Notations performance in Greece

NOTATIONS a film for live improvisers
(People Like Us, 2013)


Our film for live improvisers was performed at the School of Music Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Greece on 29 May 2018, and it’s just been put online.

Watch other performances of Notations here: https://peoplelikeus.org/2013/notations/

NOTATIONS at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Excerpts from a workshop and improvised performance by σ.π.Α.Μ.*
*experimental and improvised music ensembles

25 Years of Us 100 Tracks

To coincide with a few concerts that we’ve been doing lately, we’ve put some “Retrospective” mp3s up on bandcamp from the first 25 years of People Like Us. You can download it here or click below.

This is a 100 track compilation, over 6 hours duration, representing some of our favourite tracks and collaborations over radio, on stage and in the studio from 1991, which was when we released our first album.  Each track has a different flavour, from a different time, another place, and often associated with a different recording medium or varying groups of individuals who inspired or actually took part.

Thank you friends, listeners and collaborators for being around, and for all those who inspired and supported the journey so far. Making this available at a Nice Price considering the ridiculous volume of content, and as is the case for much of People Like Us, you can quite possibly find a lot of this in various forms elsewhere on the internet for free, either put there by us, or others. But if you’d like to support us, then we thank you and welcome that. It will help make more happen. 

Bandcamp requires that we upload in lossless form, and we will be honest and say that a lot of this only exists as mp3, but really…. most of what we sampled was also initially in mp3 form.

4 New Videos Now Online (from Consequences performance)

Now that we have moved forward slightly into our current new performance Citation City, we can now put online some parts of our previous performance Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another).  Not to say this performance is retired, but the chances of you seeing it performed anywhere are considerably less now.  You can find the music to some of this on our album Don’t Think Right, It’s All Twice, which we have a few copies left of, should you wish to purchase it.

Bridge by People Like Us [2012].

Jump! by People Like Us [2012].

Here Come The Occupants by People Like Us [2012].

Eve of Sunshine by People Like Us [2012].

People Like Us interview in The Wire about radio

The collage artist also known as People Like Us talks about her beginnings in experimental radio broadcasting in the second instalment of The Wire’s oral histories series.

Vicki Bennett’s People Like Us began life as a three hour radio show on Brighton’s Festival Radio in 1990 called Gobstopper. She went on to release around 20 solo albums based on her radio sound collages, but after a decade working primarily with sound, has increasingly worked with film and images. She has recently produced collage and split screen work, including 2013’s touring film and performance piece Notations, a film used as a score for improvising musicians.

An advocate of open digital distribution, Bennett’s entire back catalogue is available for download via UbuWeb, and she is also the host of long-running radio show DO or DIY on WFMU. She has collaborated extensively with Ergo Phizmiz, Negativland’s Don Joyce, Wobbly and Kenneth Goldsmith, and many others.

Listen to the interview here:
http://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/in-conversation/oral-histories_vicki-bennett

Or download the file as an mp3:
http://www.thewire.co.uk/download//2014/05/02/The_Wire_Oral_Histories_-_Vicki_Bennett_aka_People_Like_Us_.mp3

Shutter – Print Edition for sale

As part of our SHUTTER solo exhibition at Leeds College of Art we are pleased to make available a very limited edition of 2 B/W giclee prints, both in an edition of 20.  We are selling these at a very reasonable price as a result of actually wanting you to have them rather than adhering to the art gallery rules of making things too expensive and unavailable to most people.

All prices are in US Dollars and INCLUDE postage and packing.  Please note, we are offering a large discount if you buy BOTH at once.  Paypal links below.

Asleep 1 12 inches x 12 inches
Asleep 1
12 inches x 12 inches

SOLD OUT

———

Asleep 2 12 inches x 12 inches
Asleep 2
12 inches x 12 inches

SOLD OUT

NOTATIONS UK Tour!

NOTATIONS – the film by Vicki Bennett (People Like Us) created for live performance by improvising artists and musicians, will tour the UK in November 2013, produced by Tusk and commissioned by Sound and Music as part of their Touring Programme for 2013.

PRESS RELEASE

Sound And Music and Tusk Music are delighted to announce this tour of Vicki Bennett’s film-collage-as-visual-score Notations, to be soundtracked by a unique combination of leading improvising artists at each event.

Notations has been created by Vicki from hundreds of different film clips, where the content conceptually or literally portrays different kinds of ‘gestures’ or ‘instructions’ to be read by the improvising artists on stage as a visual score.

This marks a return to working with improvised audio and video, both on radio and in front of an audience.  Between 1996-2003 Vicki performed both solo and with Jon Leidecker (Wobbly), Matt Wand (Stock, Hausen and Walkman), Matmos, members of Negativland and Kenneth Goldsmith.

