Movement and Dance

I have previously explored how NotebookLM can generate ERC-style CVs based on publicly available research information. Now, I was curious to see whether it could also make a complete CV following the guidelines of the Norwegian Career Assessment Matrix (NOR-CAM). The NOR-CAM principles Creating a CV that follows the NOR-CAM principles is less about listing dates and more about telling the story of an academic career through a balance of quantitative data and qualitative reflection. If you are interested in learning more about NOR-CAM, have a look at the full report. Here is a 4-minute video introduction to the system: ...

While part of the group that developed the Norwegian Career Assessment Matrix (NOR-CAM), I strongly advocated for the development of an “automagic” CV system. This was based on the fact that I (and many other researchers) spend too much time working on formatting our CVs for new templates. All funders have their own CV templates, which often change from year to year. Copying and formatting the same information over and over is (literally) a waste of time, so there is room for improvement. ...

People often confuse kinetics and kinematics. What are they, and which one can you derive from motion capture data? Kinematics Kinematic analysis concerns the geometric aspects of motion, including position, velocity, and acceleration. When dealing with motion capture, you typically get either position (from a camera-based system) or something similar to acceleration (from accelerometers). These are related, and since I have now figured out how to make equations here on the blog, here you get a summary of high school physics: ...

It is somewhat embarrassing that I did not “discover” it before, but I only recently realized a striking parallel between the terms dancing and musicking. Music as a verb (“to music”) is only used by a small subset of music researchers, while “to dance” is universally accepted. Why? Musicking Christopher Small introduced the term musicking in the 1990s as a framework for understanding music as a social activity, using music as a verb (“to music”) rather than a noun (“music”). Though still not universal in musicology, the term has gained traction in music education and therapy, where participation in communal music practices is central. ...

This summer, I am working on completing my Still Standing book. One of the concepts I use is kinesphere. As far as I know, this term was coined by dancer–choreographer–researcher Rudolf Laban, and refers to the personal space surrounding an individual. It is an imaginary sphere that extends as far as a person can reach with their limbs, encompassing the area they can move in while remaining stationary. The kinesphere is central to Laban Movement Analysis, where it helps dancers understand spatial possibilities, boundaries, and the relationship between the body and its environment. Also, for stillstanders, the kinesphere is relevant because it defines the personal space around one’s body. ...

Some years ago, I was heavily involved in the development of NOR-CAM (Norwegian Career Assessment Matrix), a framework designed to support the assessment and recognition of a broad range of academic activities and competencies. This work aimed to promote more comprehensive and transparent evaluation practices in academia. One thing is developing high-level policies; another is trying these things in practice. I am fortunate enough to direct a research centre (RITMO), which involves a significant amount of career development work daily. I was therefore pleased to be invited by the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) to discuss my experiences with the NOR-CAM principles in an interdisciplinary setting. ...

Peer review is the gold standard for scientific work. Some people argue that the fact that an article has been peer-reviewed is what makes it scientific. I would not go that far. In my opinion, research is scientific because it is conducted according to scientific standards, not because someone else has read it. However, having peers review your work is a quality mechanism that ensures that others agree that those scientific standards have been met. ...

I am on vacation in northern Chile and encountered an interesting staircase in one of our hotels. The uppermost step was a little higher than the others, causing the whole family to stumble almost every time we passed it on the way upwards. Similarly, we always got a few extra centimeters when walking down, making us almost fall over when starting the escalation. This staircase reminded me about action programs, the anticipation of actions based on a perceived rhythm. In this case, the rhythmic nature of the steps of the staircase. Based on ecological knowledge about how staircases typically work, with equally displaced steps, one predicts the actions to climb the staircase. However, when this rhythm is broken, due to one step being slightly higher than the others, it breaks with our prediction. After almost stumbling several times, we began getting used to it, but it still felt weird each time.

Today is New Year’s Eve, and I have done my 365th standstill of the year. I began my year-long #StillStanding project on 1 January this year, and I am happy to report that I managed to conclude the project as planned! A few days were more challenging than others, but I am pleased I made recordings every day. I wrote a blog post after the first 100 days and a video of the first half year. My reflections today are the same as in those summaries. Now, I am looking forward to writing everything up in my upcoming book, so I will be brief in this blog post. ...

Today, I am halfway through my year-long #StillStanding project. Not so much has changed since I summed up the first 100 days. I still enjoy the experience, and there are new things to learn every day. Here is a 10-minute video I have recorded that presents the project, explains its rationale, and reflects upon some experiences so far: The biggest challenge moving forward is finding new spaces every day. I have already stood in the most accessible spaces, so I need to spend more time looking for unexplored rooms both at the university and close to my home. Follow the project on Mastodon to see how it goes.