Feature – Olivia Louvel, take 2

Posted on by Johanna Bramli

After being one of the first students featured in this series in 2017, we invited Olivia Louvel to share insights into her journey since then. Olivia has since completed the BA DMSA, MA DMSA and recently completed her PhD also at the University of Brighton. She also received the Ivor Novello Award in Sound Art in 2023 for her installation LOL.

Three words that describe you as a creative person?

Voice. Sculpture. Hybrid.

When did you start working with sound and music?

I began creating strange sound objects using my voice and other ambient noises, which I recorded on a minidisc. This was in 2001. It was very fragile, and I had the courage to play it to some people—how embarrassing! But you have to start somewhere with your enthusiasm. Fortunately, this led to a fruitful encounter. At that time, I knew nothing about software; I didn’t even own a laptop. Now, I produce and mix my own work, mainly using Pro Tools and Ableton.

In what ways has the DMSA course supported or helped you to develop into who you are today creatively and professionally?

Having just completed my PhD in Art and Communication, I reflect on my journey at the University of Brighton and still find it hard to believe! I remember my first day as an undergraduate at the DMSA in 2016. The course was essential, shaping my later professional growth, particularly in sound art. I experimented with miniature speakers, connecting practical work with theory, and I learned a considerable amount––including how to solder cables! With technical support and studio space, I created sound art installations.

Can you tell us a few words about LOL?   

LOL (2022) is a site-specific sonic intervention delivered through the public address system of Middlesbrough’s CCTV surveillance network, reflecting the state of political affairs in Britain at that time. It was commissioned by the art organisation The Auxiliary and produced with Kersten Glandien, artistic director of Sound Art Brighton. The audio collage addressed sociopolitical issues at the heart of British politics post-Brexit, using plundering and détournement techniques. And so, LOL was broadcast through the entire CCTV speakers at specific times over four days during Middlesbrough Art Week.

What are your plans for the near future? 

I am currently finalising the project I started in Iceland during my artist residency at Skaftfell Art Centre in Seyðisfjörður. This project responds to my vocal encounter with Lukas Kühne’s site-specific sculpture on the mountainside. I recorded my voice inside the sound sculpture. Additionally, I have just been awarded an Arts Council/DYCP grant for a six-month development phase. I am incredibly grateful. I will be able to experiment with different types of miniature speakers and materials. Finally, I am very excited about the knowledge I uncovered during my doctoral research on the relationship between voice and sculpture, and I hope to share it broadly at some point.

Credit image:

Olivia Louvel setting up ‘Doggerland Channels’ at Middlesbrough Art Week. Photo by Yuhao Chen.

Some links:

LOL, a Sonic Détournement of the CCTV Surveillance Network, Leonardo, The MIT Press, 2025,

https://direct.mit.edu/leon/article-abstract/58/4/385/128633/LOL-a-Sonic-Detournement-of-the-CCTV-Surveillance

doggerLANDscape, video art, 2023, https://vimeo.com/859321630

LOL, site-specific sonic intervention, 2022, https://vimeo.com/763079960

The Sculptor Speaks, video art, 2020, https://vimeo.com/438255942

Graduates 2024: Greta Carroll: Digital Music and Sound Arts

Posted on by Johanna Bramli

 

greta carroll

“I have loved my tutors and the technicians and how inspiring they are. I have learnt so much and now I know the ins and outs of both the history of sound; I’ve enjoyed learning to record the sound of electricity and having a deep knowledge of artists and what they do. I’m dyslexic and had very low confidence in myself all my life. I feel the course has really freed me up and I feel I can hold my own now in a conversation in sound and electronic music.”

 

Tell us a bit about your work

“Here is my artist bio: Experimental pop musician and producer and performer CURRENTMOODGIRL makes sounds that dance between the dark and the light, resembling her the industrial landscape of Manchester, her Northern hometown. Utilising electrical pick-ups and dark, glitching synths, she creates textured soundscapes melting together with her siren-like but raw vocals, her rhythmic beats and anchoring basslines eminently danceable.

