Dr. C.G. (Christian) Olesen
Faculty of Humanities
Departement Mediastudies
Visiting address
- Science Park 900
Postal address
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Postbus 94550
1090 GN Amsterdam
Contact details
Social media
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Profile
Biography and Research
Christian Gosvig Olesen is Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Cultural Heritage at the University of Amsterdam. He teaches in the university’s MA programs in Film Studies and Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image. He is the author of Visualizing Film History: Film Archives and Digital Scholarship (Indiana University Press, 2025).
Currently, he is also Teaching & Training Officer for the Common Lab Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (CLARIAH), where he coordinates and develops educational resources and events such as the CLARIAH Summer School.
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 (2017-2020), he contributed to developing an environment for browsing moving images from EYE and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision based on visual features. In 2017-2018 he was Principal Investigator in 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).
For more info on ongoing projects and research visit Christian's research blog at: https://audiovisids.hypotheses.org/.
Books
Visualizing Film History: Film Archives and Digital Scholarship (Indiana University Press, 2025)
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
- Theory and History of Audiovisual Archiving
- Digital Humanities and Digital Heritage
- Sound Studies (with an emphasis on film sound)
- Theory of (Film) History
- Experimental and Documentary Cinema
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Publications
- refereed (18)
- academic (6)
- professional (1)
- conference contributions (25)
- recognitions (8)
- doctoral thesis (1)
2025
Dang, S.-M., Van der Heijden, T., & Olesen, C. G. (Eds.) (2025). Doing Digital Film History: Concepts, Tools, Practices. (Studies in Digital History and Hermeneutics; Vol. 11). De Gruyter Oldenbourg. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111082486 [details]- Olesen, C. G. (2025). Visualizing Film History: Film Archives and Digital Scholarship. Indiana University Press. [details]
2024
- Olesen, C., & Özgen-Havekotte, A. (2024). AHM and ASCA research initiative on “critical audiovisual heritage” (2024-28). In I. Saloul, S. Berrebi, N. Munawar, & M. Panico (Eds.), AHM Conference 2024: 'Heritage, Memory and Material Culture' (Vol. 3, pp. 81-83). Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.5117/9789048567638/AHM.2024.013 [details]
2021
- Olesen, C. G., & Fokkens, A. (2021). DH Benelux Online. DH Benelux Journal, 3. https://journal.dhbenelux.org/volume-3-dh-benelux-online/
- Olesen, C. G., Heftberger, A., & Catanese, R. (2021). Film Heritage and Digital Scholarship - Computer-Based Approaches to Film Archiving, Restoration and Philology. Cinergie - Il Cinema e el altre arti, (20). https://cinergie.unibo.it/issue/view/1025
- Van Noord, N., Olesen, C. G., Ordelman, R., & Noordegraaf, J. (2021). Automatic Annotations and Enrichments for Audiovisual Archives. In A. P. Rocha, L. Steels, & J. van den Herik (Eds.), ICAART 2021 : Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence : February 4-6, 2021. - Volume 1: ARTIDIGH 2021, Vienna, Austria (pp. 633-640). SciTePress. https://doi.org/10.5220/0010387706330640 [details]
2020
- Masson, E., Olesen, C. G., van Noord, N., & Fossati, G. (2020). Exploring Digitised Moving Image Collections: The SEMIA Project, Visual Analysis and the Turn to Abstraction. Digital Humanities Quarterly, 14(4). http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/14/4/000497/000497.html [details]
2019
- Olesen, C. G. (2019). Itinéraire d’un ciné-fils de…#3: Le cercle rouge. [In] Transition, 6(2). https://mediacommons.org/intransition/itineraire-d%E2%80%99un-cine-fils
2018
- Olesen, C. G., & Keidl, P. (2018). Institutionalizing Moving Image Archival Training: Analyses, Histories, Theories. Synoptique: An Online Journal of Film and Moving Image Studies, 6(1). https://www.synoptique.ca/issue-6-1
