About

Short Biography

Olivia Louvel is a composer, multidisciplinary artist and researcher whose work is presented through sound recordings, sound art installations, video art and live performances.

Louvel’s work often deals with socio-political issues and women’s voices, using sound and voice as a documentary tool to unearth narratives. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Brighton, investigating the interplay of voice and sculpture across the Fine Art and Digital Music & Sound Arts departments.

She won an Ivor Novello Award at The Ivors Classical Awards 2023 for LOL, a sonic intervention delivered through the public address system of Middlesbrough’s CCTV surveillance network.

Her resounding of a Barbara Hepworth archival tape, ‘The Sculptor Speaks’ (2020), premiered on Resonance Extra, followed by an audio-visual version presented at The Hepworth Wakefield in 2021 and Towner Eastbourne in 2023.

Her music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction and New Music Show, BBC Radio 6’s Freak Zone, and Resonance Extra. Her research has been supported by The Henry Moore Foundation and the Arts Council of England. She is a member of Sound Art Brighton.

Long Biography

Olivia Louvel is a French-born British multidisciplinary artist, composer and researcher whose work draws on voice, electroacoustic music and digital narrative. 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. Her work is presented through sound recordings, sound art installations, video art and live performances.

She is a PhD candidate (2021-) working across the Fine Art and Sound departments at the University of Brighton, investigating the interplay of voice and sculpture. The outcome of her practice is increasingly hybrid at the interface of voice and sculpture, ranging from applying principles of sculpture to carve the voice of Barbara Hepworth, working in sound art with miniature speakers to conceive generative sound murals, 3D printing her voice for a series of 'VoiceScape', and testing the relationship between voice and sculpture acoustically within Lukas Kühne’s site-specific sound sculpture ‘Tvísöngur’ in Iceland. In 2023, she was an artist-in-residence at Skaftfell Visual Art Center, Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, with support from a research grant from the Henry Moore Foundation. 

Publications include: ‘Lukas Kühne’s Tvísöngur: Sculpture for a Concrete, Uncompressed Voice’ (2024), Divergence Press (CeReNem); ’A Generative Sound Mural, The Whole Inside: Sounding the Body’ (2020), Leonardo, The MIT Press.

Installation works include: ‘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, and reinstalled at Middlesbrough Art Week, 2023;  and ’The Whole Inside’ (2019), a generative sound mural exploring the violent misogyny of the Incels – featured in the ‘Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology: Future Now.’ 

Throughout her extensive research on Barbara Hepworth, also called [Hepworth Resounds], she produced ‘The Sculptor Speaks’ (2020), an electroacoustic resounding of a Barbara Hepworth archival tape, which was premiered on Resonance Extra and followed by an audio-visual version presented at The Hepworth Wakefield in 2021, and at Towner Eastbourne in 2023. ‘SculptOr’ is a suite of nine pieces based on Hepworth’s writings. Her research on resounding the voice of Barbara Hepworth brought her to deliver a talk for the Yorkshire Sound Women Network and the Hepworth Research Network (2021). 

Other compositional and audio-visual works include: ‘doggerLANDscape’ (2023), a video art on the submerged forest of Doggerland; ‘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.

Notable performances include: a U.K tour presenting a headline audio-visual set of ‘Data Regina’ for ‘Synth Remix’ (2018) curated by Benjamin Tassie, a performance with the Mi.Mu gloves at ONCA gallery for a gesturally based performance art installation for an audience of one (2018), and opening for artists such as Eartheater at De La Warr Pavilion (2019), Japanese avant-garde artist Phew at Iklectik (2016), Planningtorock at Earsthetic Festival/ Brighton Dome (2013), and Recoil for various shows on the European Selected tour (2010).

Awards include: an Ivor Novello Award for Best Sound Art at the Ivors Classical Awards 2023 (‘LOL’), the Henry Moore Foundation Research and Travel Grant (2022), a nomination for an Ivor Novello Award in the Sound Art category at the Ivors Composer Awards 2020 (‘The Sculptor Speaks’), a Longlist selection at the Aesthetica Art Prize 2021 (‘The Whole Inside’), an Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice Award (2021), Norman Cook Digital Music and Sound Arts Breakthrough Award University of Brighton 2018, Arts Council of England Grant for the arts (‘Data Regina’, 2016 and Beauty Sleep, 2014), Prix Ars Electronica shortlist (‘ō, music for haiku’, 2013), and the Qwartz Album Award at the Qwartz Electronic Music Awards 2011 (‘Doll Divider’).

Her work has been featured in The Wire, The Quietus, Electronic Beats, Fact Mag, and Electronic Sound, among others, and she was interviewed by Stuart Maconie for his BBC Radio 6 programme about her “compelling sculpture-inspired work” on Barbara Hepworth. Louvel has received airplay on radio programs such as BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction and New Music Show, BBC Radio 6’s Freak Zone, Resonance, RTE Lyric FM’s Nova, Radio Eins’s Elektro Beat, NRK’s Harald Are Lund, RTVE Radio 3’s Fluido Rosa, RTVE Radio 3’s Atmosfera, RAI 3’s Battiti, and France Musique’s La Matinale. She produced a mix for Electronic Beats /EB radio (2014).