“CONTACT is about connections and the means of control between ourselves, our bodies, our minds, and one another. Manifested through sound, movement, and visuals, it is a multidimensional live performance intended to be experienced in the flesh. The work involves a self-made touch sensitive dance pole as an instrument which captures the sensory movement of the body. CONTACT is a sonic experience of electronic music and sound performance presented through a 5.1 soundsystem, transforming our visual sensibilities and challenges our societal idolisation of fragility and the female form. The performance grew out of the heavenly and broken unravelling of the self, trusting one’s own body, sexuality and celebrating being alive through the bad, the good and everything in between.”

CONTACT was performed at the Graduate Show.

greta carroll

greta carroll

 

What made you choose your course?

“I have been a musician for many years, and I was feeling dissatisfied with how limiting it was and I felt unfulfilled. I found the course when looking for alternative music and sound production courses. As an artist whose work spans numerous mediums, I needed something wild and unconventional that questions everything and uses abstract techniques to create sound. When I discovered DMSA, I immediately felt like I belonged there.”

Can you tell us about your favourite part of your studies and how it helped the development of you and your practice?

“I have loved my tutors and the technicians the most on the course and how inspired thay have left me. I have learnt so much and now I know the ins and outs of both the history of sound, all the facts and scientific stuff about sound too. For example Iv enjoyed learning to record the sound of electricity and having a deep knowledge of artists and what they doo.

“I’m dyslexic and had very low confidence in myself all my life. I feel the course has really freed me up and I feel I can hold my own now in a conversation in sound and electronic music.”

Can you tell us about any staff who particularly inspired you?

“All of them in different ways, its great to have a woman as the course leader Johanna Bramli has really looked after me, I feel she has been there for me alot.

“Stephen Mallinder is is a uplifting person to be around, he’s helped me lots to have more confidence in my writing and studying I’ve always struggled with  reading and studying as Ijust have never felt good enough but Mal has always picked things for me that suit me as female artist and I’ve really enjoyed that part of my course witch was unexpected.

“Caleb has been really inspiring, his classes are the most fun for me. I took a lot from him in my exploring new sounds, he understands the way I make music, and helped me dive more into the weird side of sound.

“And our technician Paul, he’s taught me lots of production and mixing techniques and taught me how to play the modular synth and use other equipment.

“I feel all the staff have given different things to me so I am going away from this with so much, I feel like Digital Music and Sound Arts BA(Hons) (brighton.ac.uk) can do anything now.”

Can you tell us your plans after graduation?

“I’m planning to move to London and work more on my music. I would like to do a residency to further my practice, I’m also going to be doing some sound workshops. I’m thinking of doing a masters but I need a little break first to reset from all this madness.”

Finally if you could give your 17 year old self any advice about going to university what would it be?

“I’m a older student so I came to uni at 31 years old. I’m glad I waited, I think that was the best thing I would do I also have been against uni for as long as I new so this was a big surprise i never thought I would do, i would say to myself that just cos I had a horrible time in education before this. But uni is different and I shouldn’t let my dyslexia and mental health stop me from thinking I’m any less than anyone else.”

Instagram @currentmoodgirl_ 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/24pePTKrry9Zv7xrmHRqF7

Bandcamp: https://currentmoodgirll.bandcamp.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CURRENTMOODGIRL/

 

Greta Carroll was the winner of the 2024 Outlands Prize.

Find out about studying Digital Music and Sound Art at Brighton.

Graduates 2024: Miles M Reid: Digital Music and Sound Arts

Posted on by Johanna Bramli

“As an interdisciplinary artist, this course has been the perfect way of building my skill set in various mediums. I have been able to dive deeper into the world of animation in my free time while developing my musical and artistic abilities.”

 

Please tell us a bit about your work

“The Arcade Project (2024) is an A/V, animated found footage horror installation consisting of a 5.1 sound setup in 3 arcade cabinets. An overwhelming concoction of visual and self-plundered sonic noise builds as we are left to feel helpless, dominated, yet awestruck. We watch as the once-perfect games become corrupted and mangled. The Arcade Project is a look into fantasy culture, tech gore, narrative and nostalgia in a short span of 10 minutes.

