Welcome to the only official site for People Like Us and Vicki Bennett
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
People Like Us double bill with The Light Surgeons at the wonderful Flatpack Festival at The Birmingham Black Box Theatre 19 Harford St, Birmingham B19 3EB on 10th May 2024.
More info here: https://flatpackfestival.org.uk/event/people-like-us-and-the-light-surgeons
People Like Us/Vicki has performed and been screened at hundreds of venues (Tate Modern, Whitechapel Gallery, the National Film Theatre/BFI, Purcell Room, Barbican, ICA, V&A., BBC Proms, Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Sonar (Barcelona), MAXXI/National Museum of XXI Century Arts (Rome), Venice Biennale, Walker Art Center (Minneapolis) and Centro de Cultura Digital (Mexico City)), Venice Biennale, and radio stations – created radioworks for John Peel and Mixing it (BBC Radio) and WDR (Germany), and since 2003 has a radio show on WFMU(.org). Vicki’s work has been archived on UbuWeb since 2003, with hundreds of thousands of downloads.
If you would like to book People Like Us for concerts or commissions please use our CONTACT PAGE.
2024
4 December 2024 – The Library of Babel, reiheM, Cologne
11 November 2024 – Screening (not performance) of The Library of Babel
17 October 2024 – Library of Babel at Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle with Gwilly Edmondez and Jorge Boehringer
2-20 October 2024 – Mise En Abyme installation at https://peoplelikeus.org/2024/mise-en-abyme-new-av-installation-at-museu-de-aveiro/
13 September 2024 – Vostell Museum Malpartida, Caceres, Spain https://www.cndm.mcu.es/node/23330
13 July 2024 – Con-struct Festival, London
10 May 2024 – Flatpack Festival, Birmingham Black Box Theatre
30 March 2024 – The Library of Babel at Colchester Arts Centre
17 January 2024 – The Library of Babel at The Wire Magazine takeover of IKLECTIK
2023
14 November 2023 – Preview of The Library of Babel at CineCity at Attenborough Centre, Brighton, UK
27 / 28 / 29 October 2023 – People Like Us 3-Day Artist Residency – multiple performances incl. solo World Preview of The Library of Babel, a trio with Ergo Phizmiz and Gwilly Edmondez, and a duo of Chart Sweep with Gwilly Edmondez at CAFE OTO, London
18 October 2023 – The Mirror at Paard in The Hague, Netherlands (double bill with Negativland)
https://www.paard.nl/event/double-bill-negativland-people-like-us/
3/4 March 2023 – The Mirror at TUSK NORTH Festival, Newcastle, UK
18 February 2023 – The Mirror at Electric Spring Festival, University of Huddersfield, UK
2022
29 November 2022 – The Mirror at Ubu@50, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia
26 November 2022 – The Mirror at Festival BBMix, Paris, France
19 November 2022 – The Mirror live at Keroxen, Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Spain
5 November 2022 – The Mirror at Intangible Festival, Lleida, Spain
20 October 2022 – The Mirror at Stimul Festival, Prague, Czech Republic
1 July 2022 – live performance: PLU, Gwilly Edmondez and Ergo Phizmiz and short film programme
at The Wire 40: An Evening With People Like Us, The Cube, Bristol, UK
3 June 2022 – The Mirror at Open Ears Festival, Kitchener, Canada
21 May 2022 – The Mirror at Index Festival 2022, Braga, Portugal
12-27 May 2022 – Gone, Gone Beyond at Gray Area, San Francisco, USA
3 March 2022 – Nothing Can Turn into a Void with Q & A at Kimball Auditorium, Walla Walla, USA
4 March 2022 – The Mirror at Young Ballroom, Walla Walla, USA
5 March 2022 – People Like Us & Negativland live on the Radio, KWCW 90.5, Walla Walla, USA
4 April – 1 May 2022 – The MIrror at a group exhibition curated by Anthony & Graham Dolphin at Abject Gallery Sunderland, UK
1 February – 8 April 2022 – MIND MAPS: The Art of Vicki Bennett – Solo Exhibition at Sheehan Gallery, Walla Walla, USA