To soundtrack Notations, Vicki and Tusk have recruited an impressive international cast of improvisers, each with radically different approaches and, as each show will feature a different combination of artists, every performance on the tour will be completely unique. So each show will feature a carefully chosen trio of live respondents to Notations from the cast of Bill OrcuttRhodri DaviesM.C. Schmidt (Matmos), Philip JeckJaap BlonkSteve NobleWobblyMark SandersTomomi Adachi and Jennifer Walshe.

Oct 31 – NEWCASTLE
BILL ORCUTT / RHODRI DAVIES / MARK SANDERS
+ BILL ORCUTT SOLO SET
& PEOPLE LIKE US “CONSEQUENCES (ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER)”
Star & Shadow Cinema, Stepney Bank, NE1 2NP
8pm   £8/10
starandshadow.org.uk
===============
Nov 14 – MANCHESTER
M.C. SCHMIDT / WOBBLY / JENNIFER WALSHE
& PEOPLE LIKE US “CONSEQUENCES (ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER)”
Kraak, 11 Stevenson Square, M1 1DB
7.30pm   £8/7
kraak.co/home
===============
Nov 16 – LEEDS (as part of Leeds International Film Festival)
M.C. SCHMIDT / WOBBLY / TOMOMI ADACHI
& PEOPLE LIKE US “CONSEQUENCES (ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER)”
Hyde Park Picture House, Brudenell Road, LS6 1JD
9pm   £8/£6
leedsfilm.com
===============
Nov 29 – LONDON
JAAP BLONK / PHILIP JECK
& PEOPLE LIKE US “CONSEQUENCES (ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER)”
Cafe Oto, 18-22 Ashwin Street, London, E8 3DL
8pm  £8/10
cafeoto.co.uk
===============
Nov 30 – BRISTOL
JAAP BLONK / PHILIP JECK / STEVE NOBLE
& PEOPLE LIKE US “CONSEQUENCES (ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER)”
Arnolfini, 16 Narrow Quay, BS1 4QA
7.30pm  £8/6
arnolfini.org.uk

Each event will also begin with an audiovisual performance by People Like Us of Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another)which places similar but emerging subject matter side by side to construct the narrative, a story emerging as a sum of the preceding parts yet digressing on a tangent.  All actions have consequences, and here we see them played out, to wondrous and catastrophic effect!

Watch a section from Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) on UbuWeb!

NOTATIONS TRAILER Manchester w/ M.C. Schmidt / Wobbly / Jennifer Walshe. Film by Vicki Bennett

More info on the artists:

Vicki Bennett is 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 that communicate a humorous, dark and often surreal view on life. Vicki operates under the moniker People Like Us and promotes an open access to archives for creative use.

Bill Orcutt first came to attention as guitarist in insane Miami band Harry Pussy, famed for their frenetic and discordant performances and his then-wife Adris Hoyo’s seminally fiery primitive/spasmodic drumming. Harry Pussy imploded in the late 90s but Orcutt re-emerged in 2009 with A New Way To Pay Old Debts, a truly guttural home-recorded stream-of-consciousness via battered guitar with only 4 strings left and occasional involuntary vocalisations. Has since released records via Editions Mego as well as his own Palilalia imprint, and formed an occasional duo with Chris Corsano. palilalia.com

Our favourite Rhodri Davies story concerns his being booed off stage for destroying his instrument at a very conservative harp festival. Davies takes this traditional instrument and does very un-traditional things with it, from applying dry ice to the strings to make them squeal to constructing installations that play it with wind and water. Regular collaborators include David Toop, John Tilbury and John Butcher and such luminaries as Elian Radigue, Christian Wolff and Yasunao Tone have composed specifically for him.  rhodridavies.com

M.C. Schmidt is best known as one half of Californian (now relocated to Baltimore) duo Matmos, renowned for marrying a love of electronic pop with musique concrete tactics and a penchant for unusual sound sources (liposuction surgery, amplified crayfish nerve tissue, latex fetish clothing, contact mics on human hair…). In 2001 they were invited to work with Bjork on her Vespertine album, leading to two world tours as part of her band, and have also collaborated with Zeena Parkins, Antony, David Tibet, Marina Abramovic and many others.  vague-terrain.com

Philip Jeck rescues old records and turntables from junk shops and creates something beautiful from them. He won the 1993 Time Out Performance Award for his most famous work Vinyl Requiem, a performance for 180 vintage record players and has released a series of records on the renowned Touch label and collaborated with Gavin Bryars, Otomo Yoshihide and Jaki Liebezeit, amongst others. philipjeck.com

