People Like Us is the stage name of London DJ

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

artist Vicki Bennett. She has released a number of albums featuring collages of music and sound since 1992. In recent years, she has performed at a number of modern art galleries, festivals and universities.

Musical career

Since 1991 Vicki Bennett has been making CDs, radio, and A/V multimedia under the name People Like Us. By animating and recontextualising found footage collages Vicki gives an equally witty and dark view of popular culture with a surrealistic edge. Vicki has shown work at, amongst others,

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

, The

National Film Theatre BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the United Kingdom, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Ins ...

Purcell Room The Purcell Room is a concert and performance venue which forms part of the Southbank Centre, one of central London's leading cultural complexes. It is named after the 17th century English composer Henry Purcell and has 370 seats. The Purcell Ro ...

, The ICA,

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

Pompidou Centre The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

, Sonar in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, The

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

. She has also performed radio sessions for the

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

, Mixing It, and also

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

KPFA KPFA (94.1 FM) is a public, listener-funded talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station signed o ...

and many more in the US. There have been features in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'', ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...

'', ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'', BBC website and ''

Bizarre Magazine ''Bizarre'' was a British alternative magazine published from 1997 to 2015.Media Information
Dennis ...

''. People Like Us have been commissioned by The

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

, The BBC,

Sonic Arts Network Sonic Arts Network was a UK-based organisation, established in 1979, that aimed to enable both audiences and practitioners to engage with the art of sound through a programme of festivals, events, commissions and education projects. Its honorary ...

, Forma, LUX and Lovebytes amongst others.

Recordings

PLU has been released on labels such as Tigerbeat6, Soleilmoon,

, Touch, Staalplaat and For Us Records (Rough Trade), both solo, and also collaborating with Matmos, Ergo Phizmiz, Wobbly, members of

Negativland Negativland is an American experimental music band that originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. The core of the band consists of Mark Hosler, David Wills (aka "The Weatherman"), Peter Conheim and Jon Leidecker (aka "Wobbly" ...

and

Christian Marclay Christian Marclay (born January 11, 1955) is a visual artist and composer. He holds both American and Swiss nationality. Marclay's work explores connections between sound art, noise music, photography, video art, film and digital animations. A p ...

. Spring 2008 saw a Retrospective of People Like Us at alt.gallery and a PLU curated CD entitled Smiling Through My Teeth, with Sonic Arts Network. The June 2008 edition of The Wire featured a 4-page interview, and the July edition featured a review of Smiling Through My Teeth. In June 2010, she released the album ''Music for the Fire'' with Wobbly on the Illegal Art label.

Performance and multimedia work

Vicki completed the Great North Run Moving Image Commission 2009, and a live A/V set premiered in October 2009 at Vancouver New Music Festival. The UK premiere was performed at

BFI Southbank BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the United Kingdom, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Inst ...

in December 2009. Vicki worked on a commission for Edinburgh Printmakers as part of the exhibition "Prints of Darkness", coinciding with

Edinburgh Art Festival The Edinburgh Art Festival is an annual visual arts festival, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, during August and coincides with the Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh International and Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Fringe festivals. The Art Fes ...

in July 2010. People Like Us recently curated "Nothing Is New, Everything Is Permitted" at AV Festival, and will soon perform concerts of "Genre Collage" at MACBA,

Liverpool Sound City Liverpool Sound City is an annual music festival and industry conference held in Liverpool, England. It was founded in 2008 by Dave Pichilingi. Sound City was located in Liverpool City Centre venues, such as The Kazimier, The Zanzibar and the ...

, Bristol Arnolfini,

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

and

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. In January 2015 her audiovisual performance Citation City premiered at

transmediale Transmediale, stylised as transmediale, is an annual festival for art and digital culture in Berlin, usually held over three to five days at the end of January and the beginning of February. transmediale takes the form of a conference (sometime ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Haus der Kulturen der Welt The Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), in English House of World Cultures, in Berlin is Germany's national center for the presentation and discussion of international contemporary arts, with a special focus on non-European cultures and societi ...

. Inspired by The Arcades Project by

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin ( ; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German-Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, media theorist, and essayist. An eclectic thinker who combined elements of German idealism, Jewish mysticism, Western M ...

, this audiovisual work is created from thousands of clippings of text and

visual media Mass media include the diverse arrays of media that reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit information electronically via media such as films, radio, recorded music, or television. Digital media comprises bot ...

, collaged using a system of “convolutes”, collated around subjects of key motifs, historical figures, social types, cultural objects from the time.

DO or DIY

People Like Us has programmed "DO or DIY", an experimental arts radio and

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

show, on

WFMU WFMU (91.1 MHz) is a non-commercial educational station, non-commercial, listener-supported, independent radio, independent community radio station city of license, licensed to East Orange, New Jersey, with studios in Jersey City. It is owned by ...

since 2003. The show appears weekly on a seasonal basis. WFMU has also created a 24-hour-per-day radio stream of sound collage and music chosen by Bennett.