- Olesen, C. G., & Kisjes, I. (2018). From Text Mining to Visual Classification: Rethinking Computational New Cinema History with Jean Desmet’s Digitised Business Archive. Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis, 21(2), 127–145. https://doi.org/10.18146/2213-7653.2018.370 [details]
2017
- Melgar Estrada, L., Hielscher, E., Koolen, M., Olesen, C. G., Noordegraaf, J., & Blom, J. (2017). Film analysis as annotation: Exploring current tools and their affordances. The moving image, 17(2), 40-70. https://doi.org/10.5749/movingimage.17.2.0040 [details]
- Olesen, C. G. (2017). Towards a 'Humanistic Cinemetrics? In K. Van Es, & M. Schäfer (Eds.), The Datafied Society: Studying Culture Through Data Amsterdam University Press. https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/31843
2016
- Olesen, C. G., Masson, E., van Gorp, J., Fossati, G., & Noordegraaf, J. (2016). Data-Driven Research for Film History: Exploring the Jean Desmet Collection. The moving image, 16(1), 82-105. https://doi.org/10.5749/movingimage.16.1.0082 [details]
2015
- Olesen, C. G. (2015). Film History 'in the Making': On Fact Production and Film Historiography in Digital Humanities Laboratories. In A. Beltrame, G. Fidotta, & A. Mariani (Eds.), At the Borders of (Film) History: Temporality, Archaeology, Theories: XXI Convegno Internazionale di Studi sul Cinema: XXI International Film Studies Conference (pp. 157-166). Udine: Forum. [details]
2014
- Olesen, C. G. (2014). Panoramic Visions of the Archive in Eye's Panorama: A Case Study in Digital Film Historiography. Cinéma & Cie, 14(22/23), 145-160. [details]
- Olesen, C. G. (2014). [Review of: E. Lamberti (2012) Behind the scenes at the BBFC: film classification from the silver screen to the digital age]. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 34, 135-137. https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2013.872475 [details]
- Olesen, C. G. (2014). [Review of: M. Witt (2013) Jean-Luc Godard, cinema historian]. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 34(4), 631-633. https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2014.943959 [details]
2013
- Olesen, C. (2013). Found Footage Photogénie: An Interview with Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi and Mark-Paul Meyer. NECSUS, 2(2), 555-562. https://doi.org/10.5117/NECSUS2013.2.OLES [details]
2021
- Catanese, R., Heftberger, A., & Olesen, C. G. (2021). Introduction: Film Heritage and Digital Scholarship - Computer-Based Approaches to Film Archiving, Restoration and Philology. Cinergie - Il Cinema e el altre arti, 20, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2280-9481/13948 [details]
- Fokkens, A., & Olesen, C. (2021). Introduction: DH Benelux Online. DH Benelux Journal, 3, iii-iv. https://doi.org/10.17613/p3z7-4c05 [details]
- Olesen, C. G. (2021). MIMEHIST: Annotating Eye’s Jean Desmet Collection. Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis, 24(1-2). https://doi.org/10.18146/tmg.811/ [details]
2019
- Olesen, C. (2019). “This is our first big experiment”: Paris 1900 (1947) and the Eye Filmmuseum’s early collection-building. Early Popular Visual Culture, 17(2), 207-217. https://doi.org/10.1080/17460654.2019.1697113 [details]
2018
- Keidl, P. D., & Olesen, C. G. (2018). Introduction. Synoptique: An Online Journal of Film and Moving Image Studies, 6(1), 6-11. https://www.synoptique.ca/_files/ugd/811df8_1f0996fcffc4494a9fb155feb3b5804d.pdf [details]
- Olesen, C. G. (2018). I-Media-Cities, europæisk (film-)historieskrivning og den digitale humaniora. Kosmorama, 272. https://www.kosmorama.org/artikler/i-media-cities [details]
2022
- Olesen, C. G. (2022). Notes on the Helpful User Anno 2022. Journal of Film Preservation, 107, 39-46. https://www.calameo.com/fiaf/read/000918540d6b5249bbc93 [details]
2024
- Olesen, C. G., & Weijers, M. (2024). Linking Het Amsterdams Stadsjournaal: A Case Study in Emerging Linked Open Data (LOD) Approaches to Audio-Visual Heritage . Paper presented at Digital Humanities Benelux 2024 Conference, Leuven, Belgium. http://chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://2024.dhbenelux.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/DHB24_paper_Weijers_Olesen.pdf
2022
- Olesen, C. G. (2022). Visions of a Timeline: A Videographic, Tool Critical Perspective on the Media Suite's Video Annotation Functionalities. Paper presented at New Directions in Film Historiography, Marburg, Germany.
