Forskningsprosjektet Music, Motion, and Emotion: Theoretical and Psychological Implications of Musical Embodiment ved Institutt for musikkvitenskap, Det humanistiske fakultet, utlyser inntil to studentstipend for mastergradsstudenter som er i gang med eller planlegger sine mastergradsoppgaver. Søknadsfrist: 15. februar 2010
We are happy to announce that Arve Voldsund has started as 50% research engineer in the group. He will work on standardisation (GDIF), storage and retrieval of music-related movement data.
Just tagged a new release of the Jamoma GDIF tools.
It can be downloaded from by following the instructions on our software website, or using this direct link.
The changes are mainly small bug changes and updating the stream types, but also adding user-adjustable time tag delay (by sending the /timeTagDelay message to the module).
We have a paper entitled "fourMs, University of Oslo – Lab Report" in the Proceedings of the 2010 International Computer Music Conference, New York, NY, 1–5 June 2010. [PDF]
Authors: Jensenius, A.R., Glette, K., Godøy, R.I., Høvin, M., Nymoen, K., Skogstad, S.A., Tørresen, J. (2010)
Abstract: The paper reports on the development and activities in the recently established fourMs lab (Music, Mind, Motion, Ma- chines) at the University of Oslo, Norway. As a meeting place for researchers in music and informatics, the fourMs lab is centred around studies of basic issues in music cogni- tion, machine learning and robotics.
IRCAM is proposing a workshop on GDIF & SpatDIF 20-21 May. The invitation e-mail sent to the GDIF mailing list is attached below. Interested people should contact Baptiste Caramiaux directly to show their interest.
Two of the student projects in the course INF3460 have been carried out in the fourMs lab this semester, and now the reports are ready:
- Lyddør (sound door) by Maja Celine Sevaldson - Squeeze2play by Kristian Storås og Kristoffer Emil Mørch Amundsen
Postdoctoral researcher Alexander Refsum Jensenius has updated the AudioAnalysis software to version 0.5 (previously SoundAnalysis). The new version provides a larger spectrogram view, and the option to change various spectrogram features on the fly. The quantitative features have been moved to a separate window, and now also includes simple beat tracking.
Publication: Godøy, R. I., Jensenius, A. R., and Nymoen, K. (2010). Chunking in music by coarticulation. Acta Acoustica united with Acoustica, 96(4):690–700. [Fulltext]
Abstract: In our own and other research on music-related actions, findings suggest that perceived action and sound are broken down into a series of chunks in people's minds when they perceive or imagine music. Chunks are here understood as holistically conceived and perceived fragments of action and sound, typically with durations in the 0.5 to 5 seconds range. There is also evidence suggesting the occurrence of coarticulation within these chunks, meaning the fusion of small-scale actions and sounds into more superordinate actions and sounds. Various aspects of chunking and coarticulation are discussed in view of their role in the production and perception of music, and it is suggested that coarticulation is an integral element of music and should be more extensively explored in the future.
We are happy to announce the publication of a new journal article in collaboration with our colleagues in Trondheim:
Adde L, Helbostad JL, Jensenius AR, Taraldsen G, Grunewaldt KH, Støen R. 2010. Early prediction of cerebral palsy by computer-based video analysis of general movements: a feasibility study. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology.
Postdoctoral researcher Kyrre Glette participated in (and won!) the 64kB intro competition at the Assembly computer festival in Helsinki. A 64kB intro is an executable program in 64kB which includes realtime generation of graphics and music.
The animation includes a dancing robot, where the motion is based on data recorded with our new Qualisys infrared motion capture system.
Graphics programming done by Kim Kalland, Thomas Kristensen and Kyrre Glette. Sound programming and music by Gergely Szelei-Kis.
We are happy to announce that Nordforsk has decided to support the Nordic Research Network for the Integration of Music Informatics, Performance and Aesthetics in the period 2010-2013. This will continue to strengthen the ties between the involved Nordic institutions.
We have set up a podcast from the course MUS2006 Musikk og bevegelse (Music and Movement). This is an introductory course (in Norwegian) covering theory and methods for studying music-related movements.
This week's version of the student newspaper Universitas has an article about music and movement, featuring visiting researcher Yago de Quay .
fourMs-researchers were heavily present at the annual VERDIKT conference yesterday. In addition to a lecture and poster presentations, we also contributed a performance with the iPhone ensemble and a motion capture performance. More info below.
Thanks to IRCAM for hosting the GDIF SpatDIF meeting a couple of weeks ago. The main conclusion from the meeting was to continue development of GDIF and SpatDIF, and to support this we have set up a wiki at our server. The name of the wiki is xDIF (which can also be read *DIF) so that other DIFs can join in as well. To avoid spam, users will have to be registered by one of the admins (e.g. ARJ ). Please get in touch to get a login.
Cynthia M. Grund, Network Coordinator for NNIMIPA, has posted a page with pictures and videos of the motion capture session done with American pianist William Westney during his visit to Oslo in February. There are also links to a video recording of a small discussion between Cynthia Grundt, William Westney and Alexander Refsum Jensenius on some of the topics discussed during the NNIMIPA workshop in Oslo.
Notto Thelle finished his Master of Arts in musicology before the summer. Now his thesis is available online in DUO.
Title: Making Sensors Make Sense: Challenges in the Development of Digital Musical Instruments
Abstract: Despite the fact that digital technology has become an inevitable tool in music production and distribution during the course of the past few decades, live performers of digital musical instruments (DMIs) remain enigmatic to a majority of music audiences. A combination of instrument design issues, limits to the human cognitive system, and cultural constraints may all be contributing factors to these circumstances. This thesis presents a theoretical overview of some challenges in the development of DMIs, weighed against an empirical study based on qualitative research interviews with six DMI performers. Additionally, instrument types are categorized according to the order of separation between action and sound when performing with the instrument (incorporated, direct, mechanical, analog electronic and digital), and a hypothesis regarding the influence of instrument types on the music cognition of performers is tested.
Electronic dissertation (PDF)
We have uploaded a few pictures from the Open Lab last week, and research fellow Kristian Nymoen has made a few short videos presenting the use of the Qualisys motion capture system.
Videos from the Semester opening concert are now available on YouTube: iPhone trio and Dance jockey. See below for more information.
Alexander Refsum Jensenius is interviewed about the air guitar phenomenon in the program "Mozart & Madonna" at NRK P2, Wednesday 7 June 09:03-10:00.
Our new motion capture system is presented in the Qualisys newsletter from May. We have been working with Qualisys to create an integrated solution for handling recording and streaming of music-related body movement data, and look forward to working with the new system in the coming years!
This week's edition of the University of Oslo newspaper Uniforum features a story called "Forskar mellom kunst og vitskap" ("Research between art and science"), highlighting the importance of interdisciplinarity in research.
The interview was made in connection with a performance of the piece Transformation at Norwegian Academy of Music a couple of weeks ago. By moving inside a seemingly empty space, the violinist slowly explores a sonic landscape of thousands of short fragments of various violin sounds. The space thus becomes a musical entity in itself, a space that the violinist both controls and interacts with at the same time. What seemed to be an empty space at first, is left as a sonic space in our memory when the piece ends.
We have set up an account at YouTube called fourMslab , where we will upload demos, tutorials and other video material from the lab. There are already some videos up, and more will come.
We are happy to welcome Yago de Quay for a Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) through the COST IC0601 Action on Sonic Interaction Design (SID). He will be working at fourMs from 2 August to 30 September with a project entitled Interactive Music 2.0: User-driven ad hoc dance clubs . Bio and more information below.
