Victoria S Porter is a London musician and multimedia artist who performs under the alias Vanity Crystal.
Drawing upon sampling, demystification and social deviance, her work has been presented at venues and festivals including Cafe OTO, Iklectik, Gallery46, VSSL and Supernormal Festival. She is a member of the bands Rubber and Traidora.
Both solo and as one half of Voices Radio residents Repetitive Strain, Porter has spent a decade curating radio and events with carefully-woven anti-genre approach.
Informed by her time as a founding volunteer of co-operative arts venue DIY Space For London, her work as a broadcaster has appeared on platforms including Balamii, Refuge Worldwide, Resonance Xtra and NTS.
Vanity Crystal
My Love Sings In Calcite
My Love Sings In Calcite is an immersive electroacoustic piece constructed from hours of recordings made at the Sea Organ – a 75m-wide water instrument installed into the deteriorated sea wall of Zadar, Croatia.
Placed within a vast flight of marble steps, the Adriatic Sea’s waves push air through 35 pipes to produce constant and ever-shifting tones inspired by the Dalmatian choral tradition of klapa. Experimental recording techniques accentuate the breath (and breadth) of the instrument before gradually pulling the organ’s song beyond its own boundaries via subtle digital processing.
In both live performance and installation, the work is paired with a video piece filmed on location in Zadar. The piece was debuted at the group performance event UNCOMMON held at London’s Iklectik in April 2026.
Credits:
Recorded and produced by Victoria S Porter
Video directed by Victoria S Porter
Sea Organ conceived by Marinaprojekt d.o.o.
2026
Victoria S Porter
Facial Hair Threnody (Toot Toot, Beep Beep)
Facial Hair Threnody (Toot Toot, Beep Beep) is a mixed-media installation work of infinite length.
A recording made during a session of electrolysis – a form of permanent hair removal via electrical current – is played continuously into a room with no identifiable break point. The installation’s duration is therefore variable dependent on the space it is shown, technological fault or external factors.
Sonically consisting largely of two constant alternating tones of the epilator and the studio’s background streaming playlist, the artist’s absence questions the concept of singular artistic authorship. On the wall, three ceramic casts look outward at the otherwise empty space. The faces intrude on this neutrality, withholding if their purpose is one of elation or grief.
Making an intensely mundane process public, the installation challenges expectations of transgender people to perform sensationalist stories of transition for a heterosexual and cisgender audience.
Credits:
Concept, recording and electrolysis recipient – Victoria S Porter
Electrologist – Emma Chottin
Ceramic and 3D print technical support – Jules Stuart
Installed at VSSL, London
2026
Victoria S Porter
It Plays Itself For £40 – or – Sacrificial Vessel Which Flows Only When Money Is Introduced
It Plays Itself For £40 – or – Sacrificial Vessel Which Flows Only When Money Is Introduced is an installation conceived for the group exhibition METONOMY, held at London’s Gallery46 in January 2025. Part of the exhibition’s event programming included an additional Vanity Crystal live set performed in the gallery’s main room.
The work consists of a reconstructed snare drum installed with a handmade speaker, using a 72mm x 39mm Y30BH ferrite ring magnet and conducive copper foil. This is then connected to a piezo microphone, with the microphone’s high sensitivity responding to its surroundings and creating a malleable feedback loop.
An itemised risograph list of the installation’s cost (in line with the exhibition’s £40 artist budget) is wheatpasted to the wall. Alongside it, a risograph print displays a quotation from the ancient text The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria that gives the piece its subtitle. Attendees were invited to touch, and therefore play, the instrument in whatever way they wish.
Credits:
Concept, design, printing and installation – Victoria S Porter
Technical support – Rory Salter
Installed at Gallery46, London
2025
Rubber
Rubber is a hardcore punk band formed of ex-members of Joy-Rides, Scrap Brain, Negative Space and Sauna Youth. The band refuses all social media and currently no recordings are publicly available.