“I took inspiration from a variety of source; the analog horrors of Martin Walls; the anti-piracy horrors of ZeroVR; the noisy rebellion of Dreamcrusher, the Plunderphonic attitudes of John Oswald; the orchestration of Peter Gregson’s Patina (2021). These and so many more have led me to create something truly special.”

 

What made you choose your course?

“I considered so many other courses. I have such a wide range of interests – from visual arts to R.E. Once I dove deeper into the world of sound art, I was hooked. I recall getting odd looks in secondary school for sampling water bottles and rubber bands for bass tones. I’ve always loved sampling. My current methods of textural and Plunderphonic exploration are the direct result of my prior risk-taking.

“As an interdisciplinary artist, this course has been the perfect way of building my skill set in various mediums. I have been able to dive deeper into the world of animation in my free time while developing my musical and artistic abilities.”

Can you tell us about your favourite part of your studies and how it helped the development of you and your practise 

“I enjoyed exploring alternative sound systems. The SDL and 5.1 surround systems were truly fun to experiment with as I combined spatialisation with my interest in orchestration. The Arcade Project was birthed from these concepts – moving away from the stereo field inherently creates freedom in composition and audience perception.

“I also enjoyed learning about noise culture, graphical scores and film scoring, each providing fresh, alternative ideas.”

Can you tell us about any staff who particularly inspired you?

“All of them!”

Can you tell us your plans after graduation?

“I will work both commercially and artistically. I have a very entrepreneurial mindset. I want to have that solid financial foundation while I build up my artistic expression. Many artists sit on this spectrum of art and income – I want to strike my own balance.

“I want to continue to develop The Arcade Project while working on my other installation, Swimming Pools (2021), featuring Daithi “Electronic Child” Donnelly. This memorial project almost feels full circle, it being the first project I worked on during my time at DMSA.

“I will also be working on publishing my final essay surround fantasy culture and modern day found footage horror.”

Finally, if you could give 17-year-old advice, what would it be

“Find purpose in what you do.”

 

 

Miles M Reid was the DMSA nomination for the Nagoya Prize 2024

Find out about studying Digital Music and Sound Arts BA(Hons)

DMSA degree show

Posted on by Johanna Bramli

Watch the showreel from our 2024 DMSA degree show.

DMSA Showreel 2024

including works from: Miles M Reid // Error_0_X106 – The Arcade Project Daithí Donnelly // Electronic Child – Rhythm: In Potentia Greta Carroll // currentmoodgirl – Contact Jude Bowden // Bleedinhart – Neuromancer Avery Laverty Caldwell // Minkgirl – A Little Witch Betwixt the Here and There Denis Sapuntsov – Echoes Bertie Myhill – Bird Talk Denette Lowry // Foamswords – The Moon and Back Harvey Penfold – Home in a Feeling Kristan Brown // Minxxyy – Escapism B. B. Martin // Slitlamp – Puretone Luca Lycksten-Miselbach – Metal Memoir Chloe Lubinska – Visualising Sonic Soundscapes Dante Ombima // DayC 3 – Feet Follow the Flower Owen May-Jones – Echos of Time EDITING: MILES M REID ORGANISATION/FILMING: CHLOE LUBINSKA & BERTIE MYHILL GRAPHIC DESIGN: DENIS SAPUNTSOV

 

 

DMSA MASTERCLASS Sound Design with PAUL JAMES

Posted on by Stephen Mallinder

DMSA MASTERCLASS

Sound Design with PAUL JAMES

Thursday 14th December 10:30 – 12:30

Studio 1

 

We’re delighted to welcome Paul James for a masterclass on Thursday 14th December 10:30 – 12:30 in Studio 1

 

Paul is the Creative Sound Director of Wafer Audio who specialise in film, TV, animation and games, and work across different disciplines – VO (record, edit & Mix), dialog (record, edit & Mix), SFX (record, edit & Mix), Foley (record, edit & Mix) and final mix in stereo and surround.

 

Wafer Audio

http://www.waferaudio.com/

 

NOT TO BE MISSED!

Degree Show 2023

Posted on by Johanna Bramli

This year’s Degree Show is in full swing at Grand Parade with the work of the DMSA class of ’23

The exhibition is open 3-11 June with performances on Thursday 8th, Friday 9th and Saturday 10th.

