Artist Biography


Working under the moniker People Like Us, artist Vicki Bennett has been creating and distributing audio-visual work across multiple platforms since 1992. Her extensive output spans CD, DVD and vinyl releases, radio broadcasts, live performances, gallery installations, 360° immersive environments and online media. Vicki treats collage as a form of contemporary folk art—rooted in mass media and technology—championing its democratic, shared nature. Central to her work is the belief that everything is interconnected, rendering the notion of artistic ownership or originality both absurd and unnecessary. Through the act of collage, she opens up expansive, unexpected outcomes that exceed the sum of their parts.

Since 2002, the majority of the People Like Us back catalogue has been freely accessible online. Vicki is an advocate of the gift economy, highlighting that for many artists, free self-distribution can generate greater reach and impact than traditional publishing channels. This approach alleviates the pressures of production costs, while ensuring long-term availability. The discography and filmography of People Like Us are generously hosted by UbuWeb.

Over her career, Vicki has produced over 50 audio recordings and more than 40 video works, released on labels including Illegal Art, Rough Trade, Soleilmoon Recordings, Discrepant, Sonic Arts Network and Touch. Her long-running radio show DO or DIY has been broadcast on New York’s fiercely independent WFMU since 2003. Her video work has been shown internationally at venues such as Tate Modern, Whitechapel Gallery, BFI, Barbican, ICA, V&A, Centre Pompidou (Paris), Sonar (Barcelona), MAXXI (Rome), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis) and Centro de Cultura Digital (Mexico City). Works have also been broadcast on Channel 4 and featured in sessions for John Peel and Mixing It.

People Like Us has been commissioned by organisations including Arts Council England, Barbican, ACCA, BBC, WDR, Deutschlandradio, PRS Foundation, a-n, Great North Run, Sound and Music, Animate Projects, AV Festival, RML, Sonic Arts Network, Forma, LUX and Lovebytes.

Vicki has held seven solo exhibitions and participated in over 20 group shows across prominent international venues, including the Venice Biennale, MAXXI (Rome), HMKV (Dortmund), Hatton Gallery (Newcastle), Sheehan Gallery (Walla Walla), La Scatola Gallery (London), alt.gallery (Newcastle), Vitrine (London), Engramme (Quebec), University of Greenwich Galleries, Edinburgh Printmakers, Pallant House (Chichester), Millennium Gallery (Sheffield), and Hallwalls (New York), among others.

Her work has been discussed in numerous publications such as Sounds Like Silence – 4’33’’ Today (Spectre Books), The Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, Cutting Across Media (Duke University Press), The Fundamentals of Sonic Art and Design, Incredible Machines, Sensations of History (University of Minnesota Press), and Here To Go – Art, Counter-Culture and the Esoteric. She has also contributed to The Wire, including a feature in their “Collateral Damage” column (2012), and has entire chapters devoted to her in Kenneth Goldsmith’s Duchamp Is My Lawyer (Columbia University Press) and Carl Abrahamsson’s Different People (Trapart, 2021).

People Like Us has been reviewed or profiled in The Wire, Rolling Stone, Frieze, The Guardian, NME, Time Out, Sight & Sound, Film Comment, The Scotsman, The Independent, BBC Online, Bizarre, Record Collector, Metro, XLR8R, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Baltimore City Paper, and more. Interviews include The Observer, Filmmaker Magazine, Found Footage Magazine, Wired, a-n Magazine, RadioWeb MACBA, Sound and Music, and multiple features in The Wire.

Her radio interviews include Late Junction, Soundproof (ABC), WDR 3 Open Sounds, Cutting Up The Cut Up (BBC Radio 4), PM and Twenty Minutes (BBC Radio 3), and North by Southwest (British Council).

She has also curated a variety of events and publications, including First Person, Fourth Wall (2020), Optimized! (WFMU, 2016), Concert of Collage (Encounters Festival, 2015), Radio Boredcast (AV Festival, 2012), and Nothing is New, Everything is Permitted (2010).

Notable works include Notations, a touring film for live improvisation (TUSK/Sound and Music, 2013); two films for Channel 4’s Random Acts; Citation City (2015), an AV performance inspired by Walter Benjamin; Nothing Can Turn Into A Void, a documentary (2015); No One Is An Island (WDR, 2016); and The Mirror (2018), an AV performance and album ranked No.8 in The Wire’s Albums of the Year. Vicki also produced video content for The The’s 2018 comeback tour, and was part of the New Voices programme from Sound and Music, and received an a-n Artist Bursary in 2019. Her radio commission I Can Fly aired on WDR in 2020.

In 2020, she premiered two new works at her solo exhibition First Person, Fourth Wall, as Hallwalls Artist in Residence (HARP). The following year saw the touring of Gone, Gone Beyond, an immersive multi-screen and multi-speaker AV installation across venues including nyMusikk Oslo, SPILL Festival, ACCA Brighton, and London’s Barbican.