Live performances have occurred at Cafe OTO, Supernormal Festival, Fish Factory Penryn, Dalston Superstore, Sanford Housing Co-Operative and London’s 100 Club. Acts the band has shared bills with include Wolf Eyes, Container, Nina Harries, Mvcoko and Guttersnipe. Please Consider.
“Amphetamine warpers” – The Wire
Credits:
Live photography – James Burgess
Cloud Man promotional videos directed by Victoria S Porter
Cloud Man – Himself
Victoria S Porter
Heaven Is A Place Where Nothing Ever Happens (Bootleg Mix For Gabriel Trupin)
Heaven Is A Place Where Nothing Ever Happens (Bootleg Mix For Gabriel Trupin) is a deep house track constructed entirely from field recordings made at Heaven – London’s 1,725-capacity gay superclub credited with birthing the genre of ambient house.
Once a home of pioneering DJ techniques, controversial hedonism and new genres of dance music, the club now exclusively hosts nights playing upbeat major label pop music. Three hours of field recordings were made on a Monday night at the club. The number of paid entrants to the club during the recording session was three people.
The piece uses bass spatialisation counter-productive to club speaker systems, in direct reference to the production techniques used on DJ Sprinkles’ critical deep house text Midtown 120 Blues. The track’s dedication to Gabriel Trupin – a dancer publicly outed as gay by Madonna in her 1992 film Truth or Dare – references the album’s overview of the effects of commercialisation of gay subcultures.
Linked to the venue’s role in ambient house’s development, the song’s ambient mix – Heaven Is A Place Where Nothing Ever Happens (1,267 In 1992 Ambientisation) directly references public statistics of UK AIDS deaths in the same year. After receiving a settlement fee from Madonna for invasion of privacy, fraud and intentional misrepresentation, Gabriel Trupin died of AIDS age 26.
In 2016, Heaven’s owner Jeremy Joseph received public criticism for interview comments blaming a perceived rise in Soho’s crime rate on Somali people. Shortly after the piece’s conception in 2024, Heaven’s license was briefly revoked due to a sexual assault incident by a security guard at the club.
Credits:
Recorded and produced by Victoria S Porter
Ambientisation video produced by Victoria S Porter
DJ set performance – Karlie Marx
Mastering – Victoria S Porter
2024
Victoria S Porter
Modes of Physicality (Bodily Disintegration for Kazuo Ohno) / Modes of Physicality (Layer Mix)
Modes of Physicality (Bodily Disintegration for Kazuo Ohno) was composed as part of the compilation Modes of Physicality. The compilation was released as an 88 x 55mm 4-colour risograph card, printed on 210gsm recycled card stock.
The compilation was made in collaboration with artists Tal Lilburn, Mouse Purbrick, and Xiaoyu Jin. An improvised performance with Purbrick and Lilburn interpreted the card’s graphic score with limited instrumentation. The event’s recording was then individually interpreted by the four artists as individual pieces.
The work utlises an “input-no-input mixer” as its sole compositional tool, pushing the original recording through only the mixer’s send and return while other inputs are fed into themselves.
A final track – Modes of Physicality (Layer Mix) – plays all four contributions as one simultaneous whole.
Credits:
Graphic Score – Tal Lilburn, Mouse Purbrick, Victoria S Porter
Print – Victoria S Porter
Mastering – Victoria S Porter
2024
Negative Space
Negative Space was a maximal-minimalism hardcore punk band active from 2015 – 2024. The band quickly grew to foreground electronic noise texture and live vocal manipulation, eventually abandoning rock instrumentation entirely before disbandment.
During tenure as vocalist from 2017 onwards, Negative Space released two full LPs on Drunken Sailor Records, two live EPs and undertook four European tours. Debut LP Gestalt was co-released with the brief establishment of in-house label Austerity Realm.
