SYNOPSIS
'The Whole Inside' is a generative sound mural combining artificial and human voices, expanding the plastic dimension of voice on contouring the body.
Using nine Visaton speakers, Pure Data and data projection, Olivia Louvel confronts femininity and violent misogyny, when the body is being depersonalised, subsequently dissociated as a defence mechanism to cope with a traumatic event. The harrowing polyphonic vocal composition is based on a text sourced from the Incels (involuntary celibates) forum. On debating how to murder a woman, some members of the Incels community propose diverse actions, one being to rape her, then to “take a surgical knife, cut open her abdominal area and remove the organs.” Applying principle of conditional logic, the randomised audio is carrying on indefinitely, revealing itself over time to the experiencers.
'The Whole Inside' will be re-installed at Sonorities Festival 2020, in Belfast.

ARTIST STATEMENT
With this work, I investigated my own body, retracing my narrative whilst exploring an explicit sociopolitical agenda: the violent misogyny of the Incels. Initially, I envisaged my body to be cast with the abdominal area pierced in the middle. This would have required me to collaborate with a sculptor. I then opted for a digital translation using a 3D body scanner, collecting my own physical data. The body initially perceived as a vertical sculpture became horizontal, a grid to follow. An array of nine Visaton speakers follows the contour of the body. The piece in its display is not a sonic intimidation but of a narrative dimension, tracing a fragile sonic line on the curved delineation of the body, revealing itself to the experiencer through time. I was drawn to the potential of the Visaton piezo speakers to incorporate sound and voice in a non-conventional manner: within the mural of data projection, the voices are expanding from the wall, from the projected body, as a relief.