 

poster design by Jolie McCallum & Talyn Sandhu (DMSA class of 23)

 

 

DMSA Feature: Esme Wright

Posted on by Johanna Bramli

2022 DMSA graduate Esme Wright joins us for this month’s feature to discuss sound ecology and audio forensics.

Three words that describe you as a creative person?

EW: Wistful, curious and weird

 

When did you start working with sound and music?

EW: I got curious when I was about 11 or 12, mostly about rhythm which kickstarted my drumming career, but in terms of the more experimental sounds, that became rooted when I was about 15 and gradually flowed throughout my life. When I began pursuing an interest in technology, that began pushing boundaries of what I could make with sound. Artistically, music has been a journal for me for a long time and a form of self soothing, and I feel lucky that working with sound has satisfied many facets of my mind.

 

In what ways has the DMSA course supported or helped you to develop into who you are today creatively and professionally?

EW: DMSA gave me a lot of freedom to create projects that would push me in new directions, while also retaining some realism about what I could achieve within limits. I found a good balance on the course and a new confidence as a result, I also treat my ideas with more attention now, and solve problems with creativity.

 

Can you tell us a few words about VivaSonar?

EW: I’m still imagining my final project, and ways to take it further or create sub-projects. As I found so much comfort in creating a safe reactive space, I feel that exploring sensory dimensions and sound ecology offers endless possibilities.

I’d like VivaSonar to be a more immersive living and breathing environment, which must be maintained, but in turn offers a peaceful meditative space for the participant. I can use the same functions for that while also developing it with additional code. This is to support the integration of technology to assist our living and our planet, and prevent an overcrowded soundscape.

 

What are your plans for the near future?

EW: As well as VivaSonar, I’d like to form a project around Audio Forensics. I work in CyberSecurity, and I feel there is an interesting crossover there. There are numerous threats existing under the surface or visual sphere. Audio Steganography and using soundwaves to alter accelerometer readings are viable ways to disrupt data, and deep fakes are becoming difficult to distinguish between. To follow on from VivaSonar in regards to how sound can help us appease or find balance in our environment, I’d like to explore ways that sound may corrupt our environment or understanding.

 

You can catch Esme with Gene Pool in Hastings on Saturday 22nd July for the ‘Burger Jam’ day festival at Half Man Half Burger – free entry.
Find out more about Esme’s work here: https://esrgwright.wixsite.com/website

DMSA Feature: Alex Lewis Whitaker

Posted on by Johanna Bramli
DMSA Alumni Alex Lewis-Whitaker speaks to us this month about his current postgraduate research and projects. Alex graduated in 2021 and was awarded the Nagoya University of the Arts Award of Excellence for his project Wɔpo – a project which drew on his mixed English and Asante (Ghanaian) heritage to create work comprising both a live performance piece and a digital ‘mindmap’ to build bridges between his ancestral lineages.
Three words that describe you as a creative person?
 
ALW: Holistic, patient, inquisitive
When did you start working with sound and music?
 
ALW: I created a virtual rock band called Hippo Island when I was 16 (in 2016), for which I made two albums and an EP, all recorded and mixed on an iPad. I’ve since taken everything off the internet, but it was an important couple of years as it made me realise I could learn how to do everything myself, from the writing, to the recording, to the mixing. Brighton was the first time I’d really explored contemporary and experimental music in an academic setting, as I took Art, not Music, all the way through school.
In what ways has the DMSA course supported or helped you to develop into who you are today creatively and professionally?
 
ALW: The regular tutorials and conversations I had with my tutors, especially in third year, were priceless in terms of raising the standard of my work and making sure I kept challenging and expanding on my ideas. I was able to take crucial ideas from even the bits of the course that I don’t intend to make a career out of (e.g. sound art, sound for film), and apply them to my musical projects. I feel that I now have a broad understanding of the sound and music worlds, and I am also much closer to figuring out what kind of musician and artist I want to be. Being the DMSA nominee for the Nagoya University of the Arts prize, and winning it, has given me the confidence in my abilities to build a career out of being creative. I was also grateful to be given opportunities like performing at DMSA night and designing our degree show poster.
Can you tell us a few words about ‘La Création du Monde’?
 
