̽����ѡ

In his seminal book “Embodied Music Cognition and Mediation Technology”, Marc Leman Leman (2008a) drew up a theoretical framework that has influenced a whole new generation of researchers, myself included. Building on a long tradition of systematic musicology, combined with ecological psychology and modern technology, he convincingly set the direction for a fresh approach to scientific studies of musical experiences. In the following, I will reflect on some concepts that he raised in his discussion, and I will point out some that he left for others, like me, to explore in more detail.

This chapter presents a pedagogical approach based on the author’s experience teaching interactive music technology design from an embodied music cognition perspective. The “musicking quadrant” is introduced as a framework to understand the experiences of those who make music in real-time (performers) and non-real-time (instrument makers, composers, producers), and those who experience music in real-time (perceivers) and non-real-time (analysts). New technologies challenge these roles and allow for new types of musical engagement that align with the 4E cognition perspectives.

Sonic Bothy is an inclusive experimental and new-music organisation with an ensemble of musicians with and without disabilities and neurodiversities. This article considers their audiovisual piece Verbaaaaatim (2020–21), its form marked by the context of its development and composition during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a set of interlayered perspectives that mirror the formal layers of the piece. Recorded in a single take, it comprises instrumental sounds, spoken words, written words, static and dynamic graphics and videos of the performers, aligned so that the piece seems consistently to flow onwards, although it is not always clear which element impels its forward motion. The article considers, in particular, Verbaaaaatim’s presentation of modes of embodied conviviality between its performers, the ways these find resonance in wider histories of experimental music and the ways in which its elements can be understood in an ecological framework as ‘sound actions’.

Björn Heile’s 3 × 10 Musical Actions for Three Socially Distanced Performers features frequent changes in musical material, playing style and instrumental combinations. Throughout a series of short sections, the performers play, sing, speak, conduct and move around, following instructions that appear on tablets. This article reflects on audiences’ experiences of the work and on musical actions more generally. We consider musical actions as short, coherent motion chunks and distinguish between several types of action that appear in the piece: gestures (communicative actions, with or without sound), reactions (where a player responds to another) and interactions (where players mutually coordinate). The musicians’ individual and collective actions create a sense of play: on the one hand, they seem free and depart from standard concert conventions; on the other hand, they seem to be following a set of rules, even if these rules are not explained to the audience. As such, we approach the piece via theories of play and relate it to earlier modernist musical games. Ultimately, 3 × 10 Musical Actions emphasises several aspects of musical actions, as social, functional, expressive, playful and embodied.

This special collection of Music & Science contains 111 articles. They thoroughly describe a particular instantiation of a research concert, namely the innovative and complex event MusicLab Copenhagen. This took place over 14 hours on October 26, 2021, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Working with The Danish String Quartet (DSQ), one of the world's best chamber ensembles, a research team from RITMO, complemented with researchers from several other European institutions, ran experiments and studied how mind and body are engaged during a concert. This was a unique opportunity to capture concurrent qualitative, behavioral, and physiological measurements in a concert hall, delicately balancing the scientific ideals of reliability and ecological validity.

This paper reports on a desktop investigation and a lab experiment comparing the video recording capabilities of four commercially available 360-degree cameras: GoPro MAX, Insta360 X3, Garmin VIRB 360, and Ricoh Theta S. The four cameras all use different recording formats and settings and have varying video quality and software support. This makes it difficult to conduct analyses and compare between devices. We have implemented new functions in the Musical Gestures Toolbox (MGT) for reading and merging files from the different platforms. Using the capabilities of FFmpeg, we have also made a new function for converting between different 360-degree video projections and formats. This allows (music) researchers to exploit 360-degree video recordings using regular video-based analysis pipelines.

ZRob is a robotic system designed for playing a snare drum. The robot is constructed with a passive flexible spring-based joint inspired by the human hand. This paper describes a study exploring rhythmic patterns by exploiting the chaotic dynamics of two ZRobs. In the experiment, we explored the control configurations of each arm by trying to create un- predictable patterns. Over 200 samples have been recorded and analyzed. We show how the chaotic dynamics of ZRob can be used for creating new drumming patterns.

In this paper, we reflect on the focus of “newness” in NIME research and practice and argue that there is a missing O (for “Old”) in framing our academic discourse. A systematic review of the last year’s conference proceedings reveals that most papers do, indeed, present new instruments, interfaces, or pieces of technology. Comparably few papers focus on the prolongation of existing NIMEs. Our meta-analysis identifies four main categories from these papers: (1) reuse, (2) update, (3) complement, and (4) long-term engagement. We discuss how focusing more on these four types of NIME development and engagement can be seen as an approach to increase sustainability.

This study aims to use supervised learning – specifically, support vector machines – as a tool for a music mood classification task. Four audio and MIDI datasets, each containing over four hundred files, were composed for use in the training and testing processes. Mood classes were formed according to the valence-arousal plane, resulting in the following: happy, sad, relaxed, and tense. Additional runs were also conducted with the linear discriminant analysis, a dimensionality reduction technique commonly used to better the performance of the classifier. The relevant audio and MIDI features were carefully selected for extraction. MIDI datasets for the same music generated better classification results than corresponding audio datasets. Furthermore, when music is composed with each mood associated with a particular key instead of mixed keys, the classification accuracy is higher.

