Research output per year
Research output per year
Personal profile
Research interests
My thesis examines the interplay between voice and sculpture to understand their manifold interrelationships in the fields of fine art, sound art and new media, and to establish the concept of voice sculpture.
Areas of research: Fine Art, Sound Art, Musique Concrète, Installation Art, Practice-Based Research.
Specialising in voice, sculpture, sound sculpture, hybridity.
Scholarly biography
As a doctoral researcher at the University of Brighton, I explored the relationship between voice and sculpture across the Fine Art and Digital Music & Sound Arts departments.
I was awarded a travel and research grant from the Henry Moore Foundation to investigate Lukas Kühne' s sound sculpture in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, hosted by the Skaftfell Art Center's artist residency programme.
Research outputs [author]: 'LOL, a Sonic Détournement of the CCTV Surveillance Network' (Leonardo, MIT Press, 2025); 'Baschet’s Voice Leaf: The voice wrapped in the sculptural leaf' (Organised Sounds, Cambridge University Press, 2025); 'Lukas Kühne’s Tvísöngur: Sculpture for a Concrete, Uncompressed Voice' (Divergence Press, University of Huddersfield, 2024); ‘A generative sound mural: The Whole Inside. Sounding the body’ (Leonardo Music Journal, MIT Press, 2020).
Research outputs [practitioner]: 'doggerLANDscape', video art shown at APT Gallery London (2025) and Towner Cinema, Towner Eastbourne (2024); 'doggerLANDscape', broadcast on Late Junction/BBC Radio 3 (2023); 'LOL' a site-specific sonic intervention delivered through the public address system of Middlesbrough’s CCTV surveillance network at Middlesbrough Art Weekender 2022; 'Doggerland Channels', a sound art installation at Phoenix Art Space (2022) for Sound Art Brighton, and re-installed at Middlesbrough Art Week (2023); ‘The Sculptor Speaks’, a broadcast on Resonance Extra and an audio-visual installation at The Hepworth Wakefield (2021) and at Towner Eastbourne (2023).
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 a member of Sound Art Brighton and the Hepworth Research Network.
Approach to teaching
As an Associate Lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Brighton, I delivered lectures, led seminars and supervised students' final-year dissertations on the BA programme. As a studio practice lecturer, I also facilitated the workshop ‘Drawing in the Expanded Field’. For the Digital Music & Sound Arts BA, I lectured on Sound Sculptures.
Drawing on my interdisciplinary research, my teaching reflects a commitment to curricular innovation in contemporary art practice, focusing on the convergence of art forms. I view this interdisciplinary approach, which bridges visual and aural cultures, as a valuable pedagogical strategy.
Education/Academic qualification
Doctor of Philosophy, 'A hybrid encounter, a concrete voice: on the interplay of voice and sculpture', School of Art and Media
2021 → 2025
Award Date: 23 May 2025
Master, 'Resounding the Voice. On repurposing the archival material of voice, from analogue to digital', School of Art and Media
2019 → 2020
Award Date: 23 Sept 2020
Bachelor, 'The Sculpted Voice: an exploration of voice in sound art', School of Art and Media
2016 → 2019
Award Date: 27 Jun 2019
External positions
Hepworth Research Network. Symposium ‘Contemporary Artists and Barbara Hepworth’, University of Huddersfield
15 Oct 2021
Seminar 'Hepworth Resounds', Yorkshire Sound Women Network
1 Jun 2021
Keywords
- M Music
- sound art
- NB Sculpture
- Sculpture
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics where Olivia Louvel is active. These topic labels come from the works of this person. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
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Baschet’s Voice Leaf: The voice wrapped in the sculptural leaf
Louvel, O., 7 Apr 2025, In: Organised Sound. 30, 1, p. 53-57 5 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
doggerLANDscape: Joining Doggerland
Louvel, O., 6 Feb 2025Research output: Non-textual output › Exhibition
Open Access -
LOL, a Sonic Détournement of the CCTV Surveillance Network
Louvel, O., 1 Aug 2025, In: Leonardo. 58, 4, p. 385-389 5 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
doggerLANDscape: Artist films: Human Outlooks on Precarious Coastal Lands
Louvel, O., 8 Jun 2024Research output: Non-textual output › Exhibition
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Lukas Kühne’s Tvísöngur: Sculpture for a Concrete, Uncompressed Voice
Louvel, O., 6 Aug 2024, In: Divergence Press. 2024Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access
Activities
- 2 Invited talk
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'The Sculptor Speaks’ Resounding the archival voice of Barbara Hepworth from analogue to digital.
Louvel, O. (Presenter)
15 Oct 2021Activity: External talk or presentation › Invited talk
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'Hepworth Resounds'
Louvel, O. (Presenter)
1 Jun 2021Activity: External talk or presentation › Invited talk