Jaap Blonk hails from the Netherlands and is a self-taught composer and poet best known for his improvised vocal performances and sound poetry. Blonk is highly regarded for his pure and uninhibited style of improvisation, his sets often given greater depth by the use of live electronics, and he has collaborated with Maja Ratkje, Mats Gustafsson, Joan La Barbara, The Ex and many others. jaapblonk.com

Steve Noble first appeared as part of pop group Rip, Rig And Panic before becoming involved for several years with Derek Bailey’s Company Weeks and becoming over the years a key figure in the UK’s improvised and free music community, playing with improvisers of all approaches including Peter Brotzmann, Stephen O’Malley, John Edwards, Ikue Mori and Keiji Haino.
efi.group.shef.ac.uk/musician/mnoble.html 

Wobbly is the nom de plume of Californian plunderphonic artist Jon Leidecker who, like Vicki Bennett, uses found materials and collage as a key part of his working method, so its perhaps inevitable that they have produced several records together. He’s also released a series of records on Important, Illegal Art, Tigerbeat6 and other labels and collaborated with Matmos, Jay Lesser and many others. detritus.net/wobbly

Mark Sanders is a drummer and key part of the UK free music scene with an astounding list of collaborators from Derek Bailey to Okkyung Lee, Charles Gayle and William Parker. Mark has performed all over the world and released over 120 cds and also forms a rhythm section with bassist John Edwards in a number of groups. marksanders.me.uk

Tomomi Adachi is from Kazanawa, Japan and is a composer, sound poet and installation artist, improvising live with the use of voice, live electronics and his own instrument designs. Regarded as Japan’s only sound poet, he gave the first ever Japanese performance of Schwitters’ Ursonate and has performed the works of Cage, Cardew, Wolff and others and collaborated with countless artists including Zbigniew Karkowski, Annette Krebs and Akio Suzuki. adachitomomi.com/n/biography.html

Jennifer Walshe is a renowned vocalist and composer with so many strings to her artistic bow its hardly surprising she was so successful with her Grúpat project, where she adopted and developed 9 separate personas, each with their own individual creative outlet. The project led to exhibitions, photography, sculptures and more internationally by each of the personas. She’s perhaps best known as the composer of the opera XXX_Live_Nude_Girls!!! and is also highly regarded as a vocalist and improviser.  cmc.ie/composers/composer.cfm?composerID=114

This tour is produced by Tusk Music in association with Sound And Music.
tuskmusic.co.uk
soundandmusic.org

PRESS IMAGES Notations-A3

TECTONICS - Performers: Skúli Sverrisson, Davíð Þór Jónsson, Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir, Hlynur Aðils.
TECTONICS – Performers: Skúli Sverrisson, Davíð Þór Jónsson, Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir, Hlynur Aðils.

Notations-A6-back
NOTATIONS A6 Flyer – back

Notations-gloves
NOTATIONS still

Notations-hands
NOTATIONS still

Notations-lights
NOTATIONS still

Notations-window
NOTATIONS still

 flyer 350x250

SOCIAL MEDIA FLYERS

Download a zipped file of social media flyers for each concert and the whole tour

INTERVIEWS

Interview with Richard Whitelaw from Sound and Music, October 2013

MORE ABOUT NOTATIONS as a VISUAL SCORE

When performed, the film is provided with a “score” (ie a list of instructions to be translated into sound) which consists of some basic instructions and a synopsis listing characteristics of the 9 different sketches featured in the film.  The sketches are as follows:

The film is made in 9 sketches with titles that roughly describe the content/concept/theme. The themes move and progress with many tangents, although there is continuity of concepts and the pace even and flowing. There is intermittent film sound throughout, and lots of silence. Hopefully the sound will be no more surprising than any other performer on the stage. The maximum audio volume should be set equal to each participant.

There will be no instructions to be found beyond what is in the film, no written score beyond this text. The film will be provided to the players at least 2 weeks before the performance date, and should be viewed several times well before performing. For each sketch different numbers and combinations of performers are recommended, either spontaneously or pre-determined. All players should meet to discuss this before performing, and rehearsals are at the discretion of the performers. 