With the ever-increasing prevalence of technology, its application in various music-related processes, such as music composition and performance, has become increasingly prominent. One fascinating area where technology finds utility is in music performance, offering opportunities for extensive sound exploration and manipulation. In this paper, we introduce an approach utilizing SuperCollider and Open Sound Control (OSC) commands in a multi-speaker setup, enabling spatial audio control for a truly interactive audio spatialization experience. We delve into the musicological dimensions of these distinct methods, examining their integration within a live performance setting to uncover their artistic and expressive potential. By merging technology and musicology, our research aims to unlock new avenues for immersive and captivating musical experiences.

The paper presents a study of the noise level of accelerometer data from a mobile phone compared to three commercially available IMU-based devices (AX3, Equivital, and Movesense) and a marker-based infrared motion capture system (Qualisys). The sensors are compared in static positions and for measuring human micromotion, with larger motion sequences as reference. The measurements show that all but one of the IMU-based devices capture motion with an accuracy and precision that is far below human micromotion. However, their data and representations differ, so care should be taken when comparing data between devices.

This paper describes the development of two musical instrument prototypes developed to explore how non-haptic music technologies can be accessed from a web browser and how they can offer accessibility for people with low fine motor skills. Two approaches to browser-based motion capture were developed and tested during an iterative design process. This was followed by observational studies of two user groups: one with low fine motor skills and one with normal motor skills. Contrary to our expectations, we found that avoiding the use of buttons and mice did not make the apps more accessible for the participants with low fine motor skills. Furthermore, motion speed was considered more important for people with low motor skills than the size of the control action. The most important finding is that browser-based musical instruments using sensor-based and video-based motion tracking are not only feasible but allow for reaching much larger groups of people than previously possible. This may ultimately lead to both more personalized and accessible musical experiences.

In this project, we propose an algorithm to convert musical features and structures extracted from monophonic MIDI files to tactile illusions. Mapping music to vibrotactile stimuli is a challenging process since the perceptible frequency range of the skin is lower than that of the auditory system, which may cause the loss of some musical features. Moreover, current proposed models do not warrant the correspondence between the emotional response to music and the vibrotactile version of it. We propose to use tactile illusions as an additional resource to convey more meaningful vibrotactile stimuli. Tactile illusions enable us to add dynamics to vibrotactile stimuli in the form of movement, changes of direction, and localization. The suggested algorithm converts monophonic MIDI files into arrangements of two tactile illusions: “phantom motion” and “funneling”. The validation of the rendered material consisted of presenting the audio rendered from MIDI files to participants and then adding the vibrotactile component to it. The arrangement of tactile illusions was also evaluated alone. Results suggest that the arrangement of tactile illusions evokes more positive emotions than negative ones. This arrangement was also perceived as more agreeable and stimulating than the original audio. Although musical features such as rhythm, tempo, and melody were mostly recognized in the arrangement of tactile illusions, it provoked a different emotional response from that of the original audio.

The paper presents the Musical Gestures Toolbox (MGT) for Python, a collection of modules targeted at researchers working with video recordings. The toolbox includes video visualization techniques such as creating motion videos, motion history images, and motiongrams. These visualizations allow for studying video recordings from different temporal and spatial perspectives. The toolbox also includes basic computer vision methods, and it is designed to integrate well with audio analysis toolboxes. The MGT was initially developed to analyze music-related body motion (of musicians, dancers, and perceivers) but is equally helpful for other disciplines working with video recordings of humans, such as linguistics, pedagogy, psychology, and medicine.

Music researchers work with increasingly large and complex data sets. There are few established data handling practices in the field and several conceptual, technological, and practical challenges. Furthermore, many music researchers are not equipped for (or interested in) the craft of data storage, curation, and archiving. This paper discusses some of the particular challenges that empirical music researchers face when working towards Open Research practices: handling (1) (multi)media files, (2) privacy, and (3) copyright issues. These are exemplified through MusicLab, an event series focused on fostering openness in music research. It is argued that the "best practice" suggested by the FAIR principles is too demanding in many cases, but "good enough practice" may be within reach for many. A four-layer data handling "recipe" is suggested as concrete advice for achieving "good enough practice" in empirical music research.

This edited volume is based on a selection of contributions at an international seminar organized in May 2022 to celebrate the achievements of Professor Godøy upon his retirement from the University of ̽����ѡ. The 17 chapters cover different approaches to sonic design practice and theory, giving readers historical backdrops and an overview of the current state of both artistic and scientific research in the field.

A techno-cognitive look at how new technologies are shaping the future of musicking. “Musicking” encapsulates both the making of and perception of music, so it includes both active and passive forms of musical engagement. But at its core, it is a relationship between actions and sounds, between human bodies and musical instruments. Viewing musicking through this lens and drawing on music cognition and music technology, Sound Actions proposes a model for understanding differences between traditional acoustic “sound makers” and new electro-acoustic “music makers.” What is a musical instrument? How do new technologies change how we perform and perceive music? What happens when composers build instruments, performers write code, perceivers become producers, and instruments play themselves? The answers to these pivotal questions entail a meeting point between interactive music technology and embodied music cognition, what author Alexander Refsum Jensenius calls “embodied music technology.” Moving between objective description and subjective narrative of his own musical experiences, Jensenius explores why music makes people move, how the human body can be used in musical interaction, and how new technologies allow for active musical experiences. The development of new music technologies, he demonstrates, has fundamentally changed how music is performed and perceived.

Kan personlighetstrekket avgjøre om du liker å danse?

