Olivia Louvel

My thesis investigates the interplays of voice and sculpture to understand and consolidate their intrinsic modes of relationship.

Through practice-based research, I am testing three modes of interplay between voice and sculpture: (1) metamorphosing my voice into sculpture with 3D printing - VoiceScapes; (2) a symbiotic relationship in a voice relief consisting of wall-mounted Visaton speakers; and (3) exploring an acoustic relationship with the site-specific sound sculpture for voice Tvisöngur in remote Iceland.

The aim is to demonstrate how voice and sculpture - ostensibly two contrasting entities - are interlinked and interdependent, even interconnected biologically, through numerous cooperative and mutualistic relationships and how this partnership, facilitated by a technological conduit, dates to the phenomena of speaking statues in ancient times. In my search I hope to identify a materialist and agentive voice, a voice I can touch as much as it touches me: a concrete voice.

I have 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.

Research outputs [author]: 'Lukas Kühne’s Tvísöngur: Sculpture for a Concrete, Uncompressed Voice' published by Divergence Press (CeReNem) University of Huddersfield (2024); ‘A generative sound mural: The Whole Inside. Sounding the body’ published by Leonardo Music Journal, MIT Press (2020); ‘The Whole Inside’ in ‘Future Now, Aesthetica Art Prize 2021: 125 contemporary artists’, (2021)

Research outputs [practitioner]:‘The Sculptor Speaks’, a broadcast on Resonance Extra and an audio-visual installation at The Hepworth Wakefield (2021) and exhibited at Towner Eastbourne (2023); 'Doggerland Channels', a sound art installation at Phoenix Art Space (2022) for Sound Art Brighton, and re-installed at Middlesbrough Art Week (2023);  'LOL' a site-specific sonic intervention at Middlesbrough Art Weekender 2022; 'doggerLANDscape' broadcast on Late Junction/BBC Radio 3 (2023) and shown at Towner Cinema, Towner Eastbourne (2024).

Awards: Ivor Novello Award Best Sound Art at the Ivors Classical Awards 2023 for 'LOL', a sonic intervention delivered through the public address system of Middlesbrough’s CCTV surveillance network; a selection for the Longlist at the Aesthetica Art Prize 2021 for 'The Whole Inside'; a nomination Best Sound Art at the Ivors Composer Awards 2020 for 'The Sculptor Speaks'; a Qwartz Album Award at the Qwartz Electronic Music Awards 2011.