About
Olivia Louvel is a French-born British composer and artist whose work draws on voice, computer music and digital narrative. Her work is presented in the form of sound recordings, live performance, sound art installations and video art.
Her practice is built upon a long-standing exploration of the voice, sung or spoken, and its manipulation through digital technology, as a compositional method. She is a PhD candidate (2021-) at the University of Brighton, investigating the interplay of voice and sculpture.
‘The Sculptor Speaks’ was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award in the Sound Art category at the Ivors Composer Awards 2020. She was interviewed by Stuart Maconie for his BBC Radio 6 programme about her “compelling sculpture-inspired work” on Barbara Hepworth. ‘The Whole Inside’ was selected for the Longlist at the Aesthetica Art Prize 2021, and is published in the ‘Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology: Future Now.’
She has been awarded a travel and research grant by the
Henry Moore Foundation to investigate Lukas Kühne’ s sound sculpture in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, hosted by the
Skaftfell Visual Art Center‘s artist residency programme.
Education
2020 MA. Digital Music and Sound Art, University of Brighton.
2021- 2025 PhD. Art and Media, University of Brighton. Work Shared in CORE
Articles
Dissertations
Theses
Other Publications
Louvel, Olivia. ‘A Generative Sound Mural,
The Whole Inside: Sounding the Body’. Leonardo Music Journal, MIT Press
, Volume 30, December 2020, p.29-32,
https://doi.org/10.1162/lmj_a_01080
Projects
Louvel often operates at the intersection of creation and documentation with works such as: ‘LOL’ (2022), a site-specific sonic intervention reflecting the current state of political affairs in Britain, delivered through the public address system of Middlesbrough’s CCTV surveillance network; ‘Doggerland Channels’ (2022), a generative sound-relief based on the ancient land which once linked Britain to the continent, premiered at Phoenix Art Space for Sound Art Brighton; ‘The Sculptor Speaks’ (2020), a resounding of a Barbara Hepworth archival tape, premiered on Resonance Extra, and followed by an audiovisual version presented at The Hepworth Wakefield in 2021; ‘SculptOr’, a suite of nine pieces based on Hepworth’s extensive writings released as a digipak CD; ’The Whole Inside’ (2019), a generative sound mural exploring the violent misogyny of the Incels; ‘Not A Creature Of Paper’ (2019) a Louise Labé inspired composition for avant-garde ensemble Juice Vocal, premiered at Kings Place; ’Data Regina’ (2017), a multimedia suite based on Mary Queen of Scots’ writings through an interactive digital platform – Arts Council funded; and ‘Afraid of Women’ (2016), an audio-visual piece raising awareness for Rojava, the autonomous zone in Northern Syria.