Professor Alexander Refsum Jensenius will talk about his decade-long exploration of human micromotion. Motion data from the 365 standstill sessions he carried out during 2023 reveals lots of biomechanical noise, but also some interesting signals.

I denne episoden besøker Kristopher forskningssenteret RITMO ved Universitetet i ̽����ѡ. Der forsker de på alt fra trommeroboter og mikromusikalske problemstillinger til hvordan vi påvirkes av ventilasjonslyd. Han møter senterleder Alexander Refsum Jensenius som forteller om forskning i skjæringspunktet mellom musikk, bevegelse, psykologi og robotikk.

Musikk er en av de mest komplekse menneskelige kommunikasjonsformene som finnes og egner seg derfor godt for å utforske kunstig intelligens. Presentasjonen beskriver hvordan musikkforskere, psykologer og informatikere jobber sammen ved RITMO for å forstå mer om rytme, tid og bevegelse hos mennesker og maskiner.

What can air guitar performance tell about people's musical experience and how does it relate to real guitar performance? Alexander Refsum Jensenius will tell about his decade-long research into music-related body motion of both performers and perceivers. He will also tell about how this has informed new performance paradigms, including the self-playing guitars that will be showcased at the festival. ​ Alexander Refsum Jensenius is a professor of music technology at the University of ̽����ѡ and Director of RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion. He studies how and why people move to music and uses this knowledge to create new music with untraditional instruments. He is widely published, including the books Sound Actions and A NIME Reader.

In this workshop, I will introduce video visualization as a method for understanding more about music-related body motion. Examples will be given of various methods implemented in the standalone application VideoAnalysis and the Musical Gestures Toolbox for Python.

MusicLab er et samarbeid mellom RITMO og Universitetsbiblioteket. Målet er å utforske nye måter å samle inn og formidle musikkrelaterte forskningsdata på.

In my talk I will give an overview of the concert research conducted in the fourMs Lab at the University of ̽����ѡ from the early 2000s to today. Over the years, we have explored and refined numerous data captures methods, from qualitative observation studies, interviews, and diaries to motion capture and physiological sensing. At the core has always been the attempt to shed light on the complexity of music performance. This includes understanding more about the subtleties of performer's sound-producing actions, sound-facilitating motion, and communicative and expressive gestures. It also includes the intricacies of inter-personal synchronization. Over the years, we have been able to expand from studying duos, trios, and quartets to full orchestras. Today, we have lots of data, some answers, and even more questions than when we started. An excellent starting point for future research.

Hvor ser en kunstner som maler på scenen under en konsert? Forskere fra UiO forsøker å finne ut av dette ved hjelp av avansert blikksporingsteknologi.

Klarer du å stå stille til favorittlåta di? Prøv selv og vinn 1000kr! Folk sier ofte at det er umulig å ikke bevege seg til musikk, men stemmer det? Onsdag 3. april kan du teste deg selv når professor Alexander Refsum Jensenius – også kjent som Professor stillstand – inviterer til «NM i stillstand» her på Popsenteret. Vinneren kåres samme kveld på LAB.prat #3 med nettopp Alexander! Her får du også vite mer om hva som faktisk skjer i kroppen når vi hører på musikk. Som vanlig ledes kvelden av fasilitator og «MC» Dr. Kjell Andreas Oddekalv, også kjent som «Dr. Kjell» (eller hele Norges Kjelledegge som han selv liker å si) fra Hiphop orkesteret Sinsenfist. Sammen med Alexander inviterer han til en uformell samtale og Q&A om kroppsrytmer og hvordan de påvirkes av omgivelsene våre. I tidsrommet mellom stillstandkonkurransen og LAB.prat er Popsenteret åpent og du er velkommen til å besøke utstillingen vår og alt den har å by på!

In this lecture-recital, I will present piano-related research from the Department of Musicology over the last twenty years. I will also reflect on my role in this history, both as an artist and scientist. Finally, I will scrutinize the department's new Disklavier while performing various exploratory etudes.

Abrahamson et al. (2022) recently called for a merging of Embodied Design-Based Research and Learning Analytics to establish a coherent and integrated focus on Multimodal Learning Analytics of Embodied Design. In Spring 2022, members of EDRL and selected international collaborators of the lab participated in “Rhythm Rising,” a workshop week hosted at University of ̽����ѡ’s RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time, and Motion. The workshop featured activities for graduate students to learn the scientific research methodologies of gathering physical, physiological, and neurobiological data from study participants engaged in interactive learning of STEM content. The activities combined the respective expertise of Abrahamson (learning sciences) and Jensenius (embodied music cognition and technology) to investigate sensorimotor micro-processes hypothesized to form the cognitive basis of conceptual understandings, such as hand- and eye actions leading to the emergence of mathematical insight. Whereas the ̽����ѡ workshop spurred great enthusiasm among the graduate students, its duration only allowed time for initial data collection. Therefore, we would like to regather in Spring 2024 to continue our collaborative work and to share insights about data analysis, visualization, and interpretation. Concurrently, we’ll develop ideas for future joint research projects.

The AMBIENT project aims to study how such elements influence people's bodily behaviors and how they feel about the rhythms in an environment. This will be done by studying how different auditory and visual stimuli combine to create rhythms in various settings.