In 2022, she presented MIND MAPS: The Art of Vicki Bennett at Sheehan Gallery (USA) and Orfeó Lleidatà (Spain), and Gone, Gone Beyond was screened at Gray Area, San Francisco. Her 22-hour radio piece 108 aired via Radio Arts Zone, and she performed with Ergo Phizmiz and Gwilly Edmondez at The Wire‘s 40th Anniversary. She also produced a new radio work Changing Your Mind for Deutschlandradio and a mixtape for BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction. The lathe-cut vinyl Rhapsody in Glue (with Ergo Phizmiz) was released in November 2022.

In 2023, she launched a successful IndieGoGo campaign for the new live AV performance and album The Library of Babel, premiering at a three-day residency at Café OTO, London. A retrospective 2-CD set Sharity! Selected Works of People Like Us followed in April.

In 2024, People Like Us released a new album COPIA, created music videos for The The, Soft Cell and Marc Almond, and debuted a widescreen AV installation Mise en Abyme at Museu de Aveiro/Santa Joana in Portugal. Currently in development is Khroma, a new 360-degree work for RML CineChamber.

So far in 2025, People Like Us continues work on Khroma, alongside creating live visuals for Soft Cell’s performances of “Torch” and “Purple Zone”. Vicki is also collaborating with Kevin Hamilton (University of Illinois) on a text-based media project.

ALL COMMISSION ENQUIRIES OR BOOKINGS FOR GONE, GONE BEYOND ARE TO BE MADE DIRECTLY WITH US THROUGH OUR CONTACT PAGE.

Shorter Bio – Artist Statement
Filmography
Exhibitions and Editions
Selected Performances and Screenings
Commissions and Awards
Talks, Lectures
Discography
People Like Us on bandcamp

People Like Us/Vicki Bennett Filmography

ALL COMMISSION ENQUIRIES OR BOOKINGS FOR GONE, GONE BEYOND ARE TO BE MADE DIRECTLY WITH US THROUGH OUR CONTACT PAGE.

“Purple Zone” video for Soft Cell live show [2025]
“Torch” video for Soft Cell live show [2025]
“Khroma” 360-degree installation for RML CineChamber [in progress, 2024]
Mise En Abyme” wide screen installation [2024]
“Some Days I Drink My Coffee By The Grave of William Blake” video for The The, directed by Tim Pope [2024]
“Elusive Butterfly” video for Marc Almond [2024]
“Linoleum Smooth” video for The The, directed by Tim Pope [2024]
“First Hand Experience In Second Hand Love” video for Soft Cell live show [2024]
Cognitive Dissident” video for The The, directed by Tim Pope [2024]
“A Man Could Get Lost” video for Soft Cell live show [2024]
The Library of Babel” new live AV performance [2023/4]
“Global Eyes” video for THE THE [2022]
Gone, Gone Beyond” 10 Screen / 8 Speaker work, Stage One complete, Stage Two in progress [2016-2021+]
“Fourth Wall” for Hallwalls Artists-in-Residence Project (HARP) [2020]
Cosmos Song” by Big Fresh [2019]
Objects In The Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear” (film for improvisers) [2019]
The Mirror” (live performance), [Spring 2018]
The The 2018 Comeback Tour” – video backdrop for the THE THE world tour [2018]
Can’t Stop What’s Coming” video edit for THE THE [2017]
Optimized! Expanded Radio & Artist Residency at WFMU with People Like Us & Let’s Paint TV” documentary [2016]
Optimized! Special: The Dusty Show with Clay Pigeon – At Union Square, Manhattan” documentary edited by Vicki Bennett [2016]
Ultimate Care II Excerpt 5” – official video for Matmos [2015]
Nothing Can Turn Into A Void” – documentary film about People Like Us edited by Vicki Bennett and directed by Carl Abrahamsson [2015]
CCCitations” [2015]
Citation City” (live performance) [2015]
“Art Heist” (film – under construction) [2015-]
“The Big Sleep” [2014]
“BLINK” [2014]
Notations UK Tour Travelogue” documentary [2013]
“We Are Not Amused” [2013]
“The Golem – An Inanimate Matter” [2013]
“Notations”
 [2013]
“Gesture Piece” [2013]
“BWPWAP” [2013]
“Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another)” (live performance) [2012-13]
“Free Rod MckMoon” [2012]
“Variations On Jem Finer’s Slowplayer” [2012]
“The Zone” [2012]
“4’33” The Movie” [2011]
“Free (As A Chapel In The Moonlight” [2011]
“The Magical Misery Tour” (live performance) [2011]
“The Atlantic Conveyor” [2011]
“Magic” [2011]
“The Doors Of Perspection” [2011]
“Clean Your Room” [2011]
“The Keystone Cut Ups” (live performance with Ergo Phizmiz) [2010]
“Magic” (with Ergo Phizmiz) [2010]
“The Sound Of The End Of Music” [2010]
“Mull of Kintyre” (with Ergo Phizmiz) [2010]
“Genre Collage” (live performance) [2009-10]
“Induction Is A Draft Is A Gust Of Air” [2009]
“The Look” [2009]
“DrivingFlyingRisingFalling” [2009]
“Parade” [2009]
“In The Waking” [2008]
“Skew Gardens” [2007]
“Ghosts Before Breakfast” (with Ergo Phizmiz) [2007]
“Live Excerpts” [2002-2007]
“Work, Rest & Play” [2007]
“Trying Things Out” [2006]
“Story Without End” [2005]
“People Like Us At The Movies” [2005]
“Resemblage” [2004]
“The Remote Controller” [2002]
“We Edit Life” [2002]
“New Knowledge” [2000]
“Well If You’d Like To See” [1999]
“Burning” [1999]
“Discovering Electronic Music” [1999]
“Music Of Your Own” [1999]