“Martial stomp spiked with feedback sculpture” – The Quietus
Credits:
Negative Freedom
Filmed and edited by RDP
Directed by Negative Space
Screen title design by VSP
Taken from Cruelty LP/DL
2019
Cruelty
Recorded and mixed at Allee der Kosmonauten by T Rex
Mastering by Daniel Husayn at North London Bomb Factory
Art direction and layout by VSP
DRUNKENSAILOR104
2019
Gestalt
Recorded and mixed by Ben Hunter at The Audacious Art Experiment
Mastering by Daniel Husayn at North London Bomb Factory
Art direction and layout by VSP
DRUNKENSAILOR082 / AR001
2017
Live video filmed at La Station Gare Des Mines, Paris
2019
Slab City
Slab City was a musicial project formed for the First Timers festival held at DIY Space For London in 2017. The object of the festival is that an entire day (or in the case of 2016 and 2017, two days) bands perform their first show. At least two members must be playing an instrument they have not played before and the band must have diversity of sexuality or gender.
Regina Delle Streghe was released in 2018 on the personal label Austerity Realm, before the band disbanded shortly after.
Regina Delle Streghe créditos:
Grabado en Sound Savers, Londres por Mark Jasper
Masterizado por Daniel Husayn en North London Bomb Factory
Dirección artística y maquetación a cargo de Victoria S Porter
AR002
2018
Border
Border was an inverted hardcore punk band consisting solely of bass guitar and drums, formed under the premise of removing all auxiliary function from a rock band format. The band would ironically cease due to visa restrictions.
A cassette EP was released by Far So Far in 2015 to no fanfare.
Credits:
Border
Recorded to tape and mastered by Peter J Andrews
Photography and layout by Victoria S Porter
FSF-005
2015
Live video filmed at DIY Space For London by John Andrews
2016
Repetitive Strain
Co-founded with Ben Perkins (Another Subculture), Repetitive Strain is a vehicle for live events, radio broadcasts and subcultural writing celebrating “RECTANGLE MUSIC”. How do you explain?
Past radio show guests include Hesse Press author Hannah Baer (Trans Girl Suicide Museum), Guttersnipe, No Home, writer and radio host Bryony Beynon (The Spiral Times/Refuge Worldwide), Shearman (EARWORM) and Demystification Magazine (NTS).
Created as a series of self-produced mixes in 2016, the show’s refusal to adhere to singular genre has seen residencies on Deptford pirate radio station Comet (2020), Threads Radio (2021 – 2020) and Balamii (2024 – 2022). The show became a resident of Voices Radio in January 2025. Aside from its own operations, Repetitive Strain has collaborated to produce monthly radio for Maximum Rocknroll Radio (2020) and DIY Space For London’s NTS residency (2017).
In 2018, it was invited to take part in Marilyn Thompson’s BROADCAST – a week-long DJ performance installation simultaneously occurring in London’s Ormside Projects and Elephant and Castle’s now-demolished shopping centre. In 2025, it co-curated the introductory night of Dalston Superstore’s queer punk event series SPIT with Jan Margolius (Maggot Death) and E Roisin (Noods Radio) to immediate sell-out.
Ben Perkins produces audio and print under the name Another Subculture, beginning with the Malicious Telecommunications tape zine series in 2013. Since 2019, Another Subculture has operated as a free events listings calendar printed monthly and as regular zine output. His work under the AS banner has been featured in MagCulture, The Wire and VICE.
Vanity Crystal
Guest Mixes
Invited guest mix curations for o•rbyss (2024), Refuge Worldwide (2023), Loose.fm (2022), Netil Radio (2021) and Lower Grand Radio (2021) exploring themes of armed struggle, transgender identity and lesbian interpretations of chopped & screwed music.
kane stonestreet & Vanity Crystal
a gift, as yet (it might become)
a gift, as yet (it might become) was an improvised live action at held at London performance space VSSL, as part of their regular open studio evening in collaboration with kane stonestreet.
