Vicki Bennett explores the processes of making audiovisual content, working with archives and found footage. Using collage as a compositional tool opens up endless opportunities to create and experience results that are more than the sum of their parts, opening doors (and windows) to let light in and move beyond limited and repetitive ways of creative thinking.
In this Somerset House Studios podcast, we revisit Vicki Bennett’s talk as part of The Wire magazine’s Music By Any Means series, which was part of Grounding Practice, a rolling programme shaped by and for creative practitioners and critical thinkers.
Part of The Wire: Music By Any Means.
Grounding Practice / Somerset House Studios
Audio produced by Weyland Mckenzie-Witter as part of The Creator in Residence Programme at Somerset House, supported by The Rothschild Foundation.
DO or DIY with People Like Us on WFMU
Since Autumn 2003 People Like Us have been doing a weekly show on WFMU, called DO or DIY. The aim of the show is to mix highbrow with lowbrow to challenge whether there is much difference. Archived playlists of at least 200 shows from 2003 to the present day can be found at www.wfmu.org/peoplelikeus
Vicki Bennett also curated/programmed RADIO BOREDCAST in Winter 2011/Spring 2012. It was first broadcast on basic.fm and now is archived at WFMU. More recently, Vicki Bennett has programmed OPTIMIZED!, a week-long expanded radio stream on WFMU 6-10 June 2016.
Subscribe to the Podcast of DO or DIY by clicking here – it will prompt your iTunes program to open, where you will receive the podcasts.
About DO or DIY
DO or DIY is a freeform sound art radio show broadcast weekly by Vicki Bennett (project name People Like Us) on WFMU.
The philosophy behind the show is simple. That within the realms of avant-garde and experimental sound art the goalposts defining “accessible” and “inaccessible” are constantly moving. As the radar rises and dips, fragments and shards of underground creations unearth, and popular culture and artist resonate, shifting shapes accordingly with one another in reflections of changing spotlights.
The avant-garde and popular culture rely on each other’s energy. People Like Us collage both “hard to listen” works and popular listening matter, showing that in fact, beyond the restrictions of genre, genre IS the restriction and it is possible to like many kinds of art and music. The key is finding the door – DO or DIY leads the way into new and unusual realms of listening and hope to show the way in.
Each show consists of collages made of sound works from the 20th and 21st century, often layered and looped many times over, resulting in an album type effect on each show.
The pun “All Things Avant-Retard”, a rhyme with “All Things Avant-Garde” literally means All Things Forward-Backwards. Essentially by using sonic extremes and apparent opposites we find some sort of central point or balanced perspective on music and sound.
Suggested Listening: DO or DIY fill in for Ken.
New Free WFMU iPhone/iPod Touch app!
Also, if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch we are also pleased to announce that you can listen to not only the regular WFMU stream on the move at a glorious 128k, but also all of our special streams, recent DJ show archives and DJ podcasts including all of DO or DIY!
You can download the much improved updated free WFMU app right here.
DO or DIY returns to WFMU Summer Schedule 2017
We are very pleased to let you know that DO or DIY with People Like Us will return to the WFMU air and etherwaves this summer. The first show will be Monday 5 June 2017, and will run weekly through to and including 4 September 2017. The show time is 6-7pm NY time (that’s 11-midnight UK), and all shows will be archived shortly after, and podcast.
Graham Duff on DO or DIY
Graham Duff presents Dreamhouse Girls
on DO or DIY with People Like Us on WFMU
Monday 17 March 2014 @7pm-8pm NY Time
(that’s 11pm on Monday evening UK at the moment because US have already changed to daylight savings time whereas many of us elsewhere haven’t!)