Ultimately, whatever the film content suggests is what all should react to. – Vicki Bennett, May 2013

1. A Nod to Previous Players.
Majority of footage sourced from old avant-garde and comedy films featuring people playing cards and chess, also doing things at tables. Very little sound added to the film soundtrack.
2. From A-B.
Transport, trains, cars, carriages and things that move fast.  Some typewriting and conducting too.  This one is fast and also noisy in places!
3. Spin.
Lots of spinning, vertigo, circles and targets. Zooming into eyes. Camera shutters. Not too much incidental sound on the film apart from towards the end with a piano.
4. At Home.
Mainly footage shot in domestic environments – pans through people’s rooms, people eating and chopping food, ringing doorbells, broken appliances and acts of domestic destruction. Reel to reel tape recorders and record players. Fairly quiet, some incidental sounds with a few louder bursts at the end when woman finds a monster in her fridge.
5. Several Directions at Once.
Part 1 A conductor conducts traffic lights and traffic. Incidental sound from traffic, but not conductor’s music. Radio dial turns.  Hands waving, pointing and conjuring. Quiet to start with then bursts of sound around the time of the radio dial being turned.
Part 2 Lots of punching, slapping and violence with incidental sound, cut in with a little conducting and hand gestures, bending and stretching. Quite noisy. Ends with car crash and bowing conjuror.
6. Dark.
Hand movements signifying quiet/listening. Record player and film leaders flicker black and white. People in the dark with candles, thunder and lightning, lights on and off. Disconnection of power, suspense and fear. Incidental sound of storm.  People walking on wooden steps in the dark. Radio tuner and typewriters/printing machines. Quiet incidental sound apart from necessary bursts of weather/explosions.
7. Ups and Downs.
Record players, panning through people’s living rooms. Leisure – card playing and knitting. More panning and record playing.  Walking legs/feet through many films. Very quiet. Desert scene, people run down hill making a noise, there follow many scenes from westerns, woman stops train, buzzers pressed, men with bells, all incidental sounds for this section. More walking, people waiting behind doors, quiet, suspense, just footsteps and door handles. Door lock gets shot (very loud) and then follows a lot of scenes of people struggling in train/horse carriages, to the sound of a carriage then train stopping. Ends with car sinking into mud.
8. The Suspense is Killing Me.
Predator/victims leaning over/backing away or trapped. Retaliation, shooting. Walking. Snooker and more predators.  Opening of doors to different scary people, hiding. Child making horrible noise with a pencil on chalkboard. Doors and wall banging intercut with silence and suspense, listening at walls. More doors opening and suspense, hiding and running. Screaming and fear, silhouettes with bright lights. Power cuts, darkness intercut with conductor and man stuck in phone booth. More power cuts and screaming, general misery. Sleeping woman, man walks up the stairs away from her, looks around, she looks up. He walks away.
9. Nothing Happens.
Man walks down wooden stairs to men playing cards at a table. Intercut with other people staring at the screen or each other, no one does anything, they are just looking. Walking around wooden flooring, woman slams door, sits in silence, kicks floor and three people faint. LP rolls across floor, car runs over accordion. Birds fly up and down, mixed with dancing swimmers. Man sits and writes at a table, silently turning blank pages from different movies. Lots of panning over paper and big tables, mainly silent, man screams at faceless man. Lots more staring at one another, suspense, waiting. Nothing happens. Door opens to man in fez, everyone screams. More staring and suspense. Still nothing happens. Gust of wind, Harpo plays flute through window and scares all the ladies. More predators with weapons, people run away, roll credits.

(The 30-minute version of the film excludes parts 7 & 9)

Download a pdf of the score here:
NOTATIONS-score-by-Vicki-Bennett
_______________________________

TECTONICS - Performers: Skúli Sverrisson, Davíð Þór Jónsson, Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir, Hlynur Aðils.
TECTONICS, REYKJAVIK – Performers: Skúli Sverrisson, Davíð Þór Jónsson, Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir, Hlynur Aðils.

LIVE PERFORMANCES SO FAR

20 April 2013 (with the working title of Gesture Piece*) Tectonics Festival, Reykjavik, Iceland
Performers: Skúli Sverrisson, Davíð Þór Jónsson, Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir, Hlynur Aðils.
8 June 2013 (with the working title of Gesture Piece*) Tectonics Festival, Tel Aviv
Performers: Alex Drool, Assif Tsahar, Robbie Avenaim, Christoph Heemann, Eyvind Kang and Jessika Kenney.
10 June 2013 (with the working title of Gesture Piece*) Uganda, Jerusalem
Performers: Eyvind Kang, Jessika Kenney, Robbie Avenaim, Christoph Heemann and special guests
November 2013 Tusk/Sound and Music UK tour – Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, London, Bristol
Performers: Bill Orcutt, Rhodri Davies, Mark Sanders, M.C. Schmidt, Wobbly, Jennifer Walshe, Tomomi Adachi, Jaap Blonk, Philip Jeck, Steve Noble

* Please note – Gesture Piece is now a separate project, an online film with 7 artist soundtracks.  We needed to change the name as the project split into two parts.