Hvorfor er det slik at plateselskaper ønsker at artister skal lage TikTok´er for å promotere musikken sin? Hva bestemmer hvilke musikkanbefalinger du får i Spotify? Og hvordan bruker plateselskapene dataene dine til å generere klikk og lytt? Bli med på en samtale om algoritmer på apper som TikTok og Spotify - og hvordan de påvirker musikksmaken din! Til å diskutere dette kommer: - Synne Vo. Hun er en artist som slo igjennom på TikTok, og bruker plattformen aktivt for å promotere musikken sin. Hun kommer til panelet for å dele sine erfaringer med bransjen og appene. - Yngvar Kjus. Han er professor i musikk og medier på UiO, og har forsket mye på populærmusikk, musikkproduksjon og musikkbransjen. - Tejaswinee Kelkar. Hun er er en sanger og forsker innen musikk og bevegelse. Hun har tidligere jobbet som dataanalytiker i Universal Music Norway og ved RITMO Center of Excellence ved Universitetet i ̽����ѡ. Samtalen ledes av Alexander Refsum Jensenius. Han er professor i musikk ved Universitetet i ̽����ѡ, og leder av RITMO - Senter for tverrfaglig forskning på rytme, tid og bevegelse. Han prøver hele tiden å forstå mer om hvordan og hvorfor mennesker beveger seg til musikk.

QualiFAIR huben inviterer til en presentasjon og en diskusjon om rettighetene til data og behov for lisenser for data og annet forskningsmateriale.

This workshop is targeted at students and researchers working with video recordings. You will learn to use MG Toolbox, a Python package with numerous tools for visualizing and analyzing video recordings. This includes visualization techniques such as motion videos, motion history images, and motiongrams; techniques that, in different ways, allow for looking at video recordings from different temporal and spatial perspectives. It also includes some basic computer vision analysis, such as extracting quantity and centroid of motion, and using such features in analysis.MG Toolbox for Python is a collection of high-level modules for generating all of the above-mentioned visualizations and analyses. This toolbox was initially developed to analyze music-related body motion but is equally helpful for other disciplines working with video recordings of humans, such as linguistics, psychology, medicine, and educational sciences.

I kveld møtes NRKs populærvitenskapelige radioprogram Abels tårn, KORK og forskningsprosjektet MusicLab for å måle hva som skjer mellom musikere og publikum når de utsettes for musikk.

Hva skjer i musklene når vi forsøker å stå stille? Hvordan kan men lage musikk fra kroppen. I pausen på Forsker Grand Prix vil jeg underholde med et sceneshow hvor jeg utforsker interaktive muskelarmbånd og en musikkhanske.

Hvorfor er noen musikalske og andre ikke? Hvordan har det seg at kunst kan treffe oss så voldsomt - og så ulikt! Ulike kunstneriske uttrykk som musikk, malerkunst, litteratur, dans og teater kommer uten fasit og tolkes vidt forskjellig fra person til person. Er det hjernen som styrer dette? Det er åpenbart at hjernen vår er aktiv og ikke passiv når vi opplever kunst. Hvorfor er det sånn? Gir kunstneriske opplevelser god hjernetrim? Er kunst viktig for hjernehelsen?

Can doing nothing tell us everything? Meet Professor Alexander Refsum Jensenius, a music researcher exploring the deep connections between sound, space, and the human body. Through his fascinating studies on stillness and motion, Alexander has discovered surprising insights into how we interact with our environment.

Selv om vi liker å si at driver med forskningsbasert utdanning, er organiseringen av forskning og utdanning gjerne plassert i ulike siloer, skriver Alexander Refsum Jensenius.

A PathOS interview about how Open Science (Open Access to publications, Open/FAIR data and software, collaborations with citizens) has made a positive or negative impact.

This paper investigates the spatial audio recording capabilities of various commercially available 360-degree cameras (GoPro MAX, Insta360 X3, Garmin VIRB 360, and Ricoh Theta S). A dedicated ambisonics audio recorder (Zoom H3VR) was used for comparison. Six action sequences were performed around the recording setup, including impulsive and continuous vocal and non-vocal stimuli. The audio streams were extracted from the videos and compared using spectrograms and anglegrams. The anglegrams show adequate localization in ambisonic recordings from the GoPro MAX and Zoom H3VR. All cameras feature undocumented noise reduction and audio enhancement algorithms, use different types of audio compression, and have limited audio export options. This makes it challenging to use the spatial audio data reliably for research purposes.

The Sempre Autumn conference was an online student study day, held on Friday 8th November 2024, with a combination of student presentations, research speed dating, and a special session on open research featuring Professor Iain Brennan (University of Hull), Professor Tuomas Eerola (Durham University), and Professor Alexander Refsum Jensenius (University of ̽����ѡ). The event was open to doctoral students at any stage of their research and those thinking of applying for doctoral study. We invited proposals for short presentations (10 minutes + 5 for Q&A) from doctoral students, on any aspect of music psychology or music education.

Studenter tilknyttet RITMO stiller ut prosjektene sine på Popsenteret: en interaktiv symaskin fra 1911, et lyttende og snakkende speil, og et interaktivt maleri. Hvordan kan slike objekter gi musikalske opplevelser?

RITMO er et unikt SFF på grunn av sin radikalt tverrfaglige oppbygning. Hvordan fungerer det i praksis?

