Mark Olson, Associate Professor of the Practice of Art, Art History & Visual Studies

Please note: Mark has left the "Information Science + Studies" group at Duke University; some info here might not be up to date.

Mark J. V. Olson is Associate Professor of the Practice of Visual & Media Studies at Duke University and a founding member of the Wired! Lab. His research and teaching focus on the historical and contemporary entanglements of medical practice and media technologies, as well as on the affordances of emerging technologies for the analysis and exhibition of historical material culture. He is currently collaborating with the Nasher Museum of Art on expanding their engagements with interactive media and developing an infrastructure for constructing immersive virtual exhibition experiences. He also collaborates with Duke’s History of Medicine Collection and Department of Radiology on the micro-CT scanning and digital reconstruction of Duke’s ivory manikin collection.

More broadly, Olson is interested in cultivating literacies in “critical making”—drawing on the critical and analytic repertoires of the theoretical and historical humanities while cultivating a deep understanding of and proficient practice with computational media, from code to circuit design to photogrammetry. A longtime contributor to the field of digital humanities, Olson is the former Director of New Media & Information Technologies for HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Sciences & Technology Advanced Collaboratory) and the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary & International Studies. He received his MA and PhD in Communication Studies and graduate certificate in Cultural Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	114 South Buchanan Blvd, A262a Smith Warehouse, Bay 10, Durham, NC 27708
Office Phone:	(919) 613-6726
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://mjvo.com

Teaching (Spring 2024):

• HCVIS 581S.01, HIST & CULT VIZ PROSEMINAR 2 Synopsis

  Smith Wrhs A233, Tu 01:25 PM-04:25 PM

  (also cross-listed as ARTHIST 581S.01, CMAC 581S.01, ISS 581S.01, VMS 581S.01)

• VMS 590.01, TOPICS IN VMS Synopsis

  Bio Sci 0076, F 03:05 PM-05:35 PM

• VMS 565S.01, NEW MEDIA, MEMORY, AND ARCHIVE Synopsis

  Smith Wrhs A233, Tu 01:25 PM-03:55 PM

  (also cross-listed as CMAC 565S.01, ISS 565S.01)

• HCVIS 581S.01, HIST & CULT VIZ PROSEMINAR 2 Synopsis

  Smith Wrhs A233, Th 10:05 AM-01:05 PM

  (also cross-listed as ARTHIST 581S.01, CMAC 581S.01, ISS 581S.01, VMS 581S.01)

Office Hours:

Teaching at Venice International University in Spring 2022.

Regular office hours resume in Fall 2022.

Education:

Ph.D.	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill	2009
MA	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	1998
BA	Drake University	1993

Specialties:

Visual Studies/Visual Culture
Franklin Center
Medicine and Visual Culture
Media Studies
Media History
Performance Studies
Theory & Criticism
Digital Media
New Media
New Technologies for Visualizing Historical Materials

Research Interests:

Mark Olson is Cordelia and William Laverack Family Assistant Professor of Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University. He teaches courses on media (new & old - theory, practice, & history) and medicine & visual culture. As a extension of his past work with the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media & Learning Initiative, he collaborates on the development of a new interdisciplinary project that connects the study of the material culture of art history, architecture and archaeology with new media modes of representation and visualization. Olson is the former Director of New Media & Information Technologies for HASTAC (Humanties, Arts, Sciences & Technology Advanced Collaboratory) and the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary & International Studies.

Keywords:

Muser Mentor

Current Ph.D. Students  

• Sinan Goknur  

Postdocs Mentored

• Kristin H. Lanzoni (August 01, 2013 - present)  
• Rebecca Bennett (August, 2012 - October, 2013)  

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Schwartz, FR; Churchill, S; Ingold, R; Goknur, S; Gupta, D; Gladman, J; Olson, M; Tailor, TD, The art of imaging methods—using cutting edge radiological technology to uncover the secrets of ancient anatomical figurines, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, vol. 13 no. 5 (May, 2021) [doi]  [abs]
2. Jaskot, P; Jacobs, H; Szabo, V; Olson, M; Triplett, E, Shaping the Discipline of Digital Art History: A recap of an advanced summer institute on 3-D and (geo)spatial networks (December, 2018), The Iris: Behind the Scenes at the Getty
3. Olson, M, Interactive exhibitions New interfaces for engaging visualizations, in VISUALIZING VENICE: MAPPING AND MODELING TIME AND CHANGE IN A CITY (2018), pp. 92-99, ISBN 978-1-138-28599-6
4. Olson, M; Giordano, A, Visualizing Venice: Developing a methodology for historical visualization, in Visualizing Venice: Mapping and Modeling Time and Change in a City, edited by Huffman, K; Giordano, A; Bruzelius, C (2017), pp. 20-25, Routledge, ISBN 978-1138285996 [doi]
5. Olson, M, Interactive Exhibitions, in Visualizing Venice: Mapping and Modeling Time and Change in a City, edited by Huffman, KL; Giordano, A; Bruzelius, C (2017), pp. 92-99, Routledge, ISBN 978-1138285996 [doi]  [abs]