VIDEO


Excerpt from “NOTATIONS” Live at Tectonics Festival 2013: “From A-B.”

Co-produced with Sound and MusicWEB-logosall3

NOTATIONS – a film for live improvising musicians and artists

Digital Alchemy/Indexical at Radius Gallery Santa Cruz, performed by Blectum from Blechdom
Notations performed by M.C. Schmidt, Jason Willett and People Like Us at Monty Hall, WFMU 2014
Part of the making of Gesture Piece
Part of the making of Notations

Notations UK Tour 2013 info here

ABOUT NOTATIONS

“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 ‘gestures’, ‘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.

Excerpt from “NOTATIONS” Live at Tectonics Festival 2013: “From A-B.”

Notations references the fact that it is very natural, even primordial for one to creatively respond to visual stimulus in an “improvised” (natural) way rather than all responses being directed, set in stone. 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.

Documentation of Notations UK tour
Notations at InMute, Athens performed by Acte Vide

SCORE

When performed, the film is provided with a “score” (ie a list of instructions to be translated into sound) which consists of some basic instructions and a synopsis listing characteristics of the 9 different sketches featured in the film.  The sketches are as follows:

The film is made in 9 sketches with titles that roughly describe the content/concept/theme. The themes move and progress with many tangents, although there is continuity of concepts and the pace even and flowing. There is intermittent film sound throughout, and lots of silence. Hopefully the sound will be no more surprising than any other performer on the stage. The maximum audio volume should be set equal to each participant.

There will be no instructions to be found beyond what is in the film, no written score beyond this text. The film will be provided to the players at least 2 weeks before the performance date, and should be viewed several times well before performing. For each sketch different numbers and combinations of performers are recommended, either spontaneously or pre-determined. All players should meet to discuss this before performing, and rehearsals are at the discretion of the performers. 

Ultimately, whatever the film content suggests is what all should react to. – Vicki Bennett, May 2013

1. A Nod to Previous Players.
Majority of footage sourced from old avant-garde and comedy films featuring people playing cards and chess, also doing things at tables. Very little sound added to the film soundtrack.
2. From A-B.
Transport, trains, cars, carriages and things that move fast.  Some typewriting and conducting too.  This one is fast and also noisy in places!
3. Spin.
Lots of spinning, vertigo, circles and targets. Zooming into eyes. Camera shutters. Not too much incidental sound on the film apart from towards the end with a piano.
4. At Home.
Mainly footage shot in domestic environments – pans through people’s rooms, people eating and chopping food, ringing doorbells, broken appliances and acts of domestic destruction. Reel to reel tape recorders and record players. Fairly quiet, some incidental sounds with a few louder bursts at the end when woman finds a monster in her fridge.
5. Several Directions at Once.
Part 1 A conductor conducts traffic lights and traffic. Incidental sound from traffic, but not conductor’s music. Radio dial turns.  Hands waving, pointing and conjuring. Quiet to start with then bursts of sound around the time of the radio dial being turned.
Part 2 Lots of punching, slapping and violence with incidental sound, cut in with a little conducting and hand gestures, bending and stretching. Quite noisy. Ends with car crash and bowing conjuror.
6. Dark.
Hand movements signifying quiet/listening. Record player and film leaders flicker black and white. People in the dark with candles, thunder and lightning, lights on and off. Disconnection of power, suspense and fear. Incidental sound of storm.  People walking on wooden steps in the dark. Radio tuner and typewriters/printing machines. Quiet incidental sound apart from necessary bursts of weather/explosions.
7. Ups and Downs.
Record players, panning through people’s living rooms. Leisure – card playing and knitting. More panning and record playing.  Walking legs/feet through many films. Very quiet. Desert scene, people run down hill making a noise, there follow many scenes from westerns, woman stops train, buzzers pressed, men with bells, all incidental sounds for this section. More walking, people waiting behind doors, quiet, suspense, just footsteps and door handles. Door lock gets shot (very loud) and then follows a lot of scenes of people struggling in train/horse carriages, to the sound of a carriage then train stopping. Ends with car sinking into mud.
8. The Suspense is Killing Me.
Predator/victims leaning over/backing away or trapped. Retaliation, shooting. Walking. Snooker and more predators.  Opening of doors to different scary people, hiding. Child making horrible noise with a pencil on chalkboard. Doors and wall banging intercut with silence and suspense, listening at walls. More doors opening and suspense, hiding and running. Screaming and fear, silhouettes with bright lights. Power cuts, darkness intercut with conductor and man stuck in phone booth. More power cuts and screaming, general misery. Sleeping woman, man walks up the stairs away from her, looks around, she looks up. He walks away.
9. Nothing Happens.
Man walks down wooden stairs to men playing cards at a table. Intercut with other people staring at the screen or each other, no one does anything, they are just looking. Walking around wooden flooring, woman slams door, sits in silence, kicks floor and three people faint. LP rolls across floor, car runs over accordion. Birds fly up and down, mixed with dancing swimmers. Man sits and writes at a table, silently turning blank pages from different movies. Lots of panning over paper and big tables, mainly silent, man screams at faceless man. Lots more staring at one another, suspense, waiting. Nothing happens. Door opens to man in fez, everyone screams. More staring and suspense. Still nothing happens. Gust of wind, Harpo plays flute through window and scares all the ladies. More predators with weapons, people run away, roll credits.

