I’m developing this piece with support from Sound and Music UK, whose In Motion programme is enabling me to take my artistic practice into a new phase, working with spatial sound. This journey began with a visit to Moscow and St Petersburg as part of the British Council’s UK-Russia Year of Music, a cultural exchange promoting collaboration between UK and Russian artists. There, I met musicians and technologists working at the intersection of sound and AI, which sparked my research into machine learning and musique concrète—a way of creating music using recorded sound.  

On my return, I continued this research through a two-year residency with the NOVARS electroacoustic department at the University of Manchester, in collaboration with the Royal Northern College of Music’s Centre for Practice and Research in Science and Music (PRiSM). Alongside my research, I created NEURAL MATERIALS, a live AV performance that explored how sound and AI can work together through sculpture and electronics. I built a custom system using Bela sensor technology, allowing me to interact with metal sculpture and play AI samples with gesture. Key to my practice and research was developing methods for building custom concréte datasets using field recordings of Manchester millscapes, cotton machinery from Quarry Bank Mill, and the material sounds of electricity, water, glass, and metal.  

These datasets were used to train a generative neural synthesis model, PRiSM SampleRNN, which produced entirely new sonic materialities: Manchester’s own spectral “aura.” From this, I created AURA MACHINE, a live AV performance based on these early AI sound experiments.  

It was through this work that I became interested in latent space. I’m drawn to the idea of “statistical alchemy,” the notion that computational spaces can be mythical and full of potential, where sound material is constantly in flux. I was also fascinated by the visual representations of latent space in AI textbooks and began to imagine what it might feel like to step inside.  

There is, of course, a critical context to this work. AI systems are already impacting our lives and the environment in complex, often troubling ways. These systems are invisible and abstract, yet they loom large in our collective unconscious, symbolising fear, myth, and hope. With LATENT SPACES, I want to open a dialogue about the hidden infrastructures of generative AI and their impact on labour, the environment, and artistic creation.  

I’m acutely aware of the ethical implications of bias and concerns around authorship in training datasets, so it’s important that during my process I work with datasets of my own recordings. I know the origin of every sound, undertake all the labour and the model used small amounts of local computational training at RNCM. 

My sound art practice explores materiality, electrical phenomena, and ritual, and it’s interesting to reflect on how this has evolved in relation to Oxford Road. Ten years ago, I left my job in youth arts at the Whitworth to begin an art foundation course at Manchester School of Art. It was the best decision I ever made. There, I got into electronics, experimented with amplifying materials and building metal sculptures, inspired by musique concrète and the 1920s Russian avant-garde. Having the time and space to focus on making helped me take myself seriously as an artist. I’ve had a studio at Rogue Artists’ Studios ever since.  

From 2015 to 2020, I was part of Noise Orchestra, a DIY electronics duo with David Birchall. We built “Noise Machines” (light-to-noise synthesisers), led circuit-making workshops, and created immersive soundwalks. I loved the physicality of working with wires and electricity. This hands-on practice, combined with my love of field recording, led to my solo music-making and electronic production skills, which I developed further through a course at Spirit Studios.  

Now, as a solo performer, I create custom AV performance systems using DIY interfaces, circuits, and live electronics. I release music under the name SONAMB. My debut album ‘SLEEPSTATES’ came out in 2022 on Control Data Records, alongside a net-art piece (sleepstates.net). I regularly perform live, with recent gigs supporting Forest Swords and past shows at MUTEK, Modern Art Oxford, and IKLEKTIK in London. My work seeks to demystify technology and improve access. As a freelance music and tech educator, I often lead youth programmes supporting women in sound, and in 2020, I was honoured to receive an Oram Award for music innovation—a highlight, as I’ve long been inspired by the women of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. 

Place is a deep source of inspiration in my work. LATENT SPACES is a love letter not only to Manchester’s sonic and industrial heritage but also to my dad, who began his career as an electrical engineering apprentice at Quarry Bank Mill. I live in Hulme, just a stone’s throw from Oxford Road. From my home studio, I can see the zigzag of headlights and hear the low hum of the Mancunian Way. Though I grew up in the suburbs, I’ve lived and worked in Hulme for 20 years. My dad was born just two streets away. My grandad worked on building the Crescents, and my dad played around Leaf Street Baths and Little Ireland. He later studied computer programming at Manchester Met in the ’90s.  

He would have loved that I’m making a sound piece about machine learning, just down the road from the birthplace of modern computing. 

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LATENT SPACES is at SEESAW from 23-26th October. Vicky will introduce her artistic practice working in music production, DIY electronics, sculpture and digital art at SEESAW on 8 October at part of The Cultural Welcome.

AURA MACHINE is available on LOL Editions, SLEEPSTATES is available on Control Data Records  

Find out more vickyclarke.org