2019
- Fossati, G., Masson, E. L., & Olesen, C. G. (2019). The Sensory Moving Image Archive Project. Paper presented at Association of the Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) Conference, Portland, United States.
2018
- Masson, E. L., Fossati, G., & Olesen, C. G. (2018). Visual Analysis as a Means of Tactical Subversion in the Exploration of Digitized Moving Image Collections. Paper presented at Media tactics and engagements. , Amsterdam, Netherlands.
- Olesen, C. G. (2018). Challenging Methods for Digital Media History and Artistic Reuse: Feature Extraction in the Sensory Moving Image Archive (SEMIA) project. Paper presented at DHBenelux 2018, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
- Olesen, C. G. (2018). MIMEHIST: Annotating Eye’s Jean Desmet Collection. Paper presented at Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) Conference, Portland, Oregon, United States.
- Olesen, C. G. (2018). MIMEHIST: Annotating Eye’s Jean Desmet Collection. Paper presented at FIAF Symposium 2018 "Sharing", Prague, Czech Republic.
- Olesen, C. G., & Kisjes, I. (2018). OCR’ing and classifying Jean Desmet’s Business Archive – Methodological Implications and New Directions for Media Historical Research. Paper presented at DH2018, "Bridges/Puentes", Mexico City, Mexico.
- Olesen, C. G., Masson, E. L., & Fossati, G. (2018). Feature Extraction in the Sensory Moving Image Archive (SEMIA) project. Paper presented at Digital Humanities Benelux Conference 2018, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2017
- Blom, J., Koolen, M., Melgar Estrada, L., Boot, P., Haentjens Dekker, R., Olesen, C., Aasman, S., Karrouche, N., & Wegter, R. (2017). A Demonstration of Scholarly Web Annotation Support Using the W3C Annotation Data Model and RDFa. Abstract from Big Video Sprint 2017, Aalborg, Denmark. http://easychair.org/smart-program/BIGVID2017/2017-11-24.html
- Noordegraaf, J. J., Woodfin, L., Olesen, C. G., Masson, E. L., Fossati, G., & van Gorp, J. (2017). Mapping Desmet: Testing a New Cinema History Tool on Film Distribution in the Netherlands and Belgium, 1914-1918. Paper presented at HoMER conference Circuits of Cinema: Histories of Movie & Media Distribution. , Toronto, Canada.
- Olesen, C. G., & Fossati, G. (2017). The Sensory Moving Image Archive (SEMIA) Boosting Creative Reuse for Artistic Practice and Research. Paper presented at NWO Smart Culture Conference "Exploring Integrated Arts & Culture Research", Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2016
- Olesen, C. G., van Gorp, J., Masson, E. L., Noordegraaf, J. J., & Fossati, G. (2016). A New Cinema History Research Tool: The Case of Mapping Desmet. Paper presented at Creativity & the City, 1600-2000, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2015
- Masson, E. L., Olesen, C. G., Noordegraaf, J. J., van Gorp, J., & Fossati, G. (2015). Reconstructing Colour Palettes in Early Dutch Film Distribution: The Case of Eye’s Jean Desmet Collection: The Case of EYE’s Jean Desmet Collection. Paper presented at What is Cinema History? A HOMER Network Conference, University of Glasgow, Glasgow.
- Olesen, C. G., & van Gorp, J. (2015). Chromatic Experience in Early Cinema Distribution as Visualized Through Eye’s Jean Desmet Collection. Paper presented at The Colour Fantastic: Chromatic Worlds of Silent Cinema conference, EYE Film Institute, Amsterdam.
- Olesen, C. G., & van Gorp, J. (2015). Data-driven Film History: a Demonstrator of Eye’s Jean Desmet Collection. Paper presented at SCMS 2015, Montréal, Canada.
