Biography and Research

Christian Gosvig Olesen is Assistant Professor Digital Media and Cultural Heritage at the University of Amsterdam. He teaches courses in film and media studies and in moving image archiving and presentation. His research interests include moving image archiving theory and history, film and media historiography, digital methods, found footage, remixing and practice-based research, the latter with a special interest in critical practices of digital (film) sampling in experimental and popular music.

Currently, he is also Teaching & Training Officer for the CLARIAH Media Suite, where he coordinates and develops the Media Suite Learn initiative. In this capacity he helps integrating the Media Suite's collections and tools into curricula and research projects at Dutch universities, while researching the historical emergence of multimedia scholarship and digital research environments in media studies. This research focus also feeds into his current book project Remaking Film History: A Critical Introduction to Digital Historiographies, Methods and Approaches (working title).

Previously he has carried out research on digital methods and artistic research for audiovisual archives in various projects. As researcher and project manager in the project The Sensory Moving Image Archive: Boosting Creative Reuse for Artistic Practice and Research (2017-2019), led by Professor of Film Heritage and Digital Film Culture and Chief Curator at EYE Filmmuseum Giovanna Fossati, he contributed to developing an environment for browsing moving images from EYE and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision based on visual features and relations. In 2017-2018 he was Principal Investigator of the NWO CLARIAH project MIMEHIST: Annotating EYE's Jean Desmet Collection. The project embedded Eye Filmmuseum's Jean Desmet Collection in the Media Suite and made it possible to research the collection using video annotation tools. In 2017-2018, he was invited as the inaugural Scholar-in-residence at the EYE Filmmuseum in the museum's new artist and scholar in residence program. During his residency he researched the role played by compilation films in the museum's early acquisition and programming policies, focussing primarily on Nicole Vedres's Paris 1900 (1947).

Education

• PhD Media Studies (cum laude/with distinction), Universiteit van Amsterdam, 2017.
• MA Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image (cum laude/with distinction), Universiteit van Amsterdam, 2012. 
• BA Film-og Medievidenskab, Københavns Universitet, 2009 (10 months Erasmus exchange at the Università di Bologna, Italy).

Fields of expertise and interest

• (Film) Historiography
• Theory and History of Audiovisual Archiving
• Digital Humanities and Digital Heritage
• Film Sound and Sound Studies
• Experimental and Documentary Cinema

Associations

• Society for Cinema and Media Studies, SCMS
• European Network for Cinema and Media Studies, NECS
• Association of Moving Image Archivists, AMIA

Articles

2019

• C.G. Olesen, “‘This is our first big experiment’: Paris 1900 (1947) and the Eye Filmmuseum’s early collection-building”, Early Popular Visual Culture, vol. 17, no. 2 (2019) 207-217

• C.G. Olesen, “Itinéraire d’un ciné-fils de…#3: Le cercle rouge”, in [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film and Moving Image Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, (2019), audio publication

2018

• C.G. Olesen, I. Kisjes., “From Text Mining to Visual Classification: Rethinking Computational New Cinema History with Jean Desmet’s Digitised Business Archive”, in Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis, vol. 21, no. 2 (2018): 127-145
• C.G. Olesen, "I-Media-Cities, europæisk (film-)historieskrivning og den digitale humaniora", in Kosmorama, No. 272 (2018)
• P.D. Keidl and C.G. Olesen, “Introduction”, Synoptique, Vol. 6, No. 1 (2018)
• P.D. Keidl and C.G. Olesen (guest eds.) Synoptique, Vol. 6, No. 1 (2018), special issue “Institutionalizing Moving Image Archival Training: Analyses, Histories, Theories”

2017

• L.M. Estrada, Hielscher, E., Koolen, M., Olesen, C.G., Noordegraaf, J., & Blom, J, "Film analysis as annotation: Exploring current tools and their affordances", in The moving image, Vol. 17, No. 2 (2017): 40-70.
• C.G. Olesen, “Towards a ‘Humanistic Cinemetrics?”, in K. Es and M. Schäfer (eds.), The Datafied Society. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017.

2016

• C.G. Olesen, E. Masson, J. Gorp, G. Fossati & J. Noordegraaf "Data-Driven Research for Film History: Exploring The Jean Desmet Collection" in The Moving Image, Vol. 16, No. 1 (2016) - Forthcoming
• C.G. Olesen, "Formalising Digital Formalism: An Interview with Adelheid Heftberger and Matthias Zeppelzauer about the Vienna Vertov Project" in Miriam de Rosa and Ludovica Fales (eds.), Shifting Layers. New Perspectives in Media Archaeology Across Digital Media and Audiovisual Arts. Milan: Mimesis International, 2016. - Forthcoming.

2015

• C.G. Olesen, 'Film History 'in the Making': On Fact Production and Film Historiography in Digital Humanities Laboratories', in Alberto Beltrame, Giuseppe Fidotta and Andrea Mariani (eds.), At the Borders of (Film) History. Temporality, Archaeology, Theories. Udine: Forum Editirice Universitaria Udinese SRL, 2015.

