Presented by Deep Assignments, the London-based artist collective founded by Amanda Butterworth and Matt Spendlove, this inaugural evening of experimental sound art and critical dialogue features a lineup of pioneering practitioners working at the intersection of acoustic ecology, AI-driven narratives, and live multichannel performance.

• Machine Listening presents Environments 12 (Joel Stern, James Parker & Sean Dockray): An multichannel reimagining of the classic Environments field-recording series, where human narrators, AI-cloned voices and planetary-scale loudspeakers converge to conjure speculative ecologies, reef lullabies and future-ruined sound worlds.
• James Parker: Delivers a lecture entitled The Planetization of Machine Listening
• Kate Carr: Drawing on her album A Field Guide to Phantasmic Birds, Carr’s work traverses the boundary between naturalistic field recordings and algorithmic fabrication, inviting listeners to question what is real, what is synthesised, and how we encounter “more-than-human” sound.
• Amanda Butterworth & Matt Spendlove: Co-founders of Deep Assignments, will present their new collaborative works of sonic architecture, in which emergent algorithmic processes carve a 3D aural space of phasing minimalism.
• Q&A hosted by Angela McArthur (UCL): In a relaxed salon format, McArthur will guide an open discussion in which audience questions, critical perspectives and peer-to-peer exchange become integral to the evening’s unfolding.

What to Expect

• Immersive Sonic Performances: Multichannel presentations that transform sound into a spatial journey, weaving new sonic architectures.
• Speculative Eco-Sonic Narratives: AI-cloned narrators, glitching field recordings and digital artefacts converge to conjure phantom ecologies and future-ruined sound worlds.
• Open Discussion: A relaxed salon format where the audience’s questions and perspectives become an active part of the event.
• Community: Connect with artists, musicians, technologists and fellow listeners in a supportive, DIY setting dedicated to interdisciplinary listening, thinking and making.

Deep Assignments is a London-based collective founded by artists Amanda Butterworth and Matt Spendlove to foster interdisciplinary listening, thinking and making. Through performances, screenings, happenings, workshops and salons, Deep Assignments cultivates a space for creative discussion, collective support and critical exchange - “a space to honour our assignments, independent of established institutions.” In an age of accelerating technological change and growing social fragmentation, Deep Assignments emphasises the creative endeavour as an existential task, affirming its intrinsic value beyond capital.