In 2021, one of the world’s finest string quartets, The Danish String Quartet (DSQ), and a large team of international researchers based at RITMO, co-hosted MusicLab Copenhagen – a groundbreaking event where DSQ performed their best repertoire while researchers experimented with, measured, and analyzed the experiences and behavior of musicians and audience. Some of the questions we tried to answer were: Do we become one grand “we” when absorbed in music together? How do we synchronize our bodily rhythms with the music during a concert? As an innovative musical and scientific format, the concert has been widely reported and won “Event of the Year” by the Danish National Broadcasting Corporation (DR P2). Now, the researchers have completed their analyses, and we are excited to share findings in a hybrid launch event.

Throughout 2023, I have been standing still for ten minutes around noon every day, in a different room each day. This project follows a decade-long exploration of human micromotion from both artistic and scientific perspectives. In the talk, I will present results from the annual Norwegian Championships of Standstill, where we have studied the influence of music on people's micromotion. I will also talk about how micromotion can be used in interactive music systems, allowing for the conscious and unconscious control of musical sounds.

ZRob is a robotic system designed for playing a snare drum. The robot is constructed with a passive flexible spring-based joint inspired by the human hand. This paper describes a study exploring rhythmic patterns by exploiting the chaotic dynamics of two ZRobs. In the experiment, we explored the control configurations of each arm by trying to create un- predictable patterns. Over 200 samples have been recorded and analyzed. We show how the chaotic dynamics of ZRob can be used for creating new drumming patterns.

We will analyze a new possible template for NIME submissions which would simplify the integration of NIME music performances in the COMPEL, a database which facilitates navigation across different categories (pieces, persons, instruments). The template emerges from a workshop run last year at NIME about the structure of COMPEL and the process of entering all performances presented last year. From this workshop we expect to improve the template and validate it with a community.

RITMO er et tverrfaglig senter som ønsker å avdekke de kognitive mekanismene som ligger til grunn for menneskelig rytme, i musikk, bevegelse og audiovisuelle medier.

Throughout 2023, I stand still for ten minutes around noon every day, in a different room each day. This project follows a decade-long exploration of human micromotion from both artistic and scientific perspectives. Previously, I have been interested in the impact of music. Now, I am listening to ventilation systems, elevators, and people walking and talking and reflecting on how they influence my body and mind. The aim is to understand more about the rhythms of the environment.

In this paper, we reflect on the focus of “newness” in NIME research and practice and argue that there is a missing O (for “Old”) in framing our academic discourse. A systematic review of the last year’s conference proceedings reveals that most papers do, indeed, present new instruments, interfaces, or pieces of technology. Comparably few papers focus on the prolongation of existing NIMEs. Our meta-analysis identifies four main categories from these papers: (1) reuse, (2) update, (3) complement, and (4) long-term engagement. We discuss how focusing more on these four types of NIME development and engagement can be seen as an approach to increase sustainability.

Moving slowly likely puts us into a special state of mind. Subjective reports from various practices including dance, Tai Chi and walking meditation suggest that slow movements can bring participants into a special state involving increased relaxation and awareness. Interestingly, relatively little research has been performed specifically to understand the underlying mechanisms and the possible applications of human slow movement. One reason might be that slow movements are not common in day-to-day life: when we want to move – for example to pick up our cup of coffee - we usually want to do it now. Some evidence suggests that humans tend to avoid moving slowly in different tasks, for example, when improvising movements together. The goal of this meeting is to bring together scholars and practitioners interested in slow movement, and to foster interdisciplinary research on this somewhat neglected topic.

Throughout 2023, I will stand still for ten minutes around noon every day, in a different room each day. The aim is to collect data about my micromotion and compare it to the qualities of the environment. This project follows a decade-long exploration of human micromotion from both artistic and scientific perspectives. In the talk, I will present results from the annual Norwegian Championships of Standstill, where we have studied the influence of music on people's micromotion. I will also talk about how micromotion can be used in interactive music systems, allowing for conscious and unconscious control of musical sounds.

How do new technologies change how we perform and perceive music? What happens when composers build instruments, performers write code, perceivers become producers, and instruments play themselves? These are questions addressed in the new book by Professor Alexander Refsum Jensenius: Sound Actions: Conceptualizing Musical Instruments published by the MIT Press.

Listen to the melodies composed with the help of motion capture body suits...

This study aims to use supervised learning – specifically, support vector machines – as a tool for a music mood classification task. Four audio and MIDI datasets, each containing over four hundred files, were composed for use in the training and testing processes. Mood classes were formed according to the valence-arousal plane, resulting in the following: happy, sad, relaxed, and tense. Additional runs were also conducted with the linear discriminant analysis, a dimensionality reduction technique commonly used to better the performance of the classifier. The relevant audio and MIDI features were carefully selected for extraction. MIDI datasets for the same music generated better classification results than corresponding audio datasets. Furthermore, when music is composed with each mood associated with a particular key instead of mixed keys, the classification accuracy is higher.

Research talk on sound design for games and immersive environments. The Unity game engine is used for environmental modeling. The Oculus Spatializer plugin provides control over binaural spatialization with native head related transfer functions (HRTF). Game scenes included C# scripts, which accounted for intermittent emitters (randomly triggered sounds of nature, critters and birds), crossfades, occlusion and raycasting. In the mixing stage, mixer groups, mixer snapshsots, snapshot triggers, SFX reverb sends, and low/high-pass filters were some of the tools demonstrated.

