Outreach

The fourMs Lab has had an extensive outreach program over the years, including performances, installations, and research fairs.

In-lab performances

The lab is set up as a black box and is sufficiently large to house small in-lab concerts. These concerts have two aims: collecting research data and showcasing the research activities to interested people.

Image may contain: Music, Trombone, Musical instrument, Types of trombone, Musician. — The Borealis String Quartet performed a lab concert in December 2019 (left). The musicians wore motion capture suits, heart rate sensors, and eye-tracking glasses (middle). Researchers ran the experiment from a separate control room (right). (Photo: Annica Thomson)

Out-of-lab performances

Over the years, researchers have also experimented with various types of out-of-lab research performances. From a data capture standpoint, it is advantageous to be in a controlled lab environment. However, the lab may be sub-optimal for creating good musical experiences. So we are exploring out-of-lab performance experiments in which lab equipment is used in regular performance venues. This is more challenging from a research perspective, but with the benefit of providing more "ecological" data.

Music performance — Through MusicLab, researchers explore out-of-lab data collection. Here Nj?l Sparbo and Ellen Sejersted B?dtker perform with breath sensors on (left). RITMO research Tejaswinee Kelkar performs "data jockeying", real-time data analysis (middle). Eirik Raude calibrates a breath sensor with research Victor Gonzalez Sanches (right).

Open day

The fourMs Lab participates in UiO's "Open Day" activities every year and has also participated in research fairs and other outreach activities many times.

Image may contain: Fun, Event, Adaptation. — RITMO researchers participated with an installation based on the self-playing guitars during UiO:Life Science's light event in 2019. The guitars respond to the sound and motion of nearby people, and have been developed in the fourMs Lab.

Media appearances

Research from the fourMs lab has been featured in the media (newspapers, radio, TV) on several occasions.

Image may contain: Event. — Screenshots from different national TV appearances: Lab Director Alexander Refsum Jensenius explains about motion capture on the children’s show Newton (left), the Norwegian Championship of Standstill was featured in the news program Dagsrevyen (middle), the story of how dance analysis methods have been used for studying the motion of preterm infants was documented on Schr?dingers katt (right)

Datasets

Data sets from the lab are stored on a UiO server, with proper security measures in place. The storage space can be mounted on virtual desktops (VDI), and this is typically where users perform their data processing and analyses.?

Some data sets are made openly available, such as the Oslo Standstill Database. There is still a lot of data that has not been shared due to both privacy and copyright issues. The fourMs Lab is working on finding solutions to how more data can be shared openly, following the FAIR principles.

Published June 13, 2020 9:19 AM - Last modified Aug. 13, 2025 9:56 AM