The BBC and Arts Council England have announced the names of the two artists who will be given access to archive material in order to produce original works of art. Vicki Bennet and Chris Dorley-Brown will both take up four-month placements which will be funded by Arts Council England and hosted by the BBC.
Vicki will be given unrestricted access to the entire BBC archive […]. Both will be given free reign to manipulate, mix and rework the material to create a series of artworks.
Vicki has been working with remixing video for the past 15 years under the name People Like Us and has had work exhibited at the Tate Modern and Sydney Opera House. The results of her placement will be shown within the BBC. If the material can be cleared, it will be exhibited more widely.
Commenting on her placement, Vicki said: “As an artist working with found footage, my interest lies in the appropriating and collaging of media in hope of gaining some kind of insight, reflection and evaluation as to where we stand in relation to when the original material was made. By taking something apart and putting it in a new location it can shed new light on both where we have come from and where we stand and should go next. This is why it is so very important that archives should be accessible, in the way that libraries are.”
this is perfect, if anyone should be given this residency and be allowed to dig around the creative archive its vicky/people like us. i am positive the outcome will be wonderful and totally weird. yup. at the same time. lets just hope they will clear the material for wider distribution …
oh, peoplelikeus.org vicky’s website has also been redone quite a bit. there are still tons of downloads if you want to sample the wild creative mind that is vicky bennet, one of the true pioneers in the mashup/plunderphonics field.