Projects

* Lovebytes commission in association with

Millennium Galleries The Millennium Gallery is an art gallery and museum in the centre of Sheffield, England. Opened in April 2001 as part of Sheffield's Heart of the City project, it is located in the city centre close to the mainline station, the Central Library ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

to make three screen A/V film "Work, Rest & Play" (June 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) * Curation of CD "Smiling Through My Teeth" – Sonic Arts Network (May 2008) * 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” shown at Edinburgh Printmakers in summer 2010 (2009–2010) * Forma/AV Festival commission “Now Hear This” to make Bluetooth audio compositions for

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

(January 2008) * Future Physical commission to make digital short film "The Remote Controller" (June 2002) * Grants For The Arts commission to create 10" record to be given away for free in selected international record stores "Honeysuckle Boulevard" (August 2006) * Grants for the Arts commission to create new live A/V performance – (April 2005) * Grants For The Arts commission to make a new live A/V set entitled “Genre Collage” (2008–2009) * Grants For The Arts commission to make podcast series "Codpaste" on WFMU, where People Like Us and Ergo Phizmiz explore the working process of creating music from scratch (September 2007) * Grants For The Arts commission to release of "Rhapsody In Glue" with Ergo Phizmiz on bleep.com – an album created with audio collage sourced from the podcast “Codpaste” (May 2008) * 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 The Great North Run (branded the AJ Bell Great North Run for sponsorship purposes) is the largest half marathon in the world, taking place annually in North East England each September. Participants run between Newcastle upon Tyne and South Shie ...

, entitled “Parade” (July 2008 – October 2009) * Lecturing "Music & Other Media"-

Goldsmiths A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Modern goldsmiths mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, they have also made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and serviceable ...

, London (2006–2008) * Live session and radio broadcast for “Mixing It”,

Dingwalls Dingwalls Dancehall (original name at time of opening) is a live music and comedy venue adjacent to Camden Lock, Camden in London. The building itself is one of many industrial Victorian buildings which were put to new use in the 20th centur ...

(March 2001) and in Spitz (May 2004) * Lovebytes commission to make short film "We Edit Life" (December 2002) * LUX commission to make digital short film sourcing the LUX archive collection "Resemblage" (October 2004) * PRS Foundation award to create a new live set (with artist Ergo Phizmiz) using dansette players and self-pressed vinyl compositions "Boots!" (June 2006) * Radio session for

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

’s “Mixing It” (February 2007) * Radio session for John Peel (January 2003) * Residency at FACT to make radio play “Molaradio” in collaboration with artist

Felix Kubin Felix Kubin (born Felix Knoth; 1969 in Hamburg), is an electronic musician, composer, curator, sound and radio artist. He runs the record label Gagarin Records. Life Kubin began his musical career at the age of eight with piano and electroni ...

and

Croxteth Croxteth is a suburb of Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and a Liverpool City Council Ward. Although housing in the area is predominantly modern, the suburb has some notable history. At the 2011 census it had a population of 14,561. Etymology ...

schoolchildren (January 2004) * Retrospective exhibition of People Like Us A/V work, entitled "We Edit Life" at alt.gallery (May 2008) * Sonic Arts Network commission to make short film and subsequent DVD release – "Story Without End" – (June 2004) * Wandsworth Film Awards commission to make short digital film "Skew Gardens", exploring the boundaries of urban land use – (September 2007) * WFMU Radiovision Festival Saturday Symposium OCT 2011 Celebrating radio's future as it takes on new forms in the digital age for the medium's fans, tinkerers and future thinkers. A day of talks, panel discussions and performances. * Work & Leisure International commission to make new A/V live set – (September 1999) * Year of the Artist Residency, Hull Time Based Arts, making A/V collage – (January–April 2001) * Year of the Artist Residency, Lighthouse, Brighton with Brighton & Hove Music Library, teaching sound collage (June 2001)

Discography

This includes singles and collaboration records.

CD releases

* 1992: ''Another Kind of Humor Another Kind of Murder'' (split with Abraxas) World Serpent/GBCD1/GB1. * 1994: ''Lowest Common Dominator'' Staalplaat/STCD079. * 1994: ''Guide To Broadcasting'' Staalplaat/STMDCD2. * 1996: ''Beware The Whim Reaper" Staalplaat/STCD 101. * 1997: ''Hate People Like You'' Staalplaat/STCD 119. * 1999: ''People Like Us Meet The Jet Black Hair People In Concert'' Audioview 005. * 1999: ''Hate People Like Us'' (remix of PLU by Coil,

Death in June Death in June are a neofolk group led by English musician Douglas P. (Douglas Pearce). The band was originally formed in the United Kingdom in 1981 as a trio. However, after the other members left, in 1984 and 1985, to work on other projects, ...

