Under the name “People Like Us,” artist Vicki Bennett has been making work available via CD, DVD and vinyl releases, radio broadcasts, concert appearances, gallery exhibits and online streaming and distribution since 1992. Bennett has developed an immediately recognisable aesthetic repurposing pre-existing footage to craft audio and video collages with an equally dark and witty take on popular culture. She sees sampling and collage as folk art sourced from the palette of contemporary media and technology, with all of the sharing and cross-referencing incumbent to a populist form. Embedded in her work is the premise that all is interconnected and that claiming ownership of an “original” or isolated concept is both preposterous and redundant. Most of the People Like Us back catalogue has been available for free online since 2002. For many artists, profit and publicity is more likely through free distribution (the gift economy) than independent publishers and distributors, which often struggle with limited resources. Online self-distribution allows an artist to keep their work available, resolving a tension between label production costs and the desire of an artist for work to be available. UbuWeb generously hosts the discography and filmography of People Like Us.
Tag Archives: lulu
The Fundamental Questions read by a computer
This is a short computer reading from our paperback/pdf book
The Fundamental Questions
and the LYRICS:
I am a Account Rep · I am a active guy who loves sports, movies,
cooking, and anything that sounds new and exciting · I am
a actor in acting school · I am a dad to two girls Bug 5, and
Tooties 1.5 who are my life · I am a administrator for my dad
and also volunteer in the Age UK office two days a week · i am
a adventurious person · I am a adventurous, outdoors, hands
on fix it all type person · I am a affectionate mom to my kids
love mexican and italian foods · I am a affectioned person and
healthy · I am a aires for those curious · I am a ambitious go
getter · I am a amiable, funny, outgoing guy who loves a good
laugh · I am a analytical person sometimes · I am a Artist and
love to have fun! · I am a asian guy living in NYC · I am a athletic,
loving, kind, and adventureous · I am a average female,
about 5’4, i have brown and light brown hair · I am a avid
coffee drinker, and I do smoke cigarettes · I am a avid sports
fan, loving hockey and football · I am a awesome friend and
the ones I have are from grade school · I am a a work in progress
· I am a bacon-eating Jew · I am a bad at spelling but great
at reading people · I am a ball of energy, Love to party and
hangout with friends · I am a ball of energy and sarcastic humour,
need people with fun personality to adventure with · I
am a bama fan so Roll Tide · I am a band geek cuz I love the
flute · I am a band geek turned science nerd, aspiring robopsychologist,
and the tech girl philosopher · I am a bank rep · I am
a barista and a nanny · I am a bartender, a business owner,
and the director of a Bartending school in riverside · I am a
bartender · I am a bartender · I am a bartender and absolutely
love my job · I am a bartender at a private members’ club · I am
a bartender until i finish pharmecology school · I am a Batman
loving, sports watching, going out and having fun type of person
· I am a bay area native · I am a BBW I love going on adventures,
The Fundamental Questions book
THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS
new book by Gregor Weichbrodt, Vicki Bennett
Paperback & pdf, 569 Pages
Buy the paperback book: http://www.lulu.com/shop/gregor-weichbrodt-and-vicki-bennett/the-fundamental-questions/paperback/product-21696219.html
You can now also purchase the book from The Wire magazine bookshop
Free downloadable pdf here or here
Update 2020: there is now a second edition to be available exclusively on site only at Hallwalls to coincide with Vicki’s solo exhibition First Person, Fourth Wall.
You may be familiar with the music, film, radio and stills work of People Like Us but this is the first step into this medium. Although we’ve written essays, we’ve not written a book before. And we still haven’t! This content is sourced from online, developed online over the course of a 10-day conversation with Gregor Weichbrodt after we observed that searching for answers on a particular internet website possibly reflected and paralleled deeper questions within life…
Who am I? Where do I come from? What is my purpose in Life and what happens when I die? For centuries people have tried to come up with answers regarding the fundamental questions of life. Then the internet was invented and these questions have finally been answered – by users.
The Fundamental Questions captures them in an inspiring record of epic proportions where every individual verse becomes a mantra of a mind-expanding collective thought. It reminds us, that one single answer is never the answer.
Thousands of user profiles from the web were parsed, matched according to four questions and sorted in an alphabetical order.
The Fundamental Questions read by a computer
Featured in Journal of Writing in Creative Practice
“I am the gambling of the fraudulent; I am the splendour of the splendid; I am victory; I am determination; I am the goodness of the good. I am a huge animal lover and love to spend time with my chinchilla and 2 pet rats.” – from the excellent piece of mashed-up uncreative writing called “The Fundamental Questions.” From Vicki Bennett and Gregor Weichbrodt. Further confirmation that the best use of appropriation in art is with a healthy dose of humor and joy. [And it comes in a paperback, almost the same size as your pink, half-read copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.] — Kevin Hamilton
Related item: I am that I am – A Twitterbot that combines verses from the Bhagavad Gita with user profile texts from the web. I am that I am @newmantras