January 2022 – Fourth Wall at 35. Stuttgarter Filmwinter International Short Films Competition, Stuttgart, Germany
2021
13-16 October 2021 – Gone, Gone Beyond at Black Box Teater present KinoKammer with nyMusikk, Oslo, Norway
28-30 October 2021 – Gone, Gone Beyond at SPILL Festival, Ipswich, UK
4-6 November 2021 – Gone, Gone Beyond at Attenborough Centre (ACCA), Brighton, UK
10-13 November 2021 – Gone, Gone Beyond at Barbican Centre, London, UK
15 January 2021 – Fourth Wall at Imaginary Network Topologies 2021 online screening
2020
6 November 2020 – The Mirror at MAAT, Lisbon, Portugal
28 July 2020 – 4 August 2020 – The Mirror at Le Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco, France
March 2020 – The Mirror at WFMU Benefit, Monty Hall, Jersey City, USA
2019
October 2019 – The Horror!! at Cafe Oto, London, UK
October 2019 – The Mirror and Notations (performed by Blectum From Blechdom), Radius Gallery, Santa Cruz, USA
September 2019 – The Mirror at 21C Museum Hotel, Lexington, Kentucky, USA
June 2019 – The Mirror at Iklectik, London, UK
June 2019 – The Mirror and Objects In The Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear (performed by students), Culture Lab, Newcastle, UK
May 2019 – The Mirror at Venice Biennale after HILLARY: The Hillary Clinton Emails by Kenneth Goldsmith, Venice, Italy
April 2019 – The Mirror at AFO 2019, Olomouc, Czech Republic
April 2019 – The Mirror at Other Cinema, ATA, San Francisco, USA
March 2019 – The Mirror at Musikbrauerei, Berlin, Germany
February 2019 – The Mirror at The Voix de Ville/ARTxFM Fundraiser, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
2018
November 2018 – The Mirror at Recombinant Festival, Gray Area, San Francisco, USA
November 2018 – The Mirror at CineCity Festival, Fabrica, Brighton, UK
November 2018 – The Mirror at Kunstnernes hus, Oslo, Norway
November 2018 – The Mirror at SPILL Festival, Ipswich, UK (double bill with CarterTutti)
October 2018 – The Mirror at 100 Years of Copyright Festival, HKW, Berlin, Germany
October 2018 – The Horror!! at Horse Hospital, London, UK
October 2018 – 25 Years of People Like Us, Teatro Filarmónica, Oviedo, Spain
October 2018 – The Mirror and others curated by Vicki Bennett at Spectacle Cinema, Brooklyn, USA
July 2018 – The Mirror at MACBA, Barcelona, Spain
July 2018 – The Mirror at Arenas Movedizas, Gijón, Spain
July 2018 – The Mirror at Cafe Oto, London, UK (double bill with Carl Stone)
May 2018 – The Mirror at Splice Festival, Rich Mix, London, UK
April 2018 – The Mirror at Flatpack Film Festival, Birmingham, UK
April 2018 – The Mirror at Cafe Oto, London, UK
April 2018 – The Mirror at Belfast Film Festival, Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast, UK
April 2018 – The Mirror at Greek Film Archive, Athens, Greece
April 2018 – The Mirror at FACT, Liverpool, UK
April 2018 – Consequences (One Thing Leads to Another) at Other Cinema, San Francisco, USA
March 2018 – Best of PLU curated screenings at Sounds Like This Festival, Leeds, UK
2017
October 2017 – Gone, Gone Beyond World Premiere at Recombinant Festival, Gray Area, San Francisco, USA
October 2017 – Various films at Test Dept’s Assembly of Disturbance Festival, Red Gallery, London, UK
October 2017 – Citation City at Other Cinema, ATA, San Francisco, USA
September 2017 – Various films at Brighton Digital Festival, Attenborough Centre (ACCA), Brighton, UK
May 2017 – Week of performances/screenings for school children, Kulturtanken, Oslo, Norway
March 2017 – Citation City at Hull UK City of Culture (ReROOTed), Hull, UK
February 2017 – Selection of previous works at Cafe Oto, London, UK
2016
December 2016 – Shopping from Citation City at Other Cinema, San Francisco, USA
November 2016 – Citation City at Dundee Contemporary Arts, Edinburgh, Scotland
October 2016 – Magic (from Magical Misery Tour) and Magic (with Ergo Phizmiz) at Magic Late at the Horniman Museum, London