The paper presents a study of the noise level of accelerometer data from a mobile phone compared to three commercially available IMU-based devices (AX3, Equivital, and Movesense) and a marker-based infrared motion capture system (Qualisys). The sensors are compared in static positions and for measuring human micromotion, with larger motion sequences as reference. The measurements show that all but one of the IMU-based devices capture motion with an accuracy and precision that is far below human micromotion. However, their data and representations differ, so care should be taken when comparing data between devices.

With the ever-increasing prevalence of technology, its application in various music-related processes, such as music composition and performance, has become increasingly prominent. One fascinating area where technology finds utility is in music performance, offering opportunities for extensive sound exploration and manipulation. In this paper, we introduce an approach utilizing SuperCollider and Open Sound Control (OSC) commands in a multi-speaker setup, enabling spatial audio control for a truly interactive audio spatialization experience. We delve into the musicological dimensions of these distinct methods, examining their integration within a live performance setting to uncover their artistic and expressive potential. By merging technology and musicology, our research aims to unlock new avenues for immersive and captivating musical experiences.

Urgamle instinkt blir sett i sving når hjernen din oppfattar musikk. No kan forskarane også sjå danselysta i augo dine.

Stavanger Symfoniorkester (SSO) inviterer elever på 5.-10. trinn på konsert, for å gjennomføre forskning.

Hundrevis av elever kom for å høre på Stavanger symfoniorkester. Mens orkesteret spilte, var musikerne, dirigenten og publikum del av et unikt forskningsprosjekt.

Cristin, det nasjonale systemet for forskningsdokumentasjon, skal erstattes av Nasjonalt vitenarkiv. Men hva som blir bedre i det nye systemet kan verken IT-direktøren eller forskningsdirektøren ved UiO svare på.

What is the use of standing still for 10 minutes? I was asking myself when I saw a post on social media. It was a double picture of a man with a mobile phone around his neck displaying some data, and another picture showed the view he saw at that moment. I learned that he stood there for 10 minutes without any movement, listening to the sound that was already there. There were many pictures like this, and I decided to get in contact. So, today, we are in ̽����ѡ. We speak with Alexander Refsum Jensenius, a professor of music technology at the University of ̽����ѡ, a book author, a music researcher and researching musician working in the fields of embodied music cognition and new interfaces for musical expression. Alexander shares with us his experiences while performing and testing with artistic methods of embodied listening and how people experience music and sound. This goes from experiments with and without the conductor of a Symphony Orchestra to the sounds of our kitchen appliances. We talk about his motion capture lab, where a person’s exact location and micro-movements can be detected while they hear different kinds of music, and how the researchers can understand what moves them. Alexander shares insights about the Norwegian Championship of Stand Still, where until now, 1000s of people have participated, and the winner is the person with the lowest average velocity on standing the stillest over some time. Alexander explains the interplay of body and mind and reveals some secrets on how to move people, for example, on the dance floor or to calm them down. It all has to do with our bpm, the average heartbeat of about 60 beats a minute.

Musikerne forsvant ikke med grammofonen, det gjør de ikke nå heller.

In my presentation, I will discuss the application of LBMS in the field of dance anthropology and provide insights into its future implications. While kinetography (Labanotation) is commonly recognized and used in dance anthropology, the embodied aspects of Laban’s work are often overlooked. Therefore, I will focus on the embodied aspects of LBMS in dance anthropology, rather than just notation. To start, I will provide a general overview of how dance analysis is understood within the discipline of dance anthropology. Then, I will argue how LBMS impacts the discourse of dance analysis. In the second part of my presentation, I will bolster my argument with an example by analyzing a short segment of the Caucasian folk dance 'Zafak' performed by the Nalmes State Folk Dance Company of Adygea. Through this example, I aim to demonstrate how dance analysis using LBMS can contribute to anthropological research.

This workshop is targeted at students and researchers working with video recordings. Even though the workshop will be based on quantitative tools, the aim is to provide solutions for qualitative research. This includes visualization techniques such as motion videos, motion history images, and motiongrams, which, in different ways, allow for looking at video recordings from different temporal and spatial perspectives. It also includes basic computer vision analysis modules, such as extracting quantity and centroid of motion, and using such features in analysis. The participants will learn to use the Musical Gestures Toolbox for Python, a collection of high-level modules for easily generating all of the above-mentioned visualizations and analyses. This toolbox was initially developed for analyzing music-related body motion but is equally helpful for other disciplines working with video recordings of humans, such as linguistics, psychology, medicine, and educational sciences.

Rhythm is everywhere, from how we walk, talk, dance and play to telling stories about our past and even predicting the future. Rhythm is key to how we interact with our world. Our heartbeat, nervous system, and other bodily cycles work through rhythm. As such, rhythm is a crucial aspect of human action and perception, and it is in complex interaction with the world's cultural, biological and mechanical rhythms. At RITMO, they research rhythmic phenomena and their complex relationships with the rhythms of human bodies and brains. In the talk, Alexander will present examples of how they record, synchronize, and analyze data of complex, rhythmic human behavior, such as real-world concerts.

Throughout 2023, I will stand still for ten minutes around noon every day, in a different room each day. The aim is to collect data about my micromotion and compare it to the qualities of the environment. This project follows a decade-long exploration of human micromotion from both artistic and scientific perspectives. In the talk, I will present results from the annual Norwegian Championships of Standstill, where we have studied the influence of music on people's micromotion. I will also talk about how micromotion can be used in interactive music systems, allowing for conscious and unconscious control of musical sounds.