(The 30-minute version of the film excludes parts 7 & 9)

Download a pdf of the score here:
Full-NOTATIONS-score-by-Vicki-Bennett
NOTATIONS-score-30min-by-Vicki-Bennett

Notations at Cafe Oto performed by Jaap Blonk and Philip Jeck
TECTONICS - Performers: Skúli Sverrisson, Davíð Þór Jónsson, Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir, Hlynur Aðils.
TECTONICS, REYKJAVIK – Performers: Skúli Sverrisson, Davíð Þór Jónsson, Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir, Hlynur Aðils.

LIVE PERFORMANCES SO FAR

20 April 2013 (with the working title of Gesture Piece*) Tectonics Festival, Reykjavik, Iceland
Performers: Skúli Sverrisson, Davíð Þór Jónsson, Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir, Hlynur Aðils.
8 June 2013 (with the working title of Gesture Piece*) Tectonics Festival, Tel Aviv
Performers: Alex Drool, Assif Tsahar, Robbie Avenaim, Christoph Heemann, Eyvind Kang and Jessika Kenney.
10 June 2013 (with the working title of Gesture Piece*) Uganda, Jerusalem
Performers: Eyvind Kang, Jessika Kenney, Robbie Avenaim, Christoph Heemann and special guests
November 2013 Various locations in the UK, produced by Tusk and commissioned by Sound and Musichttps://peoplelikeus.org/2013/notations-tour/ : Bill OrcuttRhodri DaviesM.C. Schmidt (Matmos), Philip JeckJaap BlonkSteve NobleWobblyMark SandersTomomi Adachi and Jennifer Walshe.
September 2014 WFMU Monty Hall, NJ, performed by M.C.Schmidt and Jason Willett
September 2014 High Zero, Baltimore, performed by Bob Wagner (drums), LaDonna Smith (violin), Jenny Gräf (electronics, guitar)
October 2014 In Mute Festival, Athens Onassis Cultural Centre performed by the duo Acte Vide.
May 2018 School of Music Studies Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
May 2018 School of Music Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Greece – A.U.TH. Experimental & Improvised Music Ensembles
September 2019 at Digital Alchemy/Indexical at Radius Gallery Santa Cruz, performed by Blectum from Blechdom

NOTATIONS at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki from noise:muse on Vimeo.

* Please note – Gesture Piece is now a separate project, an online film with 7 artist soundtracks.  We needed to change the name as the project split into two parts.

Eyvind Kang, Jessika Kenney, Robbie Avenaim and Christoph Heemann perform Gesture Piece
Eyvind Kang, Jessika Kenney, Robbie Avenaim and Christoph Heemann perform Notations

HISTORY OF GESTURE AND CARD-BASED WORKS

There is a tradition in experimental music of musicians responding to graphic scores and non-conductor-led direction.  John Cage wrote scores that both directed the performer on what elements/structures needed to be used/responded to, but at the same time introduced chance elements based around personal interpretation and the use of random prediction techniques like the iChing.  In the past 25 years some contemporary artist-composers have used prompts as guidelines for musical interpretations, following John Cage’s tradition.

Examples of alternative methods of conducting:

John Oswald “Rien Ne Va Plus” uses a roulette and coloured cards to prompt an orchestra to play certain tunes.  Christian Marclay’s “Shuffle” uses a pack of cards containing his own photographs of various depictions of musical scores which improvising musicians then respond to live.  In Marclay’s “Zoom Zoom”, the performer interprets his projected images of everyday objects with graphics contained within them.  John Zorn index card/file-card composition pieces include “Cobra” and “The Big Gundown”: combining composition and improvisation in which Zorn would write down a description of what he wanted on file-cards and arrange them to form the piece.  Zorn compiled his various thoughts regarding his subject on index cards, and then arranged those into a working roadmap for his band of improvisers.  He described the process in 2003: “I write in moments, in disparate sound blocks, so I find it convenient to store these events on filing cards so they can be sorted and ordered with minimum effort. Pacing is essential. If you move too fast, people tend to stop hearing the individual moments as complete in themselves and more as elements of a sort of cloud effect…”.