October 2016 – Nothing Can Turn Into A Void at Spectacle Theater, Brooklyn, USA
July 2016 – Nothing Can Turn Into A Void at Norberg Festival, Norberg, Sweden
June 2016 – Optimized! Radio Residency at WFMU, Jersey City and online, USA
May 2016 – Citation City at Delco Festival, Nimes, France
April 2016 – Citation City at Sonic Protest, Paris, France
April 2016 – We Are Not Amused at Apordoc, Lisbon, Portugal
April 2016 – No One Is An Island broadcast on WDR, Germany
March 2016 – Matmos video by People Like Us at Other Cinema, San Francisco, USA
February 2016 – The Sound of Silence at Friday Late, V&A, London, UK
2015
November 2015 – improvisation with M.C.Schmidt and Jennifer Walshe, Cafe OTO, London, UK
November 2015 – Nothing Can Turn Into A Void at Fylkingen, Stockholm, Sweden
November 2015 – Citation City at CineCity Festival, Brighton, UK
November 2015 – Nothing Can Turn Into A Void at CineCity Festival, Brighton, UK
October 2015 – Work, Rest & Play at Curtocircuito. Santiago de Compostela Film Festival-Santiago de Compostela, Spain
October 2015 – CCCitations at Other Cinema, ATA, San Francisco, USA
September 2015 – Citation City at Walter Benjamin Now, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
September 2015 – Citation City at Encounters Short Film Festival, Bristol, UK
August 2015 – We Are Not Amused at Usurp Zone5 Film Festival, London, UK
April 2015 – Citation City at SMUP, Parede, Portugal
March 2015 – We Are Not Amused at Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, USA
March 2015 – 4’33” and Notations at group exhibition Drawing Towards Sound, University of Greenwich Galleries, London, UK
March 2015 – Citation City UK Premiere at Flatpack Film Festival, Birmingham, UK
March 2015 – The Big Sleep at She Makes Noise Festival, Madrid, Spain
March 2015 – The Big Sleep at Other Cinema, ATA, San Francisco, USA
January 2015 – The Big Sleep at Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Stuttgart, Germany
January 2015 – Citation City World premiere at transmediale, Berlin, Germany
January 2015 – People Like Us & Gwilly Edmondez live improv, Amersham Arms, London, UK
2014
December 2014 – Citation City preview at Cafe Oto, London, UK
November 2014 – January 2015 – The Golem at Kunsthall Stavanger, Norway
November 2014 – Movement – Sound – Space Festival, Plato (Gong), Ostrava, Czech Republic
November 2014 – We Are Not Amused at Other Cinema, ATA, San Francisco, USA
October 2014 – Magical Misery Tour at Gleam Festival, University of Glasgow, Scotland
October 2014 – Work, Rest and Play at Syndicat Mixte Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France
October 2014 – Notations and Consequences at In Mute Festival, Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece
September 2014 – Notations at High Zero, Baltimore, USA
September 2014 – Notations and Consequences at Monty Hall, WFMU, Jersey City, USA
August 2014 – We Are Not Amused at Sao Paulo 25th International Short Film Festival, Brazil
August 2014 – Gesture Piece at International Program, Seoul International NewMedia, Korea
August 2014 – The Sound of the End of Music at Stockholm Music and Arts Festival curated by David Risley Gallery, Sweden
June 2014 – Skew Gardens at Gracelands, Dublin, Ireland
June 2014 – Exhibition of Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at Sheffield Doc/Fest, UK
May 2014 – We Are Not Amused at Oberhausen Film Festival, London, entered for the International Film Category competition
May 2014 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at Hörbar, Hamburg
May 2014 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another)/artist talk at Here To Go Symposium, MetaMorf, Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre, Sweden
March 2014 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at L’Embobineuse, Marseille, France
2013
November 2013 – We Are Not Amused at Underwire Festival, London, UK