In the performance, stonestreet wove moss slowly into their body as a healing ritual and grieving process, whilst sound in the room was sampled and reprocessed live in combination with additional mono recordings.
kane stonestreet is a transdisciplinary performance artist that deals with time, perversions and intimate communication. Their work has been performed at Sprungturm Festival, Live Art Ireland and Belfast International Performance Art Festival, amongst others.
Credits:
Performance – kane stonestreet
Performance – Victoria S Porter
Photography – Henri T
Performed at VSSL, London
2023
Merging
Close
Close is an iterative audio work, poem and live performance piece of undefined length by Merging – the electronic production duo of Yves Sanglante and Victoria S Porter.
Held at London’s VSSL art space, here the work was presented in semi-improvised version using triggered samplers and Sanglante’s live vocals with durational body movement.
Yves Sanglante is an artist across multiple digital and analog mediums including collage, video, performance and sound. As an archivist and historian, he has curated group exhibitions with the sex worker rights collectives Objects of Desire and With Legs Wide Open at the Schwules Museum in Berlin. In 2021, he co-curated ICA London exhibition Decriminalised Futures, reviewed as “morally bankrupt” by The Telegraph.
Credits:
Production and performance – Merging
Performed at VSSL, London
2023
Victoria S Porter
(You Remind Me of) A Butoh Dancer
(You Remind Me of) A Butoh Dancer was a live improvisational piece taking place at London performance space VSSL. The work explores grief, dependency and repetitious labour utilising processed recordings of intimate home disability care, household items and hydrophone mics.
A new audio version was recorded and released on the Billo cassette compilation Bildende Künstler*Innen versuchen Musik zu machen Vol.3 as Vanity Crystal in 2024.
Performance credits:
Performance and audio production – Victoria S Porter
Performed at VSSL, London
2022
Bildende Künstler*Innen versuchen Musik zu machen Vol.3
Writing and production – Victoria S Porter
Mastering – T Rex
Released by Billo Tontraeger
2024
DIY Space for London Free Orchestra
Imaginary Landscape No.4 for 12 Radios
A one-time unrehearsed interpretation of John Cage’s 1951 piece Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (March No. 2) at DIY Space For London’s inaugural Radio Festival in 2016.
The work was scored and re-interpreted with the inclusion of a metronome by the London-based artist Sop, before being performed by 24 people under the banner of the DIY Space for London Free Orchestra.
Credits:
Score and conducting – Sop
Performed at DIY Space For London
2016
Art Direction & Graphic Design
Over a decade of experience in visual design, layout and photography for print and web – with additional specialism in designing for risograph print.
Extensive commercial experience in working across hardback/softback publications, vinyl, cassette, apparel and social media assets.
A portfolio is available on request. Further examples of visual work can be found on Instagram.
Previous clients include:
Verso Books, Feel It Records, Fat Cat Records, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, Schwules Museum Berlin, Dalston Superstore, Thrill Jockey, UCL Centre For Low Countries Studies, Swamp Booking
CORDA Magazine
CORDA Magazine was a 2017 multidisciplinary journal combining literature and visual art, formed with writer and translator Livia Franchini. Featured contributors included Ginevra Shay, Serena Braida, Rebecca Tamás, Dizz Tate, Alice Ash and Aria Aber.
Themed around connection in the time of new borders, it sold out of a 300-copy self-produced run on pre-order printed in A4 2-colour risograph. The journal’s launch was celebrated with a launch held at London’s Peckham Pelican in March of the same year.
Livia Franchini’s debut novel Shelf Life was published by Doubleday in the UK in 2020 and her writing has appeared in The Quietus, 3:AM, and The White Review. Her translation has seen her work with the writings of Natalia Ginzburg, James Tiptree Jr. and Michael Donaghy.
Credits:
Editor – Livia Franchini
Art Direction – Victoria S Porter