, Barbed,

Christoph Heemann Christoph Heemann (born 1964) is a German musician. He was born in Aachen, West Germany. Heemann has recorded under his own name, with the tape music group H.N.A.S. (, meaning "No deer on the sofa" or "deer not on the sofa"), and with many coll ...

Bruce Gilbert Bruce Clifford Gilbert (born 18 May 1946) is an English musician. One of the founding members of the influential and experimental art punk band Wire,Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 180-182 he branched ...

, Stock, Hausen & Walkman, Rehberg & Bauer,

Mika Vainio Mika Tapio Vainio (May 15, 1963 – April 12, 2017) was a Finnish electronic musician. He was best known as a member of Pan Sonic. In addition to his real name, he recorded under the aliases Ø, Kentolevi, Philus, and Tekonivel. He has worked w ...

Boyd Rice Boyd Blake Rice (born December 16, 1956) is an American experimental sound/noise musician using the name of NON since the mid-1970s. A pioneer of industrial music, Rice was one of the first artists to use a sampler and turntable as an instrum ...

, Dummy Run, Farmer's Manual and Sons of Silence. 2CD features additionally

Cyclobe Cyclobe (1999–present) are a music duo formed by Stephen Thrower and Ossian Brown. They make hallucinatory electronic soundscapes by mixing sampled and heavily synthesized sounds with acoustic arrangements for a variety of instruments inclu ...

, Req1,

V/VM V/Vm was an alias of English musician Leyland James Kirby, used for producing experimental music. Although starting out mainly in the style of noise music, most releases under the V/Vm alias were plunderphonics, with some original compositions. ...

Sniper A sniper is a military or paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with telescopic si ...

, Mr Rotorvator,

, Xper, Xr, Venoz KS Katy Brown and Dr P Li Khan. There was an additional remix by

Andy Votel Andrew Shallcross (born 4 November 1975), known as Andy Votel, is an English musician, DJ, record producer, graphic designer and co-founder of Twisted Nerve Records and the reissue label Finders Keepers Records. As musician Violators of t ...

Badly Drawn Boy Damon Michael Gough (born 2 October 1969), known by the stage name Badly Drawn Boy, is an English indie singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Gough chose his stage name from a character in the show '' The Magic Ball'', which he saw on TV ...

, excluded for legal reasons. *''Caciocavallo/CAD1'' (CD) and Staalplaat/STCD126 (2CD) * 2000: ''Thermos Explorer'' Hot Air/Airhead002. * 2000: ''A Fistful of Knuckles'' Caciocavallo/CAD10. * 2002: ''Recyclopaedia Britannica'' Mess Media/Mess 1. * 2002: ''Preserved Cowgirl'' Asphodel – remix of Tipsy. * 2003: ''Wide Open Spaces'' Tigerbeat6 label collaboration with Matmos and Wobbly. * 2003: ''Nothing Special'' Mess03 (CD) collaboration with Kenny G * 2004: ''Windpipe Moods'' – Mukow. * 2006: ''All Together Now'' * 2007: ''Perpetuum Mobile'' - collaboration with Ergo Phizmiz. * 2010: ''Music for the Fire'' – Illegal Art label collaboration with Wobbly. * 2011: ''Welcome Abroad'' – Illegal Art label. * 2019: ''The Mirror'' Discrepant.

DAT releases

* 1994: ''It's Terrorific!'' Staalplaat.

LP releases

* 1996: ''Jumble Massive'' Soleilmoon Recordings/SOLV005. * 1996: ''File Under Easy Listening/File Under Sleazy Listening'' (split with Sniper) Kleptones 1 * 1997: ''Blundersonix/Special Mix'' (split with TFU) Kleptones 2 * 1997: ''People Like Us and Sniper Play The Three DJs of The Apocalypse'' (with Sniper) Kleptones 4. * 2019: ''The Mirror'' Discrepant.

7" releases

* 2001: ''Swing Largo/Going Out of My Town'' Klang Galerie/GG30. * 2002: Rough Trade label For Us Records. * 2008: ''Withers in the Waking'' – collaboration with Ergo Phizmiz

12" releases

* 2001: ''Home-Roam-Play/Work-All-Day'' (remix by Matmos) * 2001: Wicked Witch Records recalled due to faulty pressing * 2002: ''Stifled Love'' Mess Media/Mess 2

Other releases

* 1997: ''Lassie House'' Staalplaat/STPLUPOO1 (10" Picture Disc) * 2003: ''Volatile Media'' Lovebytes label (DVD) * 2008: ''Rhapsody in Glue'' collaboration with Ergo Phizmiz (Digital release)

References

External links

*
People Like Us weekly radio show
on

Interview with Vicki Bennett
on Ràdio Web MACBA (2010) Living people British multimedia artists Artists from London Sound collage artists Musicians from London 1967 births Soleilmoon artists {{DEFAULTSORT:Us, People Like