TECTONICS, REYKJAVIK – Performers: Skúli Sverrisson, Davíð Þór Jónsson, Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir, Hlynur Aðils.

PERSPECTIONS – An Online Exhibition

Following the same theme of Vicki Bennett’s solo show The Doors of Perspection [2009], here are a collection of images that have never been seen before, and also some of the images that were made into print editions during the show but not put online.  They are listed as such and some are still available to purchase (follow the above links or contact us directly).

Perpetuum Mobile [2011] also available as a photo-collage, 1500mm x 355mm
Perpetuum Mobile [2011]
also available as a
photo-collage, 1500mm x 355mm
Time and Time Again [2011] also available as C-type print on dibond, 932mm x 264mm Edition of 3, + 1 A/P Commissioned by Touch
Time and Time Again [2011]
also available as
C-type print on dibond, 932mm x 264mm
Edition of 3, + 1 A/P
Commissioned by Touch
Sunrise [2011]
Sunrise [2011]
Fire [2011]
Fire [2011]
Multistories [2011]
Multistories [2011]
Atonement [2011]
Atonement [2011]
Driving [2011]
Driving [2011]
Mountage [2011] available also as a C-type print on dibond, 1242mm x 235mm Edition of 3, + 1 A/P Commissioned by Touch
Mountage [2011]
available also as a
C-type print on dibond, 1242mm x 235mm
Edition of 3, + 1 A/P
Commissioned by Touch
Turntable [2011]
Turntable [2011]
Descending Too [2011]
Descending Too [2011]
Descending [2011] also available as a  C-type print on dibond, 1307mm x 645mm Edition of 3, + 1 A/P Commissioned by Touch
Descending [2011]
also available as a
C-type print on dibond, 1307mm x 645mm
Edition of 3, + 1 A/P
Commissioned by Touch

GESTURE PIECE and NOTATIONS – two sister projects emerge!

The project Gesture Piece has now flowered into two unique and separate yet related artworks.  It feels natural at this stage to rename these strands accordingly.

The film for live improvising musicians and artists formerly known as Gesture Piece is now called Notations.  https://peoplelikeus.org/2013/notations

The title of Gesture Piece now is held by the sister project of Notations – a film with new soundtracks from 7 invited artist/musicians.  These will go online in September 2013.

 

 

Gesture Piece was commissioned by Pixel Palace, the digital art programme at Tyneside Cinema (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK) and supported using public funds by Arts Council England.

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List of Residences and Commissions

Development of 8 speaker / 10 screen audiovisual work [2016+2017]

Curation of online expanded radio station Optimized! on WFMU [2016]

No One Is An Island radio commission for WDR to be broadcast 9 April 2016 on WDR 3 [Summer 2015-Winter 2015]

Curation of films for Concert of Collage, Watershed, Bristol [September 2015]

Nothing Can Turn Into A Void, editing a feature length doc film by Carl Abrahamsson about Vicki Bennett/People Like Us [Spring 2015]

Arts Council England award creating a new live a/v performance Citation City and new short films with artist soundtracks [Spring 2014-Spring 2015]

Book collaboration with Gregor Weichbrodt The Fundamental Questions [Summer 2014]

Those Who Do Not T Shirt Commission [Summer 2014]
Printed in a light blue and white on an electric blue T-shirt with The Wire logo and Vicki Bennett Those Who Do Not printed in light blue on the back of the neck. Limited edition of 100 shirts.

Solo gallery show Shutter at Leeds College of Art [Winter-Spring 2014]

Touring award from Sound and Music for Notations [Autumn/Winter 2013]

Two short animation films for Animate Projects/Channel 4 television, UK as part of their Random Acts Series [March 2013-July 2013] broadcast on national television in Autumn 2013

Creation of online film with 7 artist soundtracks Gesture Piece, commissioned by Pixel Palace at Tyneside Cinema [Spring/Summer 2013]

Creating a new live A/V performance Consequences (One Things Leads To Another, commissioned by Arts Council England [August 2012-January 2013], supported by transmediale [January 2013]

Music for live performance piece Lost and Found by Anne Juren [Summer 2012]

Archiving Radio Boredcast on WFMU, commissioned by AV Festival wfmu.org/playlists/ZZ [May-June 2012]

Curating an online-radio station Radio Boredcast for AV Festival 12 [Sept 2011-March 2012]