What is an instrument in our increasingly electrified world? In this talk I will present a set of theoretical building blocks from my forthcoming book on "musicking in an electronic world". At the core of the argument is the observation that the introduction of new music technologies has led to an increased separation between action and sound in musical performance. This has happened gradually, with pianos and organs being important early examples of instruments that introduced mechanical components between the performer and resonating objects. Today's network-based instruments represent an extreme case of a spatiotemporal dislocation between action and sound. They challenge our ideas of what an instrument can be, who can perform on them, and how they should be analyzed. In the lecture I will explain how we can use the concepts of action-sound couplings and mappings to structure our thinking about such instruments. This will be used at the heart of a new organology that embraces the qualities of both acoustic and electroacoustic instruments.

What is an instrument in our increasingly electrified world? In this talk I will present a set of theoretical building blocks from my forthcoming book on "musicking in an electronic world". At the core of the argument is the observation that the introduction of new music technologies has led to an increased separation between action and sound in musical performance. This has happened gradually, with pianos and organs being important early examples of instruments that introduced mechanical components between the performer and resonating objects. Today's network-based instruments represent an extreme case of a spatiotemporal dislocation between action and sound. They challenge our ideas of what an instrument can be, who can perform on them, and how they should be analyzed. In the lecture I will explain how we can use the concepts of action-sound couplings and mappings to structure our thinking about such instruments. This will be used at the heart of a new organology that embraces the qualities of both acoustic and electroacoustic instruments.

What is an instrument in our increasingly electrified world? In this talk I will present a set of theoretical building blocks from my recent book "Sound Actions". At the core of the argument is the observation that the introduction of new music technologies has led to an increased separation between action and sound in musical performance. This has happened gradually, with pianos and organs being important early examples of instruments that introduced mechanical components between the performer and resonating objects. Today's network-based instruments represent an extreme case of a spatiotemporal dislocation between action and sound. They challenge our ideas of what an instrument can be, who can perform on them, and how they should be analyzed. In the lecture I will explain how we can use the concepts of action-sound couplings and mappings to structure our thinking about such instruments.

Throughout 2023, I will stand still for ten minutes around noon every day, in a different room each day. The aim is to collect data about my micromotion and compare it to the qualities of the environment. This project follows a decade-long exploration of human micromotion from both artistic and scientific perspectives. In the talk, I will present results from the annual Norwegian Championships of Standstill, where we have studied the influence of music on people's micromotion. I will also talk about how micromotion can be used in interactive music systems, allowing for conscious and unconscious control of musical sounds.

Throughout 2023, I have been standing still for ten minutes around noon every day, in a different room each day. This project follows a decade-long exploration of human micromotion from both artistic and scientific perspectives. In the talk, I will present results from the annual Norwegian Championships of Standstill, where we have studied the influence of music on people's micromotion. I will also talk about how micromotion can be used in interactive music systems, allowing for the conscious and unconscious control of musical sounds.

FAIR data is an essential component of the open research ecosystem. In this article, Alexander Refsum Jensenius argues that "FAIRification" can also benefit research-based and research-led education, providing opportunities to bring together different university missions.

Kunstig intelligens kan allerede skrive noter og mikse musikk. I tiden fremover vil vi se mange eksempler på hvordan maskinlæring tas i bruk i musikkutøving og -produksjon og til å skape nye lytteopplevelser. Men hva er egentlig musikalsk kunstig intelligens? Hva vil det si å trene en maskinlæringsmodell? Vil maskinene gjøre musikere og komponister overflødige? Denne forelesningen vil gi deg en del svar, men også flere spørsmål.

This talk will present different approaches to capturing human bodily activity. Motion capture can be performed with sensor-based and camera-based systems, each of which has benefits and limitations. Sensor-based systems are flexible and scalable and can easily be used outside laboratory environments. They are good at tracking relative motion and rotation information but less suitable for tracking position. Camera-based systems come in many flavors and can be used with and without markers. They excel at tracking positions but are prone to reflections and environmental noise. As a consequence, camera-based motion capture systems are better suited for laboratory settings. I will discuss my twenty-year-long experience using different motion capture systems to study music-related body motion. This includes research on musicians, including rehearsal techniques and performance strategies. Such studies push the limits of the technology when it comes to precision and accuracy. It is particularly challenging when using motion capture equipment in real-world concert settings. At the University of ̽����ѡ, we have successfully captured the motion of both solo and ensemble performances and are currently trying to scale up to a full orchestra. We are also carrying out motion capture of perceivers, audience members in concerts, dancers, and other people moving to music. Through the Norwegian Championship of Standstill, we have delved into human micromotion, the tiniest actions we can perform and perceive. At this level, motion capture can detect physiological signals, such as breathing and heart rate. Data from such studies are interesting scientifically and have also been used in artistic practice. Finally, I will give examples of how real-time motion capture can be used in various creative applications, including "inverse" sonic interaction.

This paper describes the development of two musical instrument prototypes developed to explore how non-haptic music technologies can be accessed from a web browser and how they can offer accessibility for people with low fine motor skills. Two approaches to browser-based motion capture were developed and tested during an iterative design process. This was followed by observational studies of two user groups: one with low fine motor skills and one with normal motor skills. Contrary to our expectations, we found that avoiding the use of buttons and mice did not make the apps more accessible for the participants with low fine motor skills. Furthermore, motion speed was considered more important for people with low motor skills than the size of the control action. The most important finding is that browser-based musical instruments using sensor-based and video-based motion tracking are not only feasible but allow for reaching much larger groups of people than previously possible. This may ultimately lead to both more personalized and accessible musical experiences.