November 2013 – We Are Not Amused and The Golem – An Inanimate Matter at Bradford Animation Festival, UK
November 2013 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at Sound of Stockholm Festival, Sweden
November 2013 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at Kraak, Manchester, UK
November 2013 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at Leeds Hyde Park Picture House as part of Leeds International Film Festival, UK
November 2013 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at Cafe OTO, London, UK
November 2013 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at Arnolfini, Bristol, UK
November 2013 – Tusk/Sound and Music UK tour of NOTATIONS – Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, London and Bristol, UK
Performers: Bill Orcutt, Rhodri Davies, Mark Sanders, M.C. Schmidt, Wobbly, Jennifer Walshe, Tomomi Adachi, Jaap Blonk, Philip Jeck, Steve Noble – support from Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another)
November 2013 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at Sound of Stockholm Festival, Sweden
October 2013 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at Lab Festival, Augsburg, Germany
October 2013 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at Star & Shadow, Newcastle, UK
October 2013 – Gesture Piece at Other Cinema, San Francisco, ATA, USA
October 2013 – Gesture Piece at High Zero Festival, Baltimore, USA
October 2013 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at lab.30 Festival, Augsburg, Germany
August 2013 – Artist talk at Liverpool Biennale, UK
June 2013 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at Only Connect Festival, Oslo, Norway
May 2013 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at Nuits Sonores Festival, Lyon, France
May 2013 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at Colchester Arts Centre, UK
April 2013 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another), Tectonics Festival, Reykjavik, Iceland
February 2013 –Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) at Play Festival, Madrid, Spain
January 2013 – Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) World Premiere at Transmediale, Berlin, Germany
2012
December 2012 – Work Rest & Play at Norwegian Film Institute, Oslo, Norway
November 2012 – 4’33” The Movie at Exground Filmfest, Wiesbaden, Germany
November 2012 – Clean Your Room at Filmladen Kassel e.V, Kassel, Germany
October 2012 – Clean Your Room at Impakt, Utrecht, The Netherlands
September 2012 – Genre Collage at CitySonic, Brussels, Belgium
August 2012-June 2013 – Cage Silenced and 4’33” The Movie in SOUNDS LIKE SILENCE Cage – 4’33” Exhibition – Silence 1912 – 1952 to 2012 – HMKV, Dortmund, Germany
August 2012 – Performing in BBC Proms 47, John Cage, “Branches” and “Improvisations III”, Royal Albert Hall, London, UK
Summer 2012 – Prints of Darkness tour, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, Scotland
July 2012 – Magical Misery Tour at Latitude Festival, East Anglia, UK
June 2012 – Magical Misery Tour at Belfast Film Festival, UK
May 2012 – Trying Things Out, Story Without End and Resemblage at Musee d’Art Moderne et Contemporain-Strasbourg, France
May 2012 – Magical Misery Tour at Caixaforum, Madrid, Spain
April 2012 – The Sound of the End of Music at Image Forum Festival, Tokyo, Japan
Spring 2012 – Prints of Darkness purchased for Pallant House Collection, Chichester for inclusion in their collection in 2012, UK
January 2012 – Screening of The Sound of the End of Music, Transmediale, Berlin, Germany
2011
December 2011 – Magic at Kineteca, Madrid, Spain
November-December 2011 – Prints of Darkness tour, Engramme, Quebec, Canada
November 2011 – Magical Misery Tour at CineCity, Brighton Film Festival, UK
November 2011 – The Sound of the End of Music at Filmladen Kassel e.V., Kassel, Germany
