Olivia Louvel is a French-born British artist, composer and researcher whose work is presented in the form of sound recordings, sound art installations, video art and live performances.

She won the Ivor Novello Best Sound Art at the Ivors Classical Awards 2023 for ‘LOL’, a sonic intervention broadcast through the public address system of Middlesbrough’s CCTV surveillance network during Middlesbrough Art Week 2022.

Her research draws on a long-standing exploration of the voice and an increasingly hybrid practice at the intersection of sound and sculpture. She earned a PhD in Arts and Communication from the University of Brighton for her 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)

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

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. ‘The Sculptor Speaks’ was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award in the Sound Art category at the Ivors Composer Awards 2020.  

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; ‘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.’

Other compositional and audiovisual works include: ‘doggerLANDscape’ (2023), a video art piece inspired by the submerged forest of Doggerland; ‘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.

In 2018, she toured the UK, presenting a headline audio-visual set of ‘Data Regina’ at ‘Synth Remix’, an event curated by Benjamin Tassie as part of Sound and Music's Composer-Curator scheme. 

Her music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 Late Junction, New Music Show, BBC Radio 6 Freak Zone, and Resonance Extra. 

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).

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