ALW: This is my research project for the Audiovisual Cultures module on my current MA course, entitled ‘La Création du Monde: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of “Primitivism” in the Parisian Avant-Garde’. I used the same digital mindmap software that I used for my final project in Brighton to create what is essentially an online multimedia exhibition, centering on a ballet from 1923 by Ballets Suédois that gives insights into the obsession with primitivism and exoticism in Modernist arts in the 20th century. I explore the work from the perspectives of a variety of disciplines, including music, painting, dance, philosophy, psychology, ethnography and religion, history and art history, and politics.
The project in its current form can be accessed via the following link, although I am still intending to redo the audio narrations to be more engaging, rather than sound like I’m reading out an essay: https://app.milanote.com/1P6whl1DmPiifn?p=HZyFli6s3uU
 
What are your plans for the near future?
 
ALW: I am currently in the second semester of a Music MA at Goldsmiths, University of London, so this will be my priority until September. I am continuing to delve into completely different areas of music and culture, with the aim of allowing it all to influence my future music. At the end of March, I will be giving a performance of the atenteben, a bamboo flute from Ghana, as part of my ethnomusicology module, for which I was able to take Whatsapp lessons from a tutor at the University of Ghana. Over April, I will be focusing on my Philosophies of Music essay, for which I am looking at the use of glossolalia in the vocals of Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance). Lastly, I will have my major project, for which I am studying the oral traditions of West Africa from an audiovisual perspective; my ideas are not very far along as yet but much of my interest came from my time in Brighton, where I started to develop an abstract style of storytelling. 

DMSA Feature: Joe Gilling

Posted on by Johanna Bramli

Joe Gilling graduated in 2021 with a Final Research Essay ‘Haunted by Glitch: Technological Malfunction – Critiquing the Media of Innovation‘ that was selected for publication as part of the ARTECH 2021, and a Final Project ‘Spectres of the New Realm‘ that explored the nostalgic relationship with analogue sound and image through digital glitch aesthetics, projected onto a large screen set inside a spatial 6.1 speaker array.

We talk to Joe this month about where his career took him since graduating.

Three words that describe you as a creative person?

JG: Indecisive, Abstract, Conceptual

 

When did you start working with sound and music?

JG: I learnt the guitar from an early age and in my teenage years began to explore the world of digital composition and sampling. I found this kind of creativity more fulfilling and intuitive – you don’t need to be a professional at any instrument to be able to produce interesting sounds on a digital interface. The endless opportunities of digital music creation were exciting to me over the restrictiveness of a single instrument. However, I do feel my early years of performing an instrument informed my musical theory knowledge and ear for tonality which helped me later on.

 

In what ways has the DMSA course supported or helped you to develop into who you are today creatively and professionally?

JG: The course opened up avenues for deep thinking and creative musical composition outside of any traditional sense. DMSA showed me the ways artists had used and continue to use sound in forms I could never have imagined. The course pushed me out of my comfort zone on numerous occasions to take my work in audio to the very edge, which isn’t always enjoyable at the time, but I am endlessly grateful for it, making me a more critical thinker and adventurous person creatively today. I learnt so much about different concepts and ways of thinking about sound arts which have assisted me within my career now.

 

What are your plans for the near future? 

JG: Since graduating from the course, I acquired a role in the sound design industry and now manage over 90 independent labels producing sample packs for a music technology company. I love the work I do, getting hands-on with audio every day and working with some of the top producers and labels from around the world. In the coming months, I’m looking to launch my own sound design brand called Rewind Samples (@rewindsamples), representing some of the most talented producers from the underground UK bass music scene.

 

Can you tell us a few words about your experience of navigating life after university?

JG: Whilst it was extremely daunting to finish on the high of 3 years of inspiring learning and creativity, the reality that the time has come to venture out into exploring the market and finding a job which will be fulfilling and continue to support personal musical interests is a tough one (especially as the world is just recovering from a pandemic). I found that however bleak and difficult the industry may look from the outside to enter, if you show enough passion and excitement for it, even if you may be underqualified for certain roles, many will be willing to give you a shot to prove yourself.