Listen http://wfmu.org & broadcasting at 91.1 fm New York, at 90.1 fm in Hudson Valley
Tonight’s live playlist is now set up: http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/54851
Graham is an actor, producer and screenwriter. He created the TV comedy shows ‘Ideal’, ’Dr. Terrible’s House of Horrible’ and ‘Hebburn’. For radio he’s written the long running sci-fi sit-com ‘Nebulous’ and the comedy drama ‘Stereonation’. As a script editor, he’s edited seven series of Radio 4’s Sony award winning ‘Count Arthur Strong’s Radio Show’ as well as the recent Alan Partridge movie ‘Alpha Papa’. He’s also a part time DJ and full time music obsessive. http://www.grahamduff.co.uk
ERGO PHIZMIZ on DO or DIY
ERGO PHIZMIZ Shoots Peas on DO or DIY with People Like Us on WFMU
Monday 10 February 2014 @7pm-8pm NY Time (that’s midnight on Monday evening UK) Listen http://wfmu.org & broadcasting at 91.1 fm New York, at 90.1 fm in Hudson Valley
PLAYLIST here http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/54387
Ergo Phizmiz takes us on a magical mystery tour into the workings of the world of his Wild West dream odyssey “PEASHOOT“, which opens in August 2014 at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival, London. Expect an artist’s notebook falling to pieces, 1920s English versions of Cowboy tunes, a yodelling extravaganza, Jodorowsky waltzing with Morricone, thunder, lightning, rain and Marlene Dietrich.
http://ergophizmiz.blogspot.co.uk/
DO or DIY radio show returns to WFMU!
We are pleased to inform you that we return to the WFMU radio air and etherwaves (as well as archives and podcastworld!) with a weekly show from this coming Monday 2nd December 2013, through to 2nd June 2014. The show broadcasts at 7pm NY Time (that is midnight Monday night UK), and is accessible both on FM radio in the NY area and online worldwide.
Here is the new schedule:
https://www.wfmu.org/table?period=32
Playlists and archive for DO or DIY with People Like Us are archived here, going back right to 2003.
http://wfmu.org/peoplelikeus
DO or DIY Radio Show on WFMU, 1 May 2013
DO or DIY will be doing a fill-in radio show between 7pm and 8pm NY time on 1st May on WFMU!
Tune in live at http://wfmu.org or at 91.1 fm in New York, at 90.1 fm in the Hudson Valley.
Alternatively if you miss the show live you can find the show archive at http://wfmu.org/peoplelikeus – it will also download automatically if you are subscribed to the DO or DIY podcast.
Hurricane Sandy hit WFMU hard – please help
The 24 hour DO or DIY program archives remain safe and our 24-hour stream server was broken for several days following Hurricane Sandy, but now it is back! Just in time to take it down again to make an entirely new stream in weeks to come… but more on that later…
Hurricane Sandy also broke a lot of electrical equipment, damaged the WFMU transmitter sites and caused the cancellation of a huge source of income for the station – the WFMU Record Fair. DJ’s houses have been flooded and battered and many are just getting their power back now – and many are still in darkness, without light, heat or any means of leaving. The station is really in need of your support, being listener funded – the running costs for the station are just under 2 million dollars a year – it’s a big set up, and as of the last week we’re running on reserves of the reserves of the reserves.
Station Manager Ken Freedman will do a State of the Station report this Wednesday 4th November, but in the meantime here’s a sort of State of the Station with Prog Rock and Psychoanalysis with Ken and Clay Pigeon.
http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/48009
Please help the station – you can even get a t-shirt, DJ premium CD (and other items)… thanks.
Pledge WFMU
… on the edge of the Hudson River, Jersey City, NY. Need we say any more? OK then…
WFMU’s Silent Fundraiser is still on, but we’re segueing into Disaster Marathon Mode as we uncover more and more damage at our studios and transmitter sites, combined with an enormous loss we’re taking due to the cancellation of the Record Fair. Because of the Hurricane damage, the silent drive has been extended and is going loud and proud. We only just nudged past the 75% mark of our October goal, which doesn’t even take the Hurricane damage or Record Fair loss into account. Make a pledge now and help WFMU recover from electrical, water and financial damage suffered during the Hurricane. Disaster or no, we have a great new Turntable T-shirt or holiday music compilation, WFMU’s War on Christmas (featuring an exclusive unreleased mix of Big Star’s “Jesus Christ”, plus James Pants, Klaus Nomi and more).
Oh.. and the DO or DIY 24 hour stream server is completely fried. Kapotte!
If that ain’t enough, here’s poor Station Manager Ken trying to cycle to WFMU (and failing), leaving his home basement in 4 foot of water.
