Associate Professor Iben Have, who was an AIAS/SHAPE fellow in 2024/25, is the author of Tænkepausen ‘Ro’ (Calm). The book has now been adapted for film as part of the DRTV series ‘Tænkerpauser som film’ (Thought Breaks as Film), with ‘Ro’ as the second episode. The series consists of 15 short films, each of which interprets the research in the Tænkepauser series from Aarhus University Press.

In ‘Ro,’ we are invited into the landscapes of silence and resonance. Here, Iben Have shows that calm does not necessarily arise in the absence of sound, but can just as easily be found in a tone or a movement. Connections are drawn to Hartmut Rosa's concept of resonance - the experience that life connects us when we feel the world responding to us.

According to Iben Have, such pauses can help us become more aware of ourselves and our relationship to the society we are part of. Peace is a basic need on par with clean water and clean air – something we are both dependent on and have a shared responsibility to protect. But today, peace is under pressure:

“In a digitalised and accelerating society, tranquillity has become a scarce commodity. As more and more people in our part of the world become ill from stress, we are becoming more aware of tranquillity as a sought-after resource,” says Iben Have.

When stress takes over, it can affect our ability to function as active and engaged citizens:

“Unfortunately, unlike other basic needs, there is a tendency to leave responsibility to the individual,” she says, elaborating:
“But the conditions for finding peace are also social and political. The societal perspective and responsibility are often forgotten in mindfulness and cognitive therapy, where the starting point is that we ourselves—and often alone—must find peace and get ourselves under control.”

In the film, Iben Have herself provides the voiceover – in line with her research into voices and their significance for our experience of peace and presence.

You can watch the short film ‘Ro’ here.