November 2011 – Magical Misery Tour at Bristol Encounters International Film Festival, UK
November 2011 – Magical Misery Tour at Cork Film Festival, Ireland
October 2011 – Speaking and screening at RadioVision conference, NYC, USA
October 2011 – Skew Gardens and Trying Things Out at Merge Festival, Bankside, London, UK
October 2011 – Genre Collage at Almost Cinema, Gent Film Festival, Belgium
September 2011 – Horror Collage premiered at The Sound Of Fear at South Bank Centre, London, UK
July-September 2011 – Solo exhibition The Doors of Perspection at Vitrine Gallery, London, UK
August 2011 – Skew Gardens, The Keystone Cut Ups and The Sound of the End of Music at Mitternachtskino – Frankfurt am Main, Germany
July 2011 – Print edition co-published by Modern Empire and Vitrine Gallery, London, UK
May-June 2011 – Modern Empire at La Scatola Gallery, London, UK
May-June 2011 – Prints of Darkness tour, The Changing Room, Stirling, Scotland
May 2011 – Genre Collage at Auditorium of Rome, Italy
May 2011 – Live Excerpts at Expanded Video exhibition, MAXXI, Rome, Italy
April 2011 – More Soup and Tart at The Barbican, London, UK
April 2011 – Genre Collage at Open Ears Festival, Kitchener Ontario, Canada
April 2011 –Various screenings at Satellite Vitrine Gallery, The Hospital Club, London, UK
March 2011 – The Keystone Cut Ups at Flatpack Festival, Birmingham, UK
March 2011 – Genre Collage and multiple film screenings at Ambulante Festival (various locations), Mexico
January 2011 – Genre Collage at Art’s Birthday Party, Swedish Radio, Stockholm, Sweden
2010
November-December 2010 – Prints of Darkness tour, Matthew Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee, Scotland
November 2010 – Genre Collage at The British Film Festival, Kyiv, Ukraine
October 2010 – Supersonic Festival, Birmingham, UK
September 2010 – Press Play Film Festival, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK
September 2010 – Berwick Film And Media Arts Festival – World premiere of The Keystone Cut Ups with Ergo Phizmiz, UK
August 2010 – Skew Gardens at Lincoln Center, as part of UbuWeb evening, NYC, USA
August 2010 – Genre Collage at Vintage Goodwood, Goodwood, UK (curated by Mike Flowers)
August 2010 – Genre Collage presented by Forma and the British Council , Lviv, Sebastopol, Ukraine
July-Sept 2010 – Prints of Darkness, Edinburgh Printmakers group exhibition – pic disc LP and print by Vicki Bennett, Scotland
July 2010 – Genre Collage at Arnolfini in conjunction with Encounters Film Festival, Bristol, UK
July-Oct 2010 – Parade as part of group exhibition In The Long Run: 30 Years of Great Running – Great North Museum: Hancock, UK
June 2010 – Genre Collage at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, UK
May 2010 – Genre Collage at Liverpool Sound City, in conjunction with Sound and Music, UK
April 2010 – Genre Collage at Transmodern 2010, Baltimore, USA
April 2010 – Genre Collage at Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, USA
March 2010 – Genre Collage at AV Festival, Newcastle, UK
2009
December 2009 – BFI Southbank, London, UK
December 2009 – Grand Café Zum Rothen Krebsen (IFEK Institut für erweiterte Kunst), Linz, Austria
November 2009 – Night of the Long Worms, Cafe OTO, London, UK
November 2009 – NEW NEW! 2009 – Fleda, Brno, Czech Republic
October 2009 – WFMU Record Fair, NYC, USA
October 2009 – Vancouver New Music Festival, Canada
August 2009 – Cafe OTO, live with Ergo Phizmiz, London, UK
September-November 2009 – Parade (film and two photo works at Hatton Gallery as part of Hit The Ground, Newcastle , UK
May 2009– Skew Gardens at Sonic Recycler, London, UK
May 2009 – Work, Rest & Play at Vienna Independent Shorts, Austria
April 2009 – We Edit Life at sound:frame Festival, Vienna, Austria
April 2009 – Work, Rest & Play at Indielisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
April 2009 – Work, Rest & Play at Glimmer Festival