More DO or DIY podcasts on their way
We may be taking some time off of the regular WFMU schedule, but this doesn’t mean you go without DO or DIY. We were busy earlier this year with Radio Boredcast, which included a bunch of DO or DIY and/with People Like Us radio shows. And we’ve gathered them together to be delivered weekly as part of our DO or DIY podcast on WFMU.
Over the coming weeks you will hear shows called Earworms (about those songs that get stuck in your head), 1234 (about counting and ordering of information in music and sound art), Blather (a journey through noises the mouth makes in sound art, ethnopoetics, music, comedy and beyond), Boring (where friends interviewed their children about all things boring!), Broken Music (about the manipulation of the sound source, cutting up, breaking and bending things out of shape), and a Spring Equinox show (!!)…
To subscribe go to http://wfmu.org/podcast and scroll to “Do or DIY with People Like Us”. If you are already subscribed then the episodes will arrive when you next open iTunes.
People Like Us featured in two recent Radio Web MACBA podcasts
People Like Us recently featured in two different Radio Web MACBA Podcasts/PDFs…
Firstly, Jon Leidecker’s ongoing Variations series all about sampling, which you can find here:
http://rwm.macba.cat/en/curatorial/variations7_jon_leidecker/capsula
Secondly, Kenneth Goldsmith’s interview/lecture Memorabilia. Collecting Sounds With… all about his music collection, which you can find here:
http://rwm.macba.cat/en/research/memorabilia_kenneth_goldsmith/capsula
Radio Boredcast Schedule
The Schedule for Radio Boredcast, running from Noon on 1st March 2012 to Midnight 31st March is now up and is broadcasting online!
Listen at Basic.fm
If you have problems listening through a browser because you are at work etc, you can listen to the mp3 stream here – Just open iTunes, go to Advanced on the Menu bar and Open Stream and past it in.
http://www.avfestival.co.uk/programme/2012 – navigate using the Radio Boredcast link or by viewing each day of the AV Festival calendar in its entirety. Or follow the links below that take you to each day.
Meanwhile, subscribe to the Radio Boredcast Preview podcast – which runs from now until the end of March 2012. Clicking on this link will prompt your computer to open iTunes. This is normal, let it do so.
THUR 1
FRI 2
SAT 3
SUN 4
MON 5
TUE 6
WED 7
THUR 8
FRI 9
SAT 10
SUN 11
MON 12
TUE 13
WED 14
THUR 15
FRI 16
SAT 17
SUN 18
MON 19
TUE 20
WED 21
THUR 22
FRI 23RD
SAT 24TH
SUN 25TH
MON 26
TUE 27
WED 28
THUR 29
SAT 31
avfestival.co.uk / thepixelpalace.org
HERE’S THE FULL LIST OF PARTICIPANTS!
The full list of participants in Radio Boredcast with new and exclusive recordings and shows are Carl Stone, Pseu Braun & Alex Orlov, Touch, Rob Weisberg, Nicolas Collins, Andrew Lahman, Chris & Cosey, Jonathan Dean and Transmuteo, Cheese Snob Wendy, Kevin Nutt, Tony Coulter, Daniel Menche, Scott Williams, John Wynne, Chris Watson, Jem Finer and Longplayer, Tim Maloney, Ergo Phizmiz, Matmos, Dave Soldier, Charlie and Busy Doing Nothing, Andrew Sharpley, Nancy O Graham, Gwilly Edmondez, Anna Ramos & Roc Jiménez De Cisneros, Doug Horne, Irene Moon, David Suisman, Radio Web MACBA, Mark Gergis and Porest, Jez Riley French, Don Joyce, Carlo Patrao and Zepelim, Dorian Jones, Jason Willett, Zach Layton, Primate Arena with Alex Drool and Eran Sachs, David Toop, Dylan Nyoukis, Jared Blum and GiganteSound, Ed Pinsent, Adrian Philips aka Mr Rotorvator, Axel Stockburger, Craig Dworkin, Felix Kubin, People Like Us, Language Removal Services, Daniela Cascella, John Levack Drever, Joel Eaton, Clay Pigeon, Gudrun Gut, Charles Powne, Carl Abrahamsson, Andreas Bick and Silent Listening, Phantom Circuit, Patti Schmidt aka Wheelie Houdini, Leif Elggren, Ken Freedman, Erik Bünger, Douglas Benford, Christof Migone, BJNilsen, Andy Baio, Adam Thomas aka Preslav Literary School, Caroline Bergvall, Ken’s Last Ever Radio Extravaganza, Tapeworm, Brent Clough and The Night Air, Ilan Volkov, Nat Roe, Steven Ball, X41, The Long Now Foundation, Sharon Gal, Michael Ruby, Jonathan Leidecker, DJ/rupture, Gordon Monahan, Michael Cumella aka MAC, Lloyd Dunn and nula, DDDJJJ666, and Kenneth Goldsmith.