Science Europe invites institutional leaders, researchers at all stages of their careers, and experts from the field to join its 18 and 19 October 2022 conference on Open Science to discuss two key questions: (1) Is Open Science ready to become the norm in research? (2) How do we ensure this becomes an equitable transition? To find answers to these questions, the conference will provide a comprehensive overview of practical and policy initiatives, research assessment reforms, and financial measures that support the transition to Open Science. We will also look forward to new and emerging trends.

This talk will reflect on my year-long project recording a daily "sound action". These are multimodal entities consisting of body motion and its resultant sound. When we only see a sound action, we can imagine its sound. If we only hear a sound action, we can imagine the body motion and objects involved in the interaction. Sound actions are ubiquitous in everyday life yet rarely discussed and reflected upon. My attempts at analyzing sound actions show some of the complexity involved in making sense of actions, reactions, and interactions with the world. This complexity can also inspire creative usage. I will present examples of meaningless and cognitively conflicting sound actions in the talk.

In July 2022, the European Commission launched an Agreement On Reforming Research Assessment. After years of talking, there is significant momentum for changing how researchers are assessed. In this talk, I will present some work leading up to the new agreement and how Universities Norway took a lead when developing the Norwegian Career Assessment Matrix (NOR-CAM). The core idea is that academics need to get recognition for a broader range of activities. This is important for transitioning to more open research practices and diverse career paths within and outside academia.

Many music researchers are turning towards studying music performance and perception in real-world settings. Collecting data in a concert situation is non-trivial, and FAIRifying the data is even more challenging. In this talk, I will discuss some challenges with handling privacy and copyright matters in music research. I will also discuss some benefits of working towards more open music research.

In this presentation I will discuss how we have been developing an interdisciplinary research centre, in which researchers from the arts and humanities and the social and natural sciences.

For this iteration of the Self-playing Guitars we mainly used two patches; one which was based on the patch from Forskernatt, and one completely new!

Hvilke dilemmaer oppstår når forskningsdata og resultater skal deles og gjenbrukes? Og hvilke muligheter medfører mer åpenhet og økt deling av data for fag som eksempelvis musikk, visuell kunst, film, scenekunst og design?

Hva er åpen forskning og hva skal til for å etablere en kultur for åpen forskning i humanistiske fag og samfunnsfag? Hvordan vi skal komme til en ny normal der det vi i dag omtaler som «åpen forskning» kun kalles forskning?

In this project, we propose an algorithm to convert musical features and structures extracted from monophonic MIDI files to tactile illusions. Mapping music to vibrotactile stimuli is a challenging process since the perceptible frequency range of the skin is lower than that of the auditory system, which may cause the loss of some musical features. Moreover, current proposed models do not warrant the correspondence between the emotional response to music and the vibrotactile version of it. We propose to use tactile illusions as an additional resource to convey more meaningful vibrotactile stimuli. Tactile illusions enable us to add dynamics to vibrotactile stimuli in the form of movement, changes of direction, and localization. The suggested algorithm converts monophonic MIDI files into arrangements of two tactile illusions: “phantom motion” and “funneling”. The validation of the rendered material consisted of presenting the audio rendered from MIDI files to participants and then adding the vibrotactile component to it. The arrangement of tactile illusions was also evaluated alone. Results suggest that the arrangement of tactile illusions evokes more positive emotions than negative ones. This arrangement was also perceived as more agreeable and stimulating than the original audio. Although musical features such as rhythm, tempo, and melody were mostly recognized in the arrangement of tactile illusions, it provoked a different emotional response from that of the original audio.

An audio-tactile algorithm created by University of Malaga scientists conveys melodic information through vibration.

I denne presentasjonen vil jeg presentere hvordan vi gjennom årene har utviklet tre komplette nettkurs ved Universitetet i ̽����ѡ: Music Moves (2016), Motion Capture (2022) og Pupillometry (2023). Fokuset vil ligge på muligheter og utfordringer i video i utdanningssammenheng.

My presentation will focus on how the ongoing shift to Open Research within the field of sound and music computing (SMC) promotes Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI).

The Musical Gestures Toolbox for Python is a collection of tools for video visualization and video analysis.

Hva er AI, eller kunstig intelligens, som vi kaller det på norsk. I Arena i dag ser vi på hvor kunstig intelligensk blir brukt, og hva det funker i. Kan vi få en data til å skrive poesi, og hva med musikken og kunsten?

Centre for Digital Life Norway (DLN) is excited to congratulate the team behind the project “The autophagic symphony – Unveiling the final rhythm” as winner of DLN’s RRI-inspired transdisciplinary side quest call.

The paper presents the Musical Gestures Toolbox (MGT) for Python, a collection of modules targeted at researchers working with video recordings. The toolbox includes video visualization techniques such as creating motion videos, motion history images, and motiongrams. These visualizations allow for studying video recordings from different temporal and spatial perspectives. The toolbox also includes basic computer vision methods, and it is designed to integrate well with audio analysis toolboxes. The MGT was initially developed to analyze music-related body motion (of musicians, dancers, and perceivers) but is equally helpful for other disciplines working with video recordings of humans, such as linguistics, pedagogy, psychology, and medicine.