April 2009 – Work, Rest & Play Migrating Forms Festival (NYUFF), New York, USA
March 2009 – Zemos98, Seville, Spain
February 2009 – Work, Rest & Play at Rotterdam Film Festival, The Netherlands
January 2009 – Work, Rest & Play at Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Stuttgart, Germany
2008
December-May 2008/9 – Three works at Fundacio la Caixa Gallery, Spain
November 2008 – SPNM hosted concert at Kings Place, Kings Cross, London, UK
November 2008 – Work, Rest & Play at Invideo, Milan, Italy
October 2008 – Work, Rest & PlayCork Film Festival, Ireland
September 2008 – Work, Rest & Play at Experimental Film Video Festival, Seoul, Korea
June 2008 – Work, Rest & Play at Sonar, CCCB, Barcelona, Spain
May-July 2008 – People Like Us Retrospective Solo Exhibition at alt.gallery, Newcastle, UK
May 2008 – live solo concert, reinterpreting the works of Daphne Oram (BBC Radiophonic Workshop), Queen Elisabeth Hall, London, UK
March 2008 – Skew Gardens at Curzon, Soho, London, UK
March 2008 – Concert with Ergo Phizmiz at Sightsonic, York International Festival of Digital Arts – National Centre For Early Music, York, UK
January 2008 – Work, Rest & Play, London Short Film Festival, UK
2007
November 2007 – Live soundtrack to Christian Marclay’s Screen Play, as part of the Wire 25 anniversary series, London, UK
October 2007 – Touch live event, Balham, London, UK
June 2007 – Bilbao Copy Your Idols conference, Spain
May 2007 – 3 Screen video premiere of Work, Rest & Play at Millennium Galleries, Lovebytes International Festival of Digital Media, Sheffield, UK
February 2007 – Session for Mixing It, BBC Radio 3
2006
November 2006 – Story Without End at Encounters 12th Annual International Short Film Festival, Bristol, UK
November 2006 – The Remote Controller at La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain
November 2006 – Story Without End at Fundacio La Caixa. Mediateca, Barcelona, Spain
October 2006 – Story Without End at La Blanche Nuit, Paris, France
September 2006 – Story Without End at Exis Experimental Film and Video Festival, Seoul, Korea
July 2006 – Story Without End at Miguel Dias Vila Do Conde ISFF, Portugal
June 2006 – Story Without End at Sonar Cinema, CCCB, Barcelona, Spain
June 2006 – BOOTS – Live collaboration with Ergo Phizmiz, Isle of Wight, UK
May 2006 – Story Without End at European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück, Austria
April 2006 – Story Without End at Britspotting, Berlin, Germany
April 2006 – Live at Casa Da Musica, Porto, Portugal
March 2006 – Story Without End at Photographers’ Gallery, London, UK
March 2006 – Story Without End at Visual Arts Ipswich, Ipswich, UK
February 2006 – Story Without End at Club Transmediale, Berlin, Germany
January 2006 – Live at Le Cube, Paris, France
January 2006 – Live at Flatpack Festival, Birmingham
2005
November 2005 – Live at Other Cinema, ATA, San Francisco, USA
November 2005 – Live at UC Davis, Davis, California, USA
November 2005 – Live at Leeds International Film Festival, UK
October 2005 – We Edit Life at Nulle Part Ailleurs Production, France
October 2005 – Live at Experimentaclub in Madrid, Spain
September 2005 – Live at Etrange Festival at Forum Des Images, Paris, France
July 2005 – Live at Optronica at The National Film Theatre, London, UK
June 2005 – Live at Mission Creek Music Festival, California, USA
April 2005 – The Remote Controller at Britspotting, Berlin, Germany
April 2005 – The Remote Controller at Femme Totale, Dortmund, Germany
February 2005 – We Edit Life and The Remote Controller at AHRB Centre for British Film and Television, London, UK
February 2005 – We Edit Life at Cinilingus, Belfast, UK
January 2005 – The Remote Controller at Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Stuttgart, Germany
2004
December 2004 – Live concert as part of Christian Marclay’s Sounds of Christmas installation at the Tate Modern, London, UK