2014

• C.G. Olesen, 'Panoramic Visions of the Archive in EYE's Panorama: A Case Study in Digital Film Historiography' in Cinema & Cie, Vol. XIV, No. 22/23 (2014)

2013

• C.G. Olesen, 'Found Footage Photogénie: An Interview with Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi and Mark-Paul Meyer', NECSUS - European Journal of Media Studies, 4 (Autumn 2013).

Book  reviews

2014

• C.G. Olesen, 'Jean-Luc Godard. Cinema Historian' in Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Volume 34, Issue 4, 2014.

• C.G. Olesen, 'Behind the Scenes at the BBFC. Film Classification from the Silver Screen to the Digital Age', in Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Volume 34, Issue 1, 2014.

Conference Papers

2018

• C.G. Olesen, (2018, 21 June), “AI in het digitale archief: wat kunnen we vandaag?: SEMIA”, AVA_Net Symposium, Hilversum.
• C.G. Olesen (2018, 3 may), “Perspectives on computer-assisted film style analysis in the MIMEHIST and SEMIA projects”, Workshop „Computer-based Approaches for the Analysis of Film Style”, ZeM, Potsdam.
• C.G. Olesen, (2018, 23 April), “MIMEHIST: Annotating EYE’s Jean Desmet Collection”, Symposium of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), Prague.

2017

• G. Fossati and C.G. Olesen, “The Sensory Moving Image Archive (SEMIA) Boosting Creative Reuse for Artistic Practice and Research” (2017, 23 November), NWO Smart Culture Conference: Exploring Integrated Arts & Culture Research, Amsterdam.

2015

• E. Masson, C.G. Olesen, J. van Gorp, G. Fossati and J.J. Noordegraaf (2015, June 22), “Reconstructing Colour Palettes in Early Dutch Film Distribution: The Case of EYE’s Jean Desmet Collection”, What Is Cinema History?”, Glasgow.
• C.G. Olesen, E. Masson & J. van Gorp (2015, 29 March), “ Chromatic Experience in Early Cinema Distribution as Visualized Through EYE’s Jean Desmet Collection”, The Colour Fantastic - Chromatic Worlds of Silent Cinema, Amsterdam.
• C.G. Olesen, J. van Gorp (2015, March 27), “Data-driven Film History: a Demonstrator of EYE’s Jean Desmet Collection”, SCMS, Montréal.

2014

• J. van Gorp, C.G. Olesen, G. Fossati, J.J. Noordegraaf & E. Masson (2014, October 24), “Digital Tools for Archives: Linking EYE's Jean Desmet Collection”, FIAT/IFTA World Conference, Amsterdam.
• J. van Gorp, C.G.Olesen, G. Fossati & J.J. Noordegraaf (2014, July 8), "Emerging Cinema/Emerging Methods: Developing a Tool for EYE's Jean Desmet Collection", Digital Humanities 2014, Lausanne.
• C.G. Olesen (2014, June 21), " Dispositifs in Digital Film Historiography". Luxembourg, Luxembourg, " Dispositif: Theory, Methodology, Practice", Université du Luxembourg.
• C.G. OIesen (2014, April 3) "Film History 'in the Making': On Scholarly Practice and Film Historiography in the Digital Humanities Laboratory". Udine, Italy, XXI FilmForum International Film Studies Conference.
• C.G.Olesen (2014, March 19) "From Film Historiography to Videography: Film Historical Video Essays as Scholarly Research Practice". Seattle, WA, USA, 55th annual conference of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS).

2013

• C.G. Olesen (2013, March 18). "Digitizing an "Aesthetic of Film History - Philosophy of Film History in EYE's Panorama". Gorizia, Italy, XI MAGIS - Gorizia International Film Studies Spring School, Universita degli studi di Udine.
• C.G. Olesen (2013, February 23). "Historical Notes on Contemporary Silent Film Music- Cinémix and the Case of Radiomentale". Kiel, Germany, Silent Film Sound - History, Theory & Practice, Christian-Albrächts-Universität zu Kiel.

2012

• C.G. Olesen (2012, December 2). "The Difference Between Bits and Bits - Film History and Archiving Philosophy in EYE's Digital Panorama". London, UK, Besides the Screen Conference, Goldsmiths College.

2011

• C.G. Olesen (2011, November 19). "Against the Grain - Teaching AV Preservation Issues through Found Footage Film". Austin, TX, USA, Association of Moving Image Archivists conference (AMIA).

2010

• C.G. Olesen (2010, August 20). "Que l'embarras du choix? - quelques aspects éthiques de la modernisation de l'accompagnement musical." Zürich, Switzerland, Conference of the Association suisse de conservation et restauration (SKR/SCR).

University of Amsterdam

MA Heritage Studies: Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image

• MAGIS Spring School (2013/2014)
• Research Seminar and Thesis (2012/2013, 2013/2014)
• MA Thesis Supervision: five theses supervised between 2013-2016. Topics: film restoration and archive theory, experimental film preservation and digital video activism.