Sound and Music commission to make a/v live performance Horror Collage for The Sound Of Fear (later changed to “The Magical Misery Tour”) Southbank Centre, London [September 2011]

The Doors of Perspection at Vitrine Gallery London [July/August 2011]

Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival commission to create a new live a/v performance The Keystone Cut Ups with Ergo Phizmiz [2010]

Edinburgh Printmakers commission to create audio and artwork for a picture disc LP “This Is Light Music”, as part of their group exhibition Prints of Darkness to be shown at Edinburgh Printmakers in Summer 2010 then touring venues [2010]

Grants For The Arts commission to create new a/v performance Genre Collage [2008-2009]

Great North Run Moving Image Commission 2009 The Great North Run Cultural Programme – to create a film using the archives of the Great North Run, Parade [July 2008-October 2009]

Grants For The Arts commission to release Rhapsody In Glue with Ergo Phizmiz on bleep.com – an album created with audio collage sourced from the podcast Codpaste (May 2008)

Retrospective solo exhibition of People Like Us A/V work, entitled We Edit Life at alt.gallery Newcastle curated by Rebecca Shatwell [May 2008]

Curation of CD Smiling Through My Teeth – Sonic Arts Network [May 2008] 

Forma/AV Festival commission Breaking Waves to make Bluetooth audio compositions for mobile phone [January 2008]

Wandsworth Film Awards commission to make short digital film Skew Gardens, exploring the boundaries of urban land use – [September 2007]

Lovebytes commission in association with Millennium Galleries, Sheffield to make three screen A/V film Work, Rest & Play [June 2007] 

Grants For The Arts commission to make podcast series Codpaste on WFMU, where People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz explore the working process of creating music from scratch [September 2007]

Radio session for BBC Radio 3’s Mixing It [February 2007]

Artist Residency at BBC Creative Archive with “access all areas” to work with their archive – Arts Council England (Interdisciplinary Arts) with BBC, White City – [March 2006]

Grants For The Arts commission to create 10″ record to be given away for free in selected international record stores Honeysuckle Boulevard [August 2006]

PRS Foundation award to create a new live performance (with artist Ergo Phizmiz) using dansette players and self-pressed vinyl compositions Boots! [June 2006]

Grants for the Arts commission to create new live A/V performance – [April 2005]

LUX commission to make digital short film sourcing the LUX archive collection Resemblage [October 2004]

Residency at FACT to make radio play Molaradio in collaboration with artist Felix Kubin and Croxteth school children [January 2004]

Sonic Arts Network commission to make short film and subsequent DVD release – Story Without End [June 2004] 

Live performance with Wobbly for radio broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Mixing It, London Spitz [May 2004]

BBC Radio 1 session for John Peel [January 2003]

Future Physical commission to make digital short film The Remote Controller [June 2002]

Lovebytes commission to make short film We Edit Life [December 2002]

Curated line up for Ether Festival at Purcell Room, London [May 2002]

Year of the Artist Residency, Lighthouse, Brighton with Brighton & Hove Music Library, teaching sound collage [June 2001]

Year of the Artist Residency, Hull Time Based Arts, making A/V collage – [January-April 2001]

Live session and BBC Radio 3 broadcast for Mixing It, Dingwalls [March 2001]

Work & Leisure International commission to make new A/V live performance – [September 1999]

Ars Electronica – The Sound of Music live collaboration with Negativland and Barbed [Summer 1998]

Various radio commissions for De Avonden on VPRO, The Netherlands [early 1990s]

Radio Boredcast selection in Transmittal exhibition

April 28, 2012 – June 2, 2012
Greene County Council on the Arts (GCCA)
398 Main Street
Catskill, NY 12414
518-943-3400

DSC_0090Radio Boredcast at Transmittal exhibitionRadio Boredcast at Transmittal exhibitionRadio Boredcast at Transmittal exhibition

Radio Boredcast, or to be more specific, Vicki’s DO or DIY shows feature in the Transmittal exhibition at Greene County Council for the Arts Gallery, Catskill, USA.
Curated/Organized by: Galen Joseph-Hunter

Organized in partnership with Acra-based nonprofit arts organization free103point9, Transmittal, offers Greene County residents and visitors a window into Transmission Arts. Transmittal is curated by Galen Joseph-Hunter, free103point9’s Executive Director and author of Transmission Arts: Artists and Airwaves (PAJ Publications: 2011.) The exhibition features an international and local roster of artists and organizations whose work celebrates the interdisciplinary nature of Transmission Arts and is made manifest in video, sound, radio, installation, performance, and work-on-paper.

http://wgxc.org/events/4937