PODCAST
Subscribe to the Radio Boredcast free podcast now – it will arrive into your iTunes with previews of show highlights every 2-3 days through the month of March. Subscribe Now and receive a Welcome podcast.
Subscribe via iTunes here –
itpc://radioboredcast.podomatic.com/rss2.xml
Or through the apple store –
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/radio-boredcast/id501309800
ANDROID AND iPHONE APP
Radio Boredcast is hosted by BASIC.fm, and there’s a free Android and iPhone app that you can download now as one way to listen to the radio station while on the move. BASIC.fm already exists in it’s own form, and magically will change into Radio Boredcast throughout the month of March.
For iPhone – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/basic-fm/id481267209?ls=1&mt=8
For Android – https://market.android.com/details?id=com.bandxmedia.basicfm
BLOG POST by Vicki Bennett about Radio Boredcast http://www.avfestival.co.uk/blog/2012/02/19/radio-boredcast-presents
INTERVIEW with Vicki Bennett about Radio Boredcast http://www.thepixelpalace.org/basicfm/radio-boredcast
REVIEWS
WIRED interview http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/03/slow-radio/
The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/mar/07/av-festival-as-slow-possible/print
BACKGROUND ON RADIO BOREDCAST…
Time is a curious thing – on one hand we complain about being so busy we just don’t know what to do with ourselves, and on the other hand we literally don’t know what to do with ourselves and say we are bored. Given that we need more time, when we are not killing it, it is also strange that (in the western world) we are so obsessed with speed – the one thing guaranteed to make us miss out on the detail, complexity and depth of experience in exchange for thrills and illusions of gaining something, that “something” often being more time. It is with these thoughts that I’ve entered into curating “Radio Boredcast” for AV Festival 12.
The first thing that struck me is that 744 hours is quite a long time. 744 minutes is a long time. Four weeks lined up in iTunes is a long playlist. It would be easy to think about how to fill this up as quickly as possible, but that’s Speediness rearing it’s rather worn out head again. “Slow” is subtle, it avoids the obvious, the short cut or the first hurdle; it is to start at the end of the race and see where we are running to. The only thing to be stretched is the concept of what Slow actually might be – the only aim to make it an engaging, entertaining and unpredictable a listening experience as possible.
Radio Boredcast has and impressive list of participants, providing content in the form of specially produced new and unpublished works, playlists and regular freeform radio shows, field recordings, interviews and monologues and much, much more.
While listening, you may hear adults talking for hours about slowness and children complaining about how boring it all is, thematic freeform radio shows, mathematical experiments and time-based compositions, field recordings of nature’s cycles and underwater rumblings, musical meanderings through memory and inner worlds of sleepless nights; across landscapes and back through time, discovering the world of ritual and speaking in tongues by way of babbling poets and bubbling brooks full of musical elephants, a voyage into deep concréte through art gallery toilets, scientific discussions on insects and evolutionary biology, ultrasound recordings of bats, journeys through very slow cheese, soundscapes from faraway lands with long phonecalls full of language removal, testcard music and shipping forecasts, vast sweeping summaries of the entire history of everything, and then… Silence. Outside of this will be programming of thematic playlists all the way through “Acconci” (Vito) to “Zzz…” (Leif Elggren & Thomas Liljenberg)
Here’s how the schedule began… on post-its in an A2 notepad.
UPDATE (June 2012): Radio Boredcast is now archived at WFMU:
www.wfmu.org/playlists/ZZ