Motion Capture

I am super excited about our new Nordic Sound and Music Computing Network, which has just started up with funding from the Nordic Research Council. This network brings together a group of internationally leading sound and music computing researchers from institutions in five Nordic countries: Aalborg University, Aalto University, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, University of Iceland, and University of Oslo. The network covers the field of sound and music from the “soft” to the “hard,” including the arts and humanities, and the social and natural sciences, as well as engineering, and involves a high level of technological competency. ...

I am happy to announce that RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time, and Motion officially started last week. This is a new centre of excellence funding by the Research Council of Norway. Even though we have formally taken off, this mainly means that the management group has started to work. Establishing a centre with 50-60 researchers is not done in a few days, so we will more or less spend the coming year to get up to speed. The plan is that the faculty group will begin working together from January, while in parallel recruiting PhD and postdoctoral fellows. We aim at moving into our new spaces and having most of the people in place by August 2018, and that is also when we will have the kick-off party. ...

I am happy to announce the publication of a follow-up study to our former paper on group dancing to EDM, and a technical paper on motion capture of groups of people. In this new study we successfully managed to track groups of 9-10 people dancing in a semi-ecological setup in our motion capture lab. We also found a lot of interesting things when it came to how people synchronize to both the music and each other. ...

{.csl-bib-body} {.csl-entry} I am happy to announce a new publication, this time with my colleague Ragnhild Torvanger Solberg. Best of all, this is also a gold open access publication, freely available for everyone: {.csl-entry} Citation: Solberg, R. T., & Jensenius, A. R. (2017). Pleasurable and Intersubjectively Embodied Experiences of Electronic Dance Music. Empirical Musicology Review, 11(3–4), 301–318. Abstract: How do dancers engage with electronic dance music (EDM) when dancing? This paper reports on an empirical study of dancers’ pleasurable engagement with three structural properties of EDM: (1) breakdown, (2) build-up, and (3) drop. Sixteen participants danced to a DJ mix in a club-like environment, and the group’s bodily activity was recorded with an infrared, marker-based motion capture system. After they danced, the subjects filled out questionnaires about the pleasure they experienced and their relative desire to move while dancing. Subsequent analyses revealed associations between the group’s quantity of motion and self-reported experiences of pleasure. Associations were also found between certain sonic features and dynamic changes in the dancers’ movements. Pronounced changes occurred in the group’s quantity of motion during the breakdown, build-up, and drop sections, suggesting a high level of synchronization between the group and the structural properties of the music. The questionnaire confirmed this intersubjective agreement: participants perceived the musical passages consistently and marked the build-up and drop as particularly pleasurable and motivational in terms of dancing. Self-reports demonstrated that the presence and activity of other participants were also important in the shaping of one’s own experience, thus supporting the idea of clubbing as an intersubjectively embodied experience. ...

I am happy to announce a new book chapter based on the artistic-scientific research in the Sverm and MICRO projects. {.csl-bib-body} {.csl-entry} Citation: Jensenius, A. R. (2017). Sonic Microinteraction in “the Air.” In M. Lesaffre, P.-J. Maes, & M. Leman (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Embodied Music Interaction (pp. 431–439). New York: Routledge. {.csl-entry} {.csl-entry} Abstract: This chapter looks at some of the principles involved in developing conceptual methods and technological systems concerning sonic microinteraction, a type of interaction with sounds that is generated by bodily motion at a very small scale. I focus on the conceptualization of interactive systems that can exploit the smallest possible micromotion that people are able to both perceive and produce. It is also important that the interaction that is taking place allow for a recursive element via a feedback loop from the sound produced back to the performer producing it.

I am happy to announce that the Research Council of Norway has awarded funding to establish RITMO Centre of Excellence for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion. The centre is a collaboration between Departments of Musicology, Psychology and Informatics at University of Oslo. Project summary Rhythm is omnipresent in human life, as we walk, talk, dance and play; as we tell stories about our past; and as we predict the future. Rhythm is also central to human biology, from the microoscillations of our nervous system to our heartbeats, breathing patterns and longer chronobiological cycles (or biorhythms). As such, it is a key aspect of human action and perception that is in complex interplay with the various cultural, biological and mechanical rhythms of the world. ...

{.vrtx-introduction} Come work with us in the fourMs group at University of Oslo: Doctoral Research Fellowship is available in the fourMs group. All proposals within the area of music cognition will be considered, but we are particularly looking for projects on the topical areas of the fourMs group, such as music-related body motion, cross-modal relationships of sound and motion, rhythm studies, and music and emotions. The appointed candidate will get full access to the world-class fourMs lab, with state-of-the-art motion capture systems and sound spatialisation facilities. It is expected that the candidate will work on an independent project and be supervised by one or more members of the fourMs group, as well as other researchers at the Department of Musicology, depending on the particular focus of the project. ...

My colleague Ragnhild Torvanger Solberg and I presented a paper at the Sound and Music Computing conference in Hamburg last week called: “Optical or Inertial? Evaluation of Two Motion Capture Systems for Studies of Dancing to Electronic Dance Music”. This is a methodological paper, trying to summarize our experiences with using our Qualisys motion capture system for group dance studies. We have two other papers in the pipeline that describes the actual data from the experiments in question. The happy story in the SMC paper is that it is, indeed, possible to get good tracking with multiple people, although it requires quite some fine tuning of the system. ...

I am happy to announce that I have received funding from the Norwegian Research Council’s program Young Research Talents for the project: MICRO - Human Bodily Micromotion in Music Perception and Interaction. This is a 4-year long project and I will be looking for both a PhD and postdoctoral fellow to join the team. The call will be out later this year, but please do not hesitate to contact me right if you are interested. ...

Together with several colleagues, and with great practical and economic support from the University of Oslo, I am happy to announce that we will soon kick off our first free online course (a so-called MOOC) called Music Moves. Music Moves: Why Does Music Make You Move? Learn about the psychology of music and movement, and how researchers study music-related movements, with this free online course. [Go to course – starts 1 Feb](https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/music-moves/1/todo){.a-button .a-button--primary .join} About the course Music is movement. A bold statement, but one that we will explore together in this free online course. Together we will study music through different types of body movement. This includes everything from the sound-producing keyboard actions of a pianist to the energetic dance moves in a club. ...