November 2004 – The Remote Controller at Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival, Brazil
November 2004 – The Remote Controller at Tromsø Kunstforening, Norway
November 2004 – The Remote Controller at Festival International du Film Independant, France
November 2004 – The Remote Controller at INVIDEO, Milano, Italy
October 2004 – We Edit Life and The Remote Controller at Leeds International Film Festival, Leeds, UK
October 2004 – The Remote Controller at Backup Festival, Weimar, Germany
October 2004 – Live at Michael Tippett Centre, Bath, UK
September 2004 – The Remote Controller at Seoul New and Film Festival – Seoul, Korea
September 2004 – Live at LEM Festival, Barcelona, Spain
August 2004 – The Remote Controller at Chicago Underground Film Festival, USA
August 2004 – Live at Studio 04 Festival, Oslo, Norway
June 2004 – We Edit Life at The Music Hall, Shrewsbury, UK
May 2004 – Live Session/broadcast on Mixing It, BBC Radio 3
April 2004 – Live at Toronto Images Festival, Canada
March 2004 – Live at Virginia Film Festival, USA
March 2004 – Live at New York Underground Film Festival, NYC, USA
February 2004 – Live at First Anniversary of 2003 FACT, Liverpool, UK
January 2004 – The Remote Controller at Hanger, Barcelona, Spain
January 2004 – The Remote Controller at Rotterdam Film Festival, The Netherlands
2003
November 2003 – Live collaboration with Matmos at Work, Work, Work, Yerba Buena Center For The Arts, San Francisco, as part of Matmos’s artist installation, USA
November 2003 – Live and artist talk at Sample Culture Now, Tate Modern, London, UK
October 2003 – The Remote Controller at Oslo S-, Oslo, Norway
October 2003 – We Edit Life at Wheels Instead of Hooves, Newcastle, UK
October 2003 – Live at City of Women, International Festival of Contemporary Arts Ljubljana, Slovenia
October 2003 – Live at Dissonanze Festival of Electronic Music and Digital Art, at MACROl, Rome, Italy
September 2003 – The Remote Controller at Kino Central, Berlin, Germany
September 2003 – Live at The Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
July 2003 – The Remote Controller and We Edit Life,Radical Entertainment season, ICA, London, UK
June 2003 – Live at Le Fresnoy, Studio National Des Arts Contemporains, France
April 2003 – Live performance at Cut & Splice (Sonic Arts Network), ICA, London, UK
March 2003 – Live POL, Frankfurt, Germany
February 2003 – Live Club Transmediale, Maria am Ostbahnhof, Berlin, Germany
January 2003 – Session for John Peel, for BBC Radio 1
2002
November 2002 – Live at Avanto Festival at Kiasma Centre, Helsinki, Finland
September 2002 – Live at Sound Unseen Festival at The Walker Center, Minneapolis, USA
June 2002 – Live performance with Jim Thirlwell’s Baby Zizanie, South Bank Centre’s David Bowie Meltdown Festival, Queen Elisabeth Hall, London, UK
May 2002 – Live at ETHER Festival (evening curated by myself) Purcell Room, London, UK
2001
December 2001 – Live at Dysfunktional Beats at 93ft East, London, UK
November 2001 – Live at Laptops Live at the ICA, London, UK
November 2001 – Live at Futuresonic, Manchester, UK
October 2001 – Live at This Is Not Art Festival, Newcastle (Au) and Sydney Opera House, Australia
June 2001 – Live at London Musicians Collective’s Tenth Annual Festival, Purcell Room, London, UK
June 2001 – Live collaboration with Matmos at Sonar Festival, Barcelona, Spain
May 2001 – Live at Catalyst/Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Belfast, UK
April 2001 – Live at EMAF, Osnabrück, Austria
March 2001 – Live at Lovebytes Festival, Sheffield
March 2001 – Live on Mixing It, BBC Radio 3, Dingwalls, London, UK
February 2001 – Live in association with The Wire magazine, Lux Cinema, London, UK
2000
December 2000 – Live in association with The Wire magazine, Cube, Bristol, UK
