About

Olivia Louvel is a French-born British artist, composer and researcher whose interdisciplinary practice bridges sound and art, specialising in the expanded fields of sculpture and voice. Her work spans sound recordings, installations, video art, 3D voice prints and action paintings.

She won the Ivor Novello Best Sound Art Award for ‘LOL’, a sonic intervention broadcast via the public address system of Middlesbrough’s CCTV surveillance network during Middlesbrough Art Week 2022.

She earned a PhD in Arts and Communication from the University of Brighton with a thesis on the interplay between voice and sculpture. This research led her to develop the concept of voice sculptures, which she manifests in various forms, including digitally carving Barbara Hepworth’s voice in the video art The Sculptor Speaks, creating generative sound murals with miniature speakers, 3D-printing her voice and investigating the acoustic relationship between voice and sculpture within Lukas Kühne’s site-specific sculpture 'Tvísöngur’ in remote Iceland. 

Louvel has published in Leonardo (MIT Press) and Organised Sound (Cambridge University Press). Her research has been supported by the Arts Council of England and the Henry Moore Foundation (for a residency at the Skaftfell Art Centre, Iceland). Her music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction and New Music Show, and on BBC Radio 6’s Freak Zone.

She is a member of Sound Art Brighton and the Hepworth Research Network.

Additional:

Installation works include: LOL (2022), a site-specific sonic intervention reflecting the state of political affairs in Britain, presented via the public address system of Middlesbrough’s CCTV surveillance network for Middlesbrough Art Week; Doggerland Channels (2022), a generative sound relief based on the ancient land that once connected Britain to the continent, which premiered at Phoenix Art Space for Sound Art Brighton and was reinstalled during Middlesbrough Art Week in 2023; and The Whole Inside (2019), a generative sound mural exploring the violent misogyny of Incel, featured in the ‘Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology: Future Now.’

Through her extensive research on Barbara Hepworth, also known as Hepworth Resounds, she produced The Sculptor Speaks (2020), an electroacoustic resounding of an archival tape of Barbara Hepworth. It premiered on Resonance Extra and was subsequently presented as an audio-visual version for Barbara Hepworth Art & Life at The Hepworth Wakefield in 2021 and at Towner Eastbourne in 2023. Additionally, the album SculptOr consists of nine compositions based on Hepworth’s writings. Her research into Barbara Hepworth’s voice led her to give a talk for the Yorkshire Sound Women Network and the Hepworth Research Network in 2021.

Louvel’s work often explores socio-political issues and women’s voices, using sound and voice as documentary tools to unearth narratives. 

Other compositional and audiovisual works include: doggerLANDscape (2023), a video art piece inspired by the submerged forest of Doggerland presented at Towner Eastbourne and ATP Gallery; Not A Creature Of Paper (2019), a composition inspired by Louise Labé for the avant-garde ensemble Juice Vocal, which premiered at Kings Place; Data Regina (2017), a multimedia suite exploring the writings and life of Mary Queen of Scots through an interactive digital platform funded by the Arts Council; and  Afraid of Women (2016), an audiovisual piece raising awareness of Rojava, the autonomous region in Northern Syria.

Notable performances include a UK tour presenting a headline audiovisual set of Data Regina for ‘Synth Remix’ (2018), curated by Benjamin Tassie, and a gestural performance and installation using the Mi.Mu gloves at ONCA gallery for an audience of one (2018). She opened for artists including Semiconductor and Eartheater at De La Warr Pavilion (2019), Japanese avant-garde artist Phew at Iklectik (2016), Planningtorock at Earsthetic Festival, Brighton Dome (2013), and Recoil at various shows on the European Selected tour (2010).

Awards and grants include: an Ivor Novello Award for Best Sound Art at the Ivors Classical Awards 2023 (for 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 (for The Sculptor Speaks); a Longlist selection at the Aesthetica Art Prize 2021 (for The Whole Inside); an Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice Award (2021); the Norman Cook Digital Music and Sound Arts Breakthrough Award at the University of Brighton (2018); Arts Council of England Grants for the Arts (for Data Regina, 2016 and Beauty Sleep, 2014); a Prix Ars Electronica shortlist (for ō, music for haiku, 2013); and the Qwartz Album Award at the Qwartz Electronic Music Awards 2011 (for Doll Divider).

Her commissions and presentations span a diverse range of organisations and events across art galleries and music venues, including APT Gallery, Towner Eastbourne, Middlesbrough Art Week, Phoenix Art Space, The Hepworth Wakefield, Hepworth Research Network, Yorkshire Sound Women Network, Resonance Extra, ACM SIGGRAPH, Chapter Arts Centre, Juice Vocal Ensemble, Outlands, Classical Remix, Ikon Gallery, Anthony Burgess Foundation, Spirit of Gravity, ONCA gallery, Brighton Digital Festival, Iklectik, Le Cube, Earsthetic Festival, Brighton Dome, Optical Sound and Ososphere Festival.

