Our new research lab was officially opened yesterday. Director of the Sensing Music-related Actions project Rolf Inge Godøy held a short introduction to the project and to our new research group and lab.

Lab opening gathering with researchers and guests in fourMs lab space

He also announced the new name for our interdisciplinary research group: fourMs - Music, Mind, Motion, Machines. The name has a double meaning in that it refers to the four M’s that we are working on, but it also sounds like forms. The best thing about having a short name is that we can also have a short URL: fourms.uio.no. There is not so much information there yet, but I will be adding more in the coming weeks.

fourMs lab workstation with laptops and equipment, sign with fourMs logo on wall

Then the heads of departments of musicology and informatics did the official opening and said a few words. They both underlined the importance of interdisciplinary research, also across the faculty borders.

Department heads doing official lab opening with remarks about interdisciplinary research

After the official opening, we had prepared various demonstrations around the lab, including the infrared motion capture system from Optitrack.

Optitrack infrared motion capture demonstration with researcher and camera system

The Polhemus Patriot electromagnetic tracking system was used to play “air piano” using a Disklavier.

Disklavier computer-controlled piano for air piano demonstration with Polhemus tracking

Video analysis was used so people could control sound spatialisation in a small 8 channel speaker setup in the innermost room in the lab.

Eight-channel speaker setup for sound spatialisation demonstration with video analysis

I never got around to set up the giant music ball and the music troll, so they were resting for the occasion, but will hopefully get back to life at some point.

Music ball and music troll interactive musical installations in fourMs lab