Olivia Louvel

My thesis examines the interplay of voice and sculpture to understand their manifold interrelationships and to establish the concept of voice sculptures. 

Areas of research: Sound, Sound Art, Fine Art, Contemporary Art, Performance Art, Practice-Based Research.

Specialising in: voice, sound sculpture, electroacoustic music, musique concrète, electronic music, materiality of sound and voice with 3D printing, art hybridisation, installation, video art.

I am undertaking my PhD in Arts and Communication in the departments of Fine Art and Digital Music and Sound Arts.

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.

I am interested in the hybridisation of the arts, linking techniques and terminologies between fine art and sound.

During my PhD studies, I gained experience teaching at the undergraduate level. I taught Fine Art students at levels 4 to 6, leading seminars, conducting workshops and supervising students' final dissertations. I lectured on 'Sound Sculptures (Part I: Acoustic and Part II: Speaker-powered)' for the Digital Music & Sound Arts BA (level 5 students). Additionally, I lectured on 'Hybrid Encounters: Art and Sound’ for the Fine Art BA (level 4 students).