downloadable artwork. So here it is. I always say there’s nothing like art, and this is nothing like art.
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2009/10/people-like-us-end-of-season-album-download.html
For playlists and archives of DO or DIY going back to 2003, have a look at the WFMU website homepage for the show.
Also at UbuWeb
This Wednesday 7th October will see the final edition of DO or DIY on WFMU. As is now a tradition, this will be a “best of” show, and be downloadable (with artwork) after the show at both WFMU’s Beware of the Blog and then here shortly after.
DO tune in! 7pm NY time at WFMU, both on air, and on line.
For more DO or DIY and radio related information and downloads visit our DO or DIY webpage.
Archive material plays a central role within the work of artists Vicki Bennett and susan pui san lok, who both present film installations as part of the group exhibition Hit The Ground exhibition at the Hatton Gallery as part of this year’s Great North Run Cultural Programme.
Rebecca Shatwell, Director of AV Festival, will chair this talk at Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle with Vicki and susan as they discuss their latest works. Come along to find out more about how they have engaged with visual archives as part of their practices and receive a complimentary glass of wine.
This event also marks the launch of a new publication celebrating lok’s work Faster, Higher, published by Film and Video Umbrella, which features extensive visual documentation of this major multi-screen installation, alongside specially commissioned essays from critics Adrian Rifkin and Chris Berry.
Event presented in collaboration with Film and Video Umbrella.
People Like Us have been working on a brand new live set entitled “Genre:Collage”, which will be given a world premiere at Vancouver New Music Festival 2009. Other dates are being lines up for Genre:Collage in these coming weeks, including WFMU Record Fair in October (which will be free once in the fair), BFI Southbank in London, and also Linz, Austria – both in December 2009.
VANCOUVER NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL 2009
COPYRIGHT/COPYLEFT
A festival of sonic collagism, and the art of sampled and repurposed sounds and images.
21 – 24 October 2009
Show starts 8pm each night
Free Artist Chats at 7pm each night
Negative Landscapes: free symposium on 24 October 2009, 2:30pm
Scotiabank Dance Centre
677 Davie Street
Tickets $20 regular, $15 students/seniors each night; available at Zulu Records (1972 West 4th Avenue), Scratch Records (726 Richards Street), through Tickets Tonight (www.ticketstonight.ca; 604.684.2787; surcharges apply) and at the door.
Passes for all four nights $60 and $40, available only through Vancouver New Music (604.633.0861) and at the door.
Wednesday 21 October 2009
Andrew O’Connor and Doug Horne
Jackson 2bears
John Oswald
Thursday 22 October 2009
Eric Hedekar
DJ Tapes
Chris Cutler
People Like Us
Friday 23 October 2009
Sonarchy
Holzkopf
Scanner
David Shea
Saturday 24 October 2009
Mark Hosler
Uri Caine
plus free symposium
A new large scale AV work by Vicki Bennett entitled “Parade” will be exhibited at Hit The Ground at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. There will also be two photographic montages by Vicki Bennett exhibited as part of the exhibition.
Download Parade at UbuWeb:
http://www.ubu.com/film/plu_parade.html
A word from the artist…
While viewing and sourcing content from the Great North Run film archive, it occurred to me that the huge crowds that come to spectate this event are as important as the participator.
I arranged film frame layers across the screen so that they strayed outwards in the direction of the natural panning of the original shots – much more in accordance with the natural gaze of the spectator, revealing a unique panoramic view of the content. The irregular angles and shifting perspectives bring to mind Cubist photomontage and Cubist/Vorticist painting/collage, with the added dimension of the moving image naturally taking this to another level.
Given that this is a celebration of human achievement, and as a nod of appreciation to the Cubist influence within this work, it seemed appropriate to use “Parade” by Erik Satie as the musical backdrop.
Video interview with Vicki Bennett about the film
Parade has been screened at:
March 2011 – Ambulante Festival, Mexico
July-Oct 2010 – In The Long Run: 30 Years of Great Running – Great North Museum: Hancock, UK
September–November 2009 – Hatton Gallery, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK
Hatton Gallery 16 September – 14 November 2009, 10am – 5pm (Sun 2pm – 5pm)
The Hatton Gallery is based within the grounds of Newcastle University. The nearest Metro station is Haymarket. The Hatton Gallery, The Quadrangle, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne. NE1 1RU Telephone 0191 222 6059
Click here for a map of the Hatton Gallery.