UbuWeb new addition: Don’t Think Right, It’s All Twice

Yes, now available for free download courtesy of and thanks to UbuWeb:
Don’t Think Right, It’s All Twice
http://www.ubu.com/sound/plu_thinktwice.html

  1. Music Sounds Better With Me
  2. Free Rod McKMoon
  3. I’m Dreaming
  4. Blue By You
  5. Summer Music For An Almost Equinox
  6. Crazy
  7. Stand By Your
  8. Once A Pun A Time
  9. Break Me, Break My Horse
  10. Recycling Is Nothing New
  11. Oh Moon
  12. Trains and Blackbirds
  13. Free (As A Chapel In The Moonlight)
  14. Don’t Think Right, It’s All Twice
  15. Singin’ Femme Fatale (with Ergo Phizmiz)
  16. Abridge
  17. The Atlantic Conveyor
  18. Panic As Usual And Avoid Shopping
  19. Eve Of Sunshine

Release date: 31 October 2013
Cutting Hedge SNIP001 

The music on this album was composed between 2006 and 2013 initially for five different live performances of moving image and sound.

Performance sources:
Lyrics in Libraries (2006) | Genre Collage (2009) | People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz Live at Cafe Oto (2009) | The Magical Misery Tour (2011) | Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) (2013)

Some of the tracks listed above also have a moving image representation in People Like Us in UbuWeb Film

RELATED RESOURCES:

Ergo Phizmiz in UbuWeb Sound
People Like Us in UbuWeb Film

SALE PRICE! DON’T THINK RIGHT, IT’S ALL TWICE CD

“Don’t Think Right, It’s All Twice” by People Like Us
Release date: 31 October 2013 (preorder 7 October)
Cutting Hedge SNIP001 (available initially mailorder only from us)

DontThink-Advert.gif

About:
It’s always felt important that my work be a total experience, not singularly appealing to either the eye or ear, for it to be as integrated an experience as possible.  The music on this album was composed between 2006 and 2013 initially for five different live performances of moving image and sound.  Since publishing formats have developed in recent years we’ve found the internet serves us really well as a distribution tool in the gift economy.  One can find the accompanying visual elements of some of this music at ubu.com/film/plu.html.  However, as well as the eye and ear is the sense of touch, and there is nothing like holding the object as well!  — Vicki Bennett

Performances sources:
Lyrics in Libraries (2006) | Genre Collage (2009) | People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz Live at Cafe Oto (2009) | The Magical Misery Tour (2011) | Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) (2013)

We are dedicated to providing as much as possible for free or as cheaply as possible and strong encourage others to invest in the gift economy.  We realise this is a couple more dollars than we’re usually charging but we are financing this ourselves and need to recoup costs.  It is unlikely we will profit from this but we do need to make ends meet!  We hope you understand, and continue to appreciate how much we continue to also give much for free 🙂

PRESS IMAGES

Don't Think Right COVER300dpi
CD Cover, 300dpi

Video trailers from three of the live performances:

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)

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

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

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

NOTATIONS at Cafe Oto and Arnolfini tonight/tomorrow!

Notations UK Tour is going very well, and the last two dates are performed on Friday 29th November 2013 at London’s Cafe Oto with Philip Jeck and Jaap Blonk as the performing improvisers, then on Saturday 30th November at Bristol Arnolfini they are joined by Steve Noble.  Support by People Like Us for both dates.

Tickets are selling well so we recommend buying in advance.

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

More about Notations: https://peoplelikeus.org/2013/notations/

For those unable to make it to these concerts… we are planning more for next year, each time with a different set of performers, and outside of the UK also.  We are also gathering then editing little travelogues for each performance – look here for videos labelled “Notations”. https://vimeo.com/peoplelikeus/videos