2014
- Olesen, C. G. (2014). Film History 'in the Making': On Scholarly Practice and Film Historiography in the Digital Humanities Laboratory. Paper presented at FilmForum 2014: XXI Udine International Film Studies Conference: At the Borders of (Film) History: temporality, archaeology, theories.
- Olesen, C. G. (2014). From Film Historiography to Videography: Film Historical Video Essays as Scholarly Research Practice. Paper presented at SCMS 2014, Seattle, United States.
- Olesen, C. G., Masson, E. L., van Gorp, J., Fossati, G., & Noordegraaf, J. J. (2014). Digital Tools for Archives: Linking Eye's Jean Desmet Collection. Paper presented at FIAT/IFTA World Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
- Olesen, C. G., van Gorp, J., Fossati, G., & Noordegraaf, J. J. (2014). Emerging Cinema/Emerging Methods: Developing a Tool for Eye's Jean Desmet Collection. Paper presented at Digital Humanities 2014.
2013
- Olesen, C. G. (2013). Digitizing an ‘Aesthetic of Film History’ - Philosophy of Film History in Eye's Panorama. Paper presented at XI MAGIS - Gorizia International Film Studies Spring School, Università degli Studi di Udine, Gorizia, Italy.
- Olesen, C. G. (2013). Historical Notes on Contemporary Silent Film Music - Cinémix and the Case of Radiomentale. Paper presented at Silent Film Sound - History, Theory & Practice, Christian-Albrächts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany.
2012
- Olesen, C. G. (2012). The Difference Between Bits and Bits - Film History and Archiving Philosophy in Eye's Digital Panorama. Paper presented at Besides The Screen, London, UK.
2011
- Olesen, C. G. (2011). Against the Grain - Teaching AV Preservation Issues through Found Footage Film. Paper presented at
Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) Conference, Austin, Texas, United States.
2010
- Olesen, C. G. (2010). Que l'embarras du choix? - quelques aspects éthiques de la modernisation de l'accompagnement musical. Paper presented at Conference of the Association suisse de conservation et restauration (SCR) , Zürich, Switzerland.
Talk / presentation
- Olesen, C. G. (speaker) (2012). The Difference Between Bits and Bits - Film History and Archiving Philosophy in EYE's Digital Panorama, Besides The Screen, London, UK.
Others
- Olesen, C. (member of programme committee), Saccone, K. (member of programme committee) & Fossati, G. (chair) (26-5-2024 - 29-5-2024). 9th Eye International Conference 2024, Amsterdam. 9th Eye International Conference 2024: Presenting Audiovisual Collections - Experiments and Explorations (organising a conference, workshop, ...). https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/programme/eye-international-conference-2024/1135095
- Olesen, C. (member of programme committee) (4-6-2023 - 7-6-2023). 8th Eye International Conference 2023: Activating the Archive, Amsterdam (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
- Olesen, C. (organiser) & Rasterhoff, C. (organiser) (28-3-2023). Workshop: Introduction to the CLARIAH Media Suite, Maastricht (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
- Olesen, C. (organiser) & Karrouche, N. (organiser) (22-3-2023). Workshop 'Creating an annotated corpus for cultural historical research in the CLARIAH Media Suite', Amsterdam (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
- Fossati, G. (organiser), Masson, E. (organiser) & Olesen, C. (organiser) (25-2-2019 - 26-2-2019). The Sensory Moving Image Archives Symposium, Amsterdam (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
- Olesen, C. G. (organiser), Masson, E. (organiser) & Fossati, G. (organiser) (7-2-2018). SEMIA workshop 1, Amsterdam (organising a conference, workshop, ...). http://sensorymovingimagearchive.humanities.uva.nl/index.php/2018/06/08/first-semia-workshop-purpose-and-short-report/
- Olesen, C. (organiser) (13-6-2013). The NECS 2023 Conference 2023: Care, Oslo. Pre-Conference Event: Taking Care of Audiovisual Research Data in Film and Media Studies, Audiovisual Collections and Libraries (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
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Ancillary activities
No ancillary activities
Dang, S.-M., Van der Heijden, T., & Olesen, C. G. (Eds.) (2025). Doing Digital Film History: Concepts, Tools, Practices. (Studies in Digital History and Hermeneutics; Vol. 11). De Gruyter Oldenbourg.