Part of The Bupa Great North Run Cultural Programme.
Background on the project – commission announcement from 2008:
To celebrate the silver anniversary of the BUPA Great North Run in 2005, the Great North Run Cultural Programme was established, which featured the film broken time by Jane and Louise Wilson. As part of the legacy of this film and part of an ongoing commitment to exploring the relationship between sport and art through, an annual award – Great North Run Moving Image Commission – was born.
Supported by Arts Council England, this major commission awards an experienced artist or film-maker £30,000 to create a new work which responds to and captures the spirit of one of the world’s top sporting events and we’re delighted to be able to announce the winner of Moving Image Commission for 2009 is British Artist Vicki Bennett.
Vicki will be working with archive footage of the Bupa Great North Run to create a new vision of the landscape and the route of the world’s largest half-marathon to be screened as part of the 2009 Bupa Great North Run Cultural Programme.
Gallery booklet (pdf)
Hatton Gallery guide
Reviews
Chronicle (online), Newcastle
Art Rabbit (online)
Hatton Gallery (online)
Images shot in the gallery
Photo credits for below: Colin Davison
The Tapeworm # TTW#02 [Cassette]
Cassette only – limited edition of 250 copies
available from our shop
*SOLD OUT*
Track listing:
A: Part One – 17m12s
B: Part Two – 15m07s
Jean Baudrillard’s “Le Xerox et l’Infini” – originally published in Paris, 1987 – as read by Patricia and Ellen. Recorded on 12 July 2009 by Vicki Bennett in Hersham, England. Translation: Agitac, London, November 1988.
“Jean Baudrillard is perhaps the most important theorist of the ‘after modern’. Though he says himself he has ‘nothing to do with postmodernism’, many interpret him (along with Jean-François Lyotard) as among the most important prophets of a truly postmodern era. His works have attracted high praise and derision all over the world.”
Patricia and Ellen were born in Reims, north-eastern France, on July 29, 1929. They told interviewers that their grandparents were peasants and their parents were civil servants. They became the first of their family to attend university when they moved to the Sorbonne in Paris. There they studied German, which led to them to begin teaching the subject at a provincial lycée, where they remained from 1958 until their departure in 1966. While teaching Patricia and Ellen began to publish reviews of literature, and translated the works of such authors as Peter Weiss, Bertolt Brecht and Wilhelm Mühlmann.
Later on, with the development of the magnetic tape recorder, Patricia and Ellen used these new means in order to manipulate their performances and expand the possibilities of language sound transformations. Patricia and Ellen continue to actively perform their work, the contextual quality of which is enhanced by their idiosyncratic delivery.
Reviews
Jean Baudrillard Le Xerox et l’Infini – Hard Format (August 2009)
Jean Baudrillard Le Xerox et l’Infini – Aquarius Records (August 2009)
Our concert at Cafe Oto on 1st August just got Critics’ Choice in Time Out.
http://www.timeout.com/london/music/event/154237/people-like-us-ergo-phizmiz
All Avant-Garde All The Time – UbuWeb Podcast #9: The Sounds of the UK from the 1960s To Yesterday
Listen / Download
Produced by The Poetry Foundation, UbuWeb is pleased to announce the latest in its podcast series, focusing on a dozen of Ubu’s hidden treasures, highlighting audio works that you really should know about about but most likely don’t. With this podcast, we continue our series focusing on the sounds of different regions. Here the focus is on the avant-garde language-based audio coming out of the UK. Beginning with Bob Cobbing and making our way through the the swinging London scene of the 60s, and the political / punk work of the 70s, and ending up with the electronics + samples of today, we cut a path through the London (and beyond) underground. Featured here are works by Bob Cobbing, Neil Mills, Lily Greenham, Cornelius Cardew, Christopher Logue, Richard Long, Art & Language + The Red Krayloa, Furious Pig, Momus, People Like Us, and Caroline Bergvall.
We really recommend subscribing to this excellent podcast. Find out more about each episode here. Subscribe here.