December 2000– Live in association with Warp Records of London, Numero Festival, Lisbon, Portugal
November 2000– Live at Burning Bush, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland
October 2000 – Live at Montreal Festival of New Cinema and New Media (FCMM), Canada
May 2000 – Live at Brooklyn Experimental Music Festival, NYC, USA
April 2000 – Live at Komedia, Brighton, UK
June 2000 – Live at TransEuropa 2000, Hildesheim, The Netherlands
March 2000 – Live at Exit Festival, Creteil, France
June 2000 – Live at Sonar 2000, Barcelona, Spain
February 2000 – Live with Don Joyce of Negativland at Brussels 2000, European City of Culture Festival
January 2000 – Live at Chicago Underground Film Festival (CUFF), USA
1999
October 1999 – Live at Fylkingen, Stockholm, Sweden
October 1999 – Live at Nottingham Expo Festival, UK
September 1999 – Live at Ars Electronica with members of Negativland and Barbed, Linz, Austria
August 1999 – Live at Festival of the Regions, Enns, Austria
1996
September 1996 – Live at Dutch Electronic Arts Festival (DEAF), Rotterdam
The a/v performance “Citation City” that we have been working on for the past 10 months is now finished! It will premiere at transmediale, Berlin https://peoplelikeus.org/citationcity
CITATION CITY World Premiere, transmediale Berlin
Thursday 29 January from 9pm
Performance at Auditorium, HKW
Part of a double bill with a live network data performance “Pirate Cinema” by Nicolas Maigret and Brendan Howell.
Tickets: http://www.transmediale.de/content/the-pirate-cinema-and-citation-city
Background on Citation City at https://peoplelikeus.org/citationcity
People Like Us perform their first live improvisation with Gwilly Edmondez in London in January. The duo will be on at around 10pm, second to last on the live line up (DJs follow, later into the night).
Advance bookings recommended at http://
This is the rehearsal for our Notations performance at WFMU’s Monty Hall in Jersey City on 13 Sept 2014.
Thank you Martin and Jason for one of the best versions of Notations yet. And thank you WFMU for being the best place to play in the world.
More about Notations here: peoplelikeus.org/2013/notations/
(video edited on the Bolt Bus)
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/
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/
Thanks to all who came to Newcastle NOTATIONS on Halloween, here’s a small excerpt of the evening performed by Rhodri Davies, Mark Sanders & Bill Orcutt. Thanks to Tusk Music and Sound & Music!
Notations Live at The Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle UK 31/10/2013
Next stop Manchester on 14 November with M.C. Schmidt (Matmos), Wobbly & Jennifer Walshe. peoplelikeus.org/2013/notations-tour/
This one below is recorded direct from the desk and is matched with the original film of NOTATIONS.
NOTATIONS TOUR ARCHIVE Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle w/ Mark Sanders, Bill Orcutt & Rhodri Davies.
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.
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.
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
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 Music. https://peoplelikeus.org/2013/notations-tour/ : Bill Orcutt, Rhodri Davies, M.C. Schmidt (Matmos), Philip Jeck, Jaap Blonk, Steve Noble, Wobbly, Mark Sanders, Tomomi 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
* 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.
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…”.
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 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.
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.
Time to set free an excerpt from the otherwise only live performance Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another)
People Like Us “Free Rod MckMoon” (2013)
We are taking bookings for this performance now through the Contact page.