Her work has been featured in The Wire, The Quietus, Electronic Beats, Fact Mag and Electronic Sound, among others. 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 programmes including 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. In 2014, she produced a mix for Electronic Beats/EB Radio.

She has been associated with the label Optical Sound Records and Fine Arts, run by French artist Pierre Beloüin, through several collaborations: the release of ‘Lulu in Suspension’ (2008); the sonic cruise Echos Flottants (2009) at the Ososphere Festival with Paul Kendall and Black Sifichi; and the exhibition Acoustic Cameras (2017) at Le Cube with Paul Kendall.

In an educational setting, she mentored the Electric Youth Ensemble for Audioactive and Sounder, a student collaboration across the Universities of Brighton, Sussex and Bern, for Sound Art Brighton. She has served as an Associate Lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Brighton and has guest lectured at Digital Music & Sound Arts, the Hepworth Research Network/University of Huddersfield and the Yorkshire Sound Women Network.

In terms of advocacy, 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 contributed to the compilation supporting Pussy Riot’s freedom (2013) and to the female:pressure campaign–curated by Antye Greie-Ripatti–to raise awareness of Rojava (2016). She has also assisted with data collection for the female:pressure FACTS gender survey, which quantifies the gender distribution among artists. In 2025, she launched an online petition with Dr Kersten Glandien/Sound Art Brighton to demand the reinstatement of the Sound Art category at the Ivors Classical Awards.

Press

Interviews:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quotes:

Ivors Academy Jury (2023), Ivors Classical Awards, ‘Ivor Novello Award Best Sound Art’

LOL is a provocative, disruptive and impactful work, deftly constructed with humour.

The Quietus (Johny Lamb, 2023), ‘Olivia Louvel - doggerLANDscape’

DoggerLANDscape is a taut, charged and insightful collection that poses significant questions, at least in my mind, about political identity, ideological and material borders, and the ways in which our geological environments shape our lives and thinking. [LINK]

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

Louvel exploits the rhythm of Hepworth's words, releasing the voice recorded from its original location in St Ives and allowing it to swim across time to a different century. The sculptor's cut-glass Received Pronunciation might be off-putting for the modern ear, but waves of technological manipulation have eroded its edges, turning it into a dreamy meditation on the nature of creativity.

The Quietus (Antonio Poscic, 2020), ‘Olivia Louvel - SculptOr [Hepworth Resounds]’

There is something unequivocally human in Louvel’s work, centred around the voice and its manipulations (...) Armed with an algorithmic chisel and mallet, Louvel repurposes writings by the late English sculptor Barbara Hepworth (...) SculptOr is a highly conceptual and meta-referential piece, a sort of meditation on artistic practices. [LINK]

Neural (Aurelio Cianciotta, issue 66, 2020), ‘Olivia Louvel – SculptOr’

It’s not the first time Louvel performs this kind of narration. She is always at her ease when she works between poetic creation and research: she organises her own voice in a sculptural way, moving over clean cuts and harmonic roundness, digital starts and moments of silence, with the activation of her controlled operations in a sung or spoken way. (…) SculptOr is perfect in its fusion of two personalities on the same page, a work full of suggestions and musically impeccable. [LINK]

BBC Radio 6 Freak Zone (Stuart Maconie, 2020), ‘Olivia Louvel’

A modern digital composer who has a fascinating new project on the sculptures and voice of Barbara Hepworth (…) Data Regina was a brilliant interwoven tale from British History. [LINK]

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

Louvel’s multimedia suite Data Regina liberates the voice of another woman from the past. Tudor monarch Mary, Queen of Scots — ultimately executed by her cousin, Elizabeth I of England — was a prolific writer and poet. Yet few know her works. Louvel’s voice, computer music and a video backdrop of avatars that look like chess pieces transmit the story of the tortured queen. The result is a soaring, gut-wrenching opera.

The Wire (Abi Bliss, issue 396, p.14.2017), ‘Game of Thrones. A multimedia suite by composer Olivia Louvel digs deep into the psychic warfare between two 16th century British Queens’

A multimedia suite by composer Oliva Louvel digs deep into the psychic warfare between the 16th-century British Queens. (…) Between the paintings adapted from fashion magazines that inspired 2011's Doll Divider and the reimagining of Louise Brooks's bobbed femme fatale for 2008's Lulu In Suspension, the iconography of femininity has been a rich source of material for the French-born, Sussex-based producer and visual artist to rip apart and papier mâché back into brooding electronic pop. (…) The refined melodies of Louvel's intimate vocals and Fiona Brice's lyrical violin stand in fragile opposition to a backdrop based largely around processed tambour samples, harsh percussive rolls, and looming reverberations. It evokes not only the brutality of the battles that peppered the UK in the 16th century but the sense of surveillance and paranoia that both women must have experienced.

Electronic Beats (2016) ’Is the Islamic State ‘Afraid of Women’?’

Producer Olivia Louvel has contributed a moving audio-visual project to Rojava, a female:pressure campaign curated by Antye Greie-Ripatti that aims to show solidarity and raise awareness for a special de facto autonomous zone in northern Syria.

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

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/

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