She has presented her work at Towner Eastbourne (2024, 2023); Middlesbrough Art Weekender (2023, 2022); Phoenix Art Space, Brighton (2022); The Hepworth Wakefield (2021); ACM SIGGRAPH (2020), Chapter Arts Centre (Cardiff, 2020); King’s Place (2019); De La Warr (2019); Ikon Gallery (2018); Anthony Burgess Foundation (2018); Spirit of Gravity (2017); NAWR, BBC Hall (2017); ONCA gallery, Brighton Digital Festival, (2018); Iklectik (2019); CTM, Kunstquartier Bethanien (2016); Le Cube (2017, 2009); Earsthetic Festival, Brighton Dome (2013); Ososphere Festival, Strasburg (2009).

She has been associated with the label Optical Sound Records and Fine Arts, run by French artist Pierre Beloüin, notably with the release of ‘Lulu In Suspension’ (OS, 027, 2008), the sonic cruise Echos Flottants (Ososphere Festival, 2009, with Paul Kendall and Black Sifichi) and Acoustic Cameras (Le Cube, 2017, with Paul Kendall).

She is a member of Sound Art Brighton.

Louvel has been an active member of female:pressure, the international network of female, transgender, and non-binary artists in electronic music and digital arts. She took part in the compilation in support of Pussy Riot’s freedom (2013) and the female:pressure campaign - curated by Antye Greie-Ripatti - to raise awareness for Rojava (2016). She has contributed as data collection helper to the female:pressure FACTS gender survey that quantifies the gender distribution of artists.

Press

Interviews:

Radio/ audio-visual interviews:

Ivors Academy, ‘The Ivors Classical Awards 2023: Olivia Louvel Winners Speech’, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW6ww7aF7oE

The Hepworth Wakefield, ‘Olivia Louvel: The Sculptor Speaks’, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNFqqQz1ldo

BBC Radio 6, ‘Stuart chats to digital sound artist Olivia Louvel about a new compelling sculpture-inspired work’, 2020, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dzs9

Classical Remix, ‘Synth Remix - Interview with Olivia Louvel’, 2018, https://vimeo.com/296959992

Online & print features:

Frank P. Eckert, ‘Motherboard: Januar 2024’, Groove, 2024, https://groove.de/2024/01/23/motherboard-januar-2024/

University of Brighton, ‘Brighton PhD student wins Ivor Novello Award, University of Brighton, 2023, https://www.brighton.ac.uk/news/2023/brighton-phd-student-wins-ivor-novello-award

Johny Lamb, ‘Olivia Louvel - doggerLANDscape’, The Quietus, 2023, https://thequietus.com/articles/33625-olivia-louvel-doggerlandscape-review

Jimmy Nsubuga,  ‘Shoppers left spooked after 'Boris Johnson sounding' voice is randomly played in town centre’, Yahoo News, 2022, https://uk.news.yahoo.com/boris-johnson-middlesbrough-speakers-cctv-113806873.html

Aesthetica Magazine, ‘Olivia Louvel - The Sculptor Speaks’, 2021, https://aestheticamagazine.com/profile/olivia-louvel/

Fifteen Questions, ‘Fifteen Questions Interview with Olivia Louvel. A Solitary Introvert’, 2021, https://www.15questions.net/interview/fifteen-questions-interview-olivia-louvel/page-1/

Antonio Poscic, ‘Olivia Louvel - SculptOr [Hepworth Resounds]’, The Quietus, 2020, https://thequietus.com/articles/27903-sculptor-hepworth-resounds-olivia-louvel-review

Aurelio Cianciotta, ‘SculptOr’, Neural, issue 66, 2020, https://neural.it/2020/08/olivia-louvel-sculptor/

Deborah Nash, ‘On site and installation: Olivia Louvel The Sculptor Speaks’, The Wire, issue 440, 2020, p.90.

Joanne Baker, ‘The Doctor Who theme and beyond: female pioneers of electronic music’, Nature, vol. 563, no. 7732, 2018, pp. 470-471.

Hannes Liechti, ‘Sampling Stories Vol. 14: Olivia Louvel’, Norient, 10 February 2018, https://norient.com/blog/sampling-stories-vol-14-olivia-louvel/

Abi Bliss, ‘Game of Thrones. A multimedia suite by composer Olivia Louvel digs deep into the psychic warfare between two 16th century British Queens’, The Wire, issue 396, 2017, p.14.

DJ Pangburn, ‘Multiple Media: Olivia Louvel On Music, Art & 16th Century History’, The Quietus, 2017, https://thequietus.com/articles/22355-olivia-louvel-interview

Electronic Beats, ’Is the Islamic State ‘Afraid of Women’?’, 20 February 2016, https://www.electronicbeats.net/the-feed/is-the-islamic-state-afraid-of-women/

Luke Turner, ‘Interview: Olivia Louvel’, The Quietus, 2015, https://thequietus.com/articles/16563-olivia-louvel-simon-fisher-turner-remix