Today, I am officially entering “summer hibernation” mode and celebrating this with a blog post about this year’s summer message, which has now become a tradition (see 2023 and 2024).

For me, the summer period, from mid-June to mid-August, is a critical time to focus on my own research activities (in addition to getting some vacation). The rest of the year is busy with leadership, management, teaching, supervision, and other responsibilities. During the summer, I can do many things that I don’t typically have time to do during the busy semesters. To explain what I am doing when I am away for more time than a regular vacation, I have written a message that is a bit longer than usual:

Hi,

Thanks for contacting me. I have entered summer mode, combining family life and conducting slow research. I read e-mail occasionally, but please don’t expect a quick reply.

Many people are contacting me because of the fantastic news that the MishMash Centre for AI and Creativity received funding. We have just begun the process of building the centre and activities will start next year. Please follow MishMash on LinkedIn to be informed about what is happening.

Besides family life, my main goal this summer is to (finally) complete the draft of my new monograph, Still Standing. This involves analyzing recordings of my daily standstills in 2023, which gave me the nickname Professor Standstill in national media.

Want something to read over the summer? Check out my monograph, Sound Actions - Conceptualizing Musical Instruments. It summarizes 20 years of research on the intersection of music technology and psychology and is available for free download as a PDF. You can also follow my ongoing scrambles on my blog in English or Norwegian.

Want something to watch/listen to over the summer? Check out RITMO’s YouTube channel for an abundance of interesting videos about everything we’re working on.

Also, remember that we have three active courses running on the FutureLearn platform: Music Moves, Motion Capture, and Pupillometry.

Happy holidays!

And with that, have a lovely summer!