61st Venice Biennale · In Minor Keys · Curated by Koyo Kouoh
A multi-sensory cinematic performance by KaMag — Kamaal Malak & María Magdalena Campos-Pons
Whispering in Three Movements is a multi-sensory performance installation that dissolves the boundaries between music, visual art, aromatherapy, and neural frequency therapy. Created by KaMag — the collaborative identity of bassist and audio architect Kamaal Malak and MacArthur Fellow and visual artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons — the work unfolds across three immersive movements inside the Arsenale at the 61st Venice Biennale.
Presented within Koyo Kouoh's curatorial framework In Minor Keys, which invites "listening to the persistent signals of earth and life, connecting to soul frequencies," this performance merges live bass performance, real-time painting, diffused botanical essences, and 40 Hz gamma wave entrainment into a single unified field of sensation — delivered through 4K LED walls driven by Resolume 7, with cinematic content generated through Google Gemini and Google VEO.
Former member of the 2x Grammy Award-winning Arrested Development. Lecturer and artist-in-residence at Vanderbilt University. Founder of KM Entertainment. Kamaal's practice bridges sonic branding, neuroscience-informed audio, and immersive installation, with 40 Hz gamma wave entrainment at the center of his research.
Cornelius Vanderbilt Endowed Chair of Fine Arts. Her multidisciplinary practice spans performance, photography, painting, sculpture, film, and installation, drawing from Afro-Cuban spiritual traditions, diaspora narratives, and the poetics of the body. Exhibited at the Venice Biennale, Documenta, the Smithsonian, and the Tate.
The space begins in darkness and silence. A sub-bass drone at 40 Hz rises imperceptibly — felt before heard — as diffusers release vetiver and sea salt essences evoking Cuban coastlines and ancestral memory. Kamaal introduces solo bass harmonics that mirror the gamma wave frequency, while the LED walls slowly illuminate with deep indigo and bioluminescent particle fields generated through Google VEO. The audience is drawn into a meditative threshold state, suspended between waking and dream.
Magdalena enters the performance field and begins painting live on translucent surfaces, her gestures captured by overhead cameras and projected in real-time across the LED walls through Resolume 7, layered with AI-generated volumetric environments from Google Gemini. The bass shifts into melodic, conversational phrases — a dialogue between brushstroke and bassline. Rose and frankincense replace the opening scents. Color erupts: amber, magenta, gold. The walls breathe with the painting.
All elements converge. The 40 Hz gamma entrainment reaches full synchronization across audio and visual channels — the LED walls pulse in phase with the bass frequencies, Magdalena's painted imagery dissolves into neural-network visualizations of synaptic firing patterns, and the scent transitions to cedar and white sage. The performance ascends toward a collective sensory crescendo before slowly receding into stillness. The last thing the audience perceives is the whisper of frequency — the residual hum of shared consciousness.
Radical Love is not sentiment — it is architecture. It is the frequency at which separate bodies begin to resonate as one.KaMag — Guiding Philosophy
The complete production workflow spans content generation, post-processing, Resolume configuration, and live performance integration. Every element is designed for the 32:9 ultrawide LED wall configuration at the Arsenale.
Pre-render all VEO sequences at 4K 60fps in 32:9 aspect ratio (7680×2160 pixels). Export as ProRes 4444 for maximum quality and alpha channel support. For real-time Gemini generation, configure the API pipeline with NDI camera input and Syphon output targeting under 200ms latency.
Grade all VEO outputs for LED wall color space. Apply photosensitivity safety limiters to any 40Hz flicker content — maximum 3% contrast modulation. Create seamless loop points for all ambient sequences. Export final masters as HAP codec files for optimal Resolume playback performance.
Configure composition at 7680×2160 (32:9). Create three output slices mapped to the triptych LED wall layout: Left Panel (1920×2160), Center Panel (3840×2160), Right Panel (1920×2160). In Output Transformation, map slices to match LED processor input expectations. Set up layer routing: Layer 1 for ambient base, Layer 2 for VEO overlays, Layer 3 for live camera/Gemini Syphon feed, Layer 4 for 40Hz entrainment pulse overlay.
Route Kamaal's bass signal through Ableton Live for MIDI note-to-CC conversion. Map bass frequency data to Resolume parameters: low frequency energy drives Layer 2 opacity and blend transitions, note triggers cue clip changes between movements, and envelope followers modulate Gemini prompt intensity during Movement II. Clock sync via MIDI to ensure 40Hz visual pulse locks to audio.
Program DMX-controlled scent diffusers to transition between movement-specific essential oil blends: Movement I (vetiver + sea salt), Movement II (rose + frankincense), Movement III (cedar + white sage). Trigger scent changes via Resolume's DMX output on movement transitions, with 30-second overlap crossfades to prevent abrupt olfactory shifts.
Three-day technical rehearsal at the Arsenale prior to May 9 opening. Calibrate LED wall color response to venue ambient light. Test photosensitivity compliance in situ. Rehearse MIDI trigger timing between Kamaal's bass performance and visual cue points. Verify Gemini real-time latency with live camera feed from Magdalena's painting station. Final scent diffusion radius testing.
The LED wall installation is configured as a triptych — three panels forming an immersive 32:9 panoramic canvas. Resolume Arena 7's Advanced Output maps the composition to the LED processor's expected input layout, with each panel driven as an independent slice for maximum creative control.
Total composition: 7680 × 2160 · Resolume comp size matches total pixel count · Output via 2× DisplayPort to NovaStar MCTRL4K processors
Create new composition at 7680×2160. This matches the total pixel count of the three-panel LED wall. All content should be authored or scaled to this resolution.
In Advanced Output, create three slices on the Output Transformation tab. Position Slice 1 (Left) at 0,0 sized 1920×2160. Slice 2 (Center) at 1920,0 sized 3840×2160. Slice 3 (Right) at 5760,0 sized 1920×2160. These must match your LED processor's expected pixel layout.
Select all three slices, right-click, and choose "Match Output Shape." This ensures the input selection mirrors the physical LED layout. Position slices on the Input Selection tab to match the stage arrangement.
Configure four layers with dedicated functions: Layer 1 — Ambient Base (VEO loops), Layer 2 — Dynamic Overlays (VEO triggered sequences), Layer 3 — Live Feed (NDI camera + Gemini Syphon), Layer 4 — 40Hz Entrainment Overlay (safety-limited flicker). Use blend modes: Screen for Layer 2, Add for Layer 4.
Map MIDI CC from Ableton Live to Resolume parameters: CC1 → Layer 2 opacity, CC2 → clip trigger column advance (movement transitions), CC3 → Gemini prompt intensity scalar, CC4 → 40Hz overlay master opacity. Map MIDI notes for discrete cue triggers at movement boundaries.
In Minor Keys proposes a radical reconnection with art's natural habitat and role in society — the emotional, the visual, the sensory, the affective, the subjective.Koyo Kouoh — Curatorial Framework, 61st Venice Biennale