Multimedia & Installations: Spatial Sound Work by Amedeo Cappelletti

Origins

Sound design, Amedeo Cappelletti

Sound installation for the Origins (Origens in Portuguese) photography exhibition by Michael Naify at the Centro Cultural dos Correios, Rio de Janeiro. The sound was created to loop seamlessly so it could play in the gallery space as a sonic backdrop as the exhibition took place. I worked with personal and publicly available field recordings, including some featuring iron mine workers, the Brazilian tropical forest fauna and traditional chants from the region of Minas Gerais. Musically I chose to portray a feeling of slow, hazy dread and pixelated noise, to accompany the exhibition thematically and aesthetically.

Artist's statement, Michael Naify

Origins is a body of work attempting to scratch the surface of a rich but brutal history. A history of discovery and exploitation in the mineral rich area of Minas Gerais, Brazil (in Portuguese the word "exploração" translates to both exploitation and exploration).

This project is composed of coffee-stained cyanotypes, one of the first photographic processes developed in the mid-19th century. Its principal active ingredient is iron salts, evoking the area known as the "Iron Triangle," where the imagery for this work was taken. The state contains the world's richest veins of iron ore, the mining of which comprises much of its economic activity.

Slavery was essential to the cycle of gold mining that began in the 17th century and preceded the iron industry of today. While the institution of slavery was abolished in Brazil (in 1888, the last country in the Americas), its systems and structures have persisted to this day.

The process of staining the images in coffee not only alters the color and tone of the images but also references one of the main activities of slavery in Brazil in the 19th century, the harvesting of coffee beans. The coffee and iron salts used to render these images are themselves commodities that are still mined and made in the area (coffee, iron, gold, silver). The process of staining also resonates with the idea of remnants. My work is concerned with recording the reflections and shadows I perceive of this history as well as the direct evidence of it.

In August 2026, the installation was also shown at RUDE, Rural Design's festival held within the National Park of the Mines of Monte Amiata, Tuscany, itself a former mercury-mining district. Presented there, the piece drew a parallel between that Italian rural mining history and the Brazilian one Origins explores.

Monom

Sound engineering internship and spatial sound residency at Monom, the Spatial Sound Institute of Berlin, working across its 4D Sound system of 54 speakers.

4D Sound is an object-based spatial system: rather than mixing to fixed stereo channels, each sound source is placed and moved freely in three-dimensional space across the room's full speaker array, so the audio itself carries a physical position and trajectory, not just a left-right balance.

Time was split between studio sessions, recording choirs and voice in the studio for a clean, dry version.

Sessions were also held outside, taking advantage of the building's architecture and acoustics.

It was then mixed using Monom's proprietary 4D Sound spatial software in Max4Live, and developed into a final work presented privately on the full 54-speaker rig.

The final piece itself is hard to share here: 4D Sound is built for that specific room and speaker array, and doesn't translate to headphones or an average stereo system. It's sound made in that space, for that space, which was itself a central question in my thesis, on how available spatial audio actually is for home and commercial use.

Shiné: A Way Inside

Sound installation, Hermitage of San Michele Arcangelo, Todi, Italy.

Sound design, Amedeo Cappelletti

Shiné is an analogue multimedia installation whose aim is to slow down the heartbeat of participants and induce them to contemplation. Shiné is a Tibetan term which can be divided into two syllables, the first "shi" means tranquil and "né", abiding. So shiné is tranquil or calming and abiding in that which is. Shiné is practised within meditation in several ways, the most common way is that of focusing on one's breath, or, alternatively, on sound.

The installation includes 21-minute sessions, in which 2, 4, 8, or 16 spectators can participate depending on the size of the space. Each session is governed by the recorded soundtrack, which is broadcast in high definition from a minimum of 2 to a maximum of 5 speakers. During the session, each spectator has the right to stand up and strike one of the Tibetan bowls placed in front of them, one to three times. These ancient bowls are the instruments with which the soundtrack was created. Once the session is over, participants can rise and make way for others or stay for another 21-minute session. Each visitor can freely leave before the end of the session, but not before having left with one, two, or three strikes on the chosen bowl. Between each session there is a 3-minute break, and once exited, a participant can no longer re-enter the same session. Upon leaving, visitors are invited to write a short comment in a guests' book.

Piranha

Sound installation for an artwork exhibition, London.

Sound design, Amedeo Cappelletti

The sound is shaped by the artist's requests. She shared some examples of baile funk and asked if the songs' structures could be taken as inspiration, but replaced with metallic percussion and sounds that would devolve and turn into an intense, confrontational cacophony over time. Water, and the sensation of a fish swimming through it, was also requested as a sonic backdrop.

Mood board, Hannah Cosac Naify

For The Invisibles

Sound installation for a painting exhibition, Rio de Janeiro.

Soundwalk

Public soundwalk organized to bring attention to hidden metropolitan sound worlds, Berlin.