Performance

Back in 2022, I sat down with my good colleague, Cagri Erdem, to explore two commercially available new interfaces for musical expression: the Seaboard Grand and the ContinuuMini. I have written about my experiences with both of these devices in my book, Sound Actions: Conceptualizing Musical Instruments. In short, they are both super exciting to play with, particularly because unlike many other electronic instruments, they allow for continuous control of pitch and timbre. This is what Cagri and I wanted to explore in a duo setting. ...

Today, we organized a Workshop on Concert Research at RITMO. I held the opening lecture, giving an overview of the concert research conducted in the fourMs Lab at the University of Oslo from the early 2000s to today. Over the years, we have explored and refined our data capture methods. Initially, we did qualitative observation studies combined with interviews and performer diaries. Then, we moved on to video-based analyses, including the development of the Musical Gestures Toolbox. Based on generous funding from UiO and the Research Council of Norway, we have built up a collection of advanced motion capture equipment over the years. Today, the fourMs Lab is well-equipped to tackle all musical challenges. ...

I often find that people mix up the terms “music performance” and “musical performance”. Which one is the correct one to use? As far as I can see in various dictionaries, there are no regional differences. Both terms are used widely in both British and American English. It is more of a difference in context. Music performance is more commonly used in contexts specifically focused on the act of performing music, such as concerts, recitals, and instrumental or vocal performances. ...

I am happy to announce that Cagri Erdem and I have written a chapter titled “Gestures in ensemble performance” in the new book Together in Music: Coordination, Expression, Participation edited by Renee Timmers Freya Bailes, and Helena Daffern. Video Teaser For the book launch, Cagri and I recorded a short video teaser: Abstract The topic of gesture has received growing attention among music researchers over recent decades. Some of this research has been summarized in anthologies on “musical gestures”, such as those by Gritten and King (2006), Godøy and Leman (2010), and Gritten and King (2011). There have also been a couple of articles reviewing how the term gesture has been used in various music-related disciplines (and beyond), including those by Cadoz and Wanderley (2000) and Jensenius et al. (2010). Much empirical work has been performed since these reviews were written, aided by better motion capture technologies, new machine learning techniques, and a heightened awareness of the topic. Still there are a number of open questions as to the role of gestures in music performance in general, and in ensemble performance in particular. This chapter aims to clarify some of the basic terminology of music-related body motion, and draw up some perspectives of how one can think about gestures in ensemble performance. This is, obviously, only one way of looking at the very multifaceted concept of gesture, but it may lead to further interest in this exciting and complex research domain. ...

My PhD student Cagri Erdem developed a performance together with dancer Katja Henriksen Schia. The piece was first performed together with Qichao Lan and myself during the RITMO opening and also during MusicLab vol. 3. See here for a teaser of the performance: This week Cagri, Katja and myself performed a version of the piece Vrengt at NIME in Porto Alegre. We also presented a paper describing the development of the instrument/piece: ...

I have not been very good at blogging recently, primarily because I have been so busy in starting up both RITMO and MCT. As things are calming down a bit now, I am also trying to do some digital cleaning up, archiving files, organizing photos, etc. As part of the cleanup, I came across this picture of my setup for a lecture-performance held at the humanities library earlier this fall. It consists of a number of sound makers, various types of acoustic ones, and also some electronic. Note that I am not using a computer, and there was no projector, so the entire thing is based on talking and playing. Feels very “unplugged”, and gives me (and hopefully the audience) a feeling of performing more than lecturing. ...

This week I am participating at the NIME conference (New Interfaces for Musical Expression), organised at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA. I am doing some administrative work as chair of the NIME steering committee, and I was happy to present a paper yesterday: Title Microinteraction in Music/Dance Performance Abstract This paper presents the scientific-artistic project Sverm, which has focused on the use of micromotion and microsound in artistic practice. Starting from standing still in silence, the artists involved have developed conceptual and experiential knowledge of microactions, microsounds and the possibilities of microinteracting with light and sound. ...

Yesterday, Ståle presented a paper on mocap filtering at the NIME conference in Daejeon. Today I presented a demo on using Kinect images as input to my sonomotiongram technique. Title Kinectofon: Performing with shapes in planes Links Paper (PDF) Poster (PDF) Software Videos (coming soon) Abstract The paper presents the Kinectofon, an instrument for creating sounds through free-hand interaction in a 3D space. The instrument is based on the RGB and depth image streams retrieved from a Microsoft Kinect sensor device. These two image streams are used to create different types of motiongrams, which, again, are used as the source material for a sonification process based on inverse FFT. The instrument is intuitive to play, allowing the performer to create sound by ``touching’’ a virtual sound wall. ...

Today the MIT Press journal Leonardo has published my paper entitled “Some video abstraction techniques for displaying body movement in analysis and performance”. The paper is a summary of my work on different types of visualisation techniques of music-related body motion. Most of these techniques were developed during my PhD, but have been refined over the course of my post-doc fellowship. The paper is available from the Leonardo web page (or MUSE), and will also be posted in the digital archive at UiO after the 6 month embargo period. ...

I am happy to announce that a paper I wrote together with Victoria Johnson has just been published in Computer Music Journal. The paper is based on the experiences that Victoria and I gained while working on the piece Transformation for electric violin and live electronics (see video of the piece below). Citation A. R. Jensenius and V. Johnson. Performing the electric violin in a sonic space. Computer Music Journal, 36(4):28–39, 2012. **Abstract **This article presents the development of the improvisation piece Transformation for electric violin and live electronics. The aim of the project was to develop an “invisible” technological setup that would allow the performer to move freely on stage while still being in full control of the electronics. The developed system consists of a video-based motion-tracking system, with a camera hanging in the ceiling above the stage. The performer’s motion and position on stage is used to control the playback of sonic fragments from a database of violin sounds, using concatenative synthesis as the sound engine. The setup allows the performer to improvise freely together with the electronic sounds being played back as she moves around the “sonic space.” The system has been stable in rehearsal and performance, and the simplicity of the approach has been inspiring to both the performer and the audience. ...