Corona

2020 will always be remembered as the "Year of Corona", also at RITMO. Many activities were cancelled, and others were moved online. All research was effected in one way or another. Yet, we tried to make the best of the situation.

RITMO researchers setting up for the research concert Together in Music in the concert hall at the Department of Musicology on 3 March 2020. The concert featured Torben Snekkestad (saxophones) and S?ren Kj?rgaard (piano) in a lively improvisation. It turned out to be the last normal event of the year.

On 12 March, Norway "closed" down. The RITMO premises went from being a lively hub of chatting people to a tranquil place.

Most activities moved online, and everyone got used to talking to their colleagues through screens. Here PhD fellow Dana Swarbrick presents her plans for the MusicLab Lockdown Rave in a meeting of the Interaction and Pleasure cluster.

RITMO researchers have had many opportunities to explore alternative online presentation techniques. Here postdoctoral researcher Michael Krzyzaniak uses an "analog" style during a meeting in the Interaction and Robotics cluster.

A lot of RITMO's activities are lab-based. How can you teach people to use a new pair of eye-tracking glasses when you cannot meet in person? Postdoctoral researcher Laura Bishop's solution, was to project pupillometry measures of herself through Zoom.

After a complete lockdown, some researchers were allowed back into the labs. Here PhD fellow Henrik Herrebr?den prepares for a rowing experiment in the motion capture lab.

Two student assistants prepare EEG capture on a subject in the FRONT Neurolab, following the current corona measures.

What do you do when your planned physical concert experiment has to be cancelled? PhD fellow Dana Swarbrick decided to organize a live concert instead, the MusicLab Lockdown Rave ¡ª complete with data capture of both performers and audiences using a custom-developed mobile app.

The planned large-scale MusicLab Copenhagen had to be postponed. But RITMO researchers decided to try a scaled-down version of the data collection during MusicTestLab instead. Since no audience could be gathered, the whole event was streamed live. And some students in the library got a unique chance to hear some live music.

Research assistant Aleksander Tidemann in control of the live stream during the PhD defence of Agata Zelechowska.

PhD fellow Martin Pleiss discusses "virtual meaninglessness" during a cluster meeting. His research focuses on virtual reality but is also increasingly relevant for our current state of online communication.