Alexander Refsum Jensenius, BA, MA, MSc, PhD [he/him] is a music researcher and research musician. He is Professor of music technology at the University of Oslo, where he is also Director of RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion and the fourMs Lab. He was named Dr Air Guitar after researching the music-related body motion of musicians, dancers, and perceivers. More recently, he was named Professor Standstill because of his interest in human micromotion and a year-long project of standing still every day. Now, he explores the musical properties of indoor environments and how it is possible to improve ventilation systems. This is based on triangulating theories and methods from musicology, psychology, and technology, and ensuring that all his projects have both scientific and artistic outcomes.
Jensenius has presented his research in all the major music technology and psychology conferences and is widely published, including the monograph Sound Actions and the Sonic Design and A NIME Reader anthologies. He has been named European Open Data Champion and has been experimenting with new educational approaches through the online courses Music Moves, Motion Capture, and Pupillometry.
Before all of this, he received a multi-disciplinary bachelor’s degree in music and mathematics and a master’s in musicology from the University of Oslo. He then completed a master’s in applied information technology at the Chalmers University of Technology before pursuing a PhD in music technology at the University of Oslo. He has been a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley (CNMAT), McGill University (IDMIL), and KTH (TMH). He was Head of the Department of Musicology (2013-2016), led the Steering Committee of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (2011-2022), and was a member of the EUA Expert Group on Open Science (2017-2024).
