Recent content in Home on Torbjørn Bakken Pedersen's home page
Lately I’ve come to realise that I’m fairly scatterbrained. I obsess over ideas monomaniacally, only to move on before finishing them. When the stars align, this focus leads to quick, tangible results. But usually I just end up with a mental backlog of half-finished projects. This has gotten worse since becoming a parent. My free time is limited to an hour or two after my…
2025 introduction Way back in 2014, I finally handed in my long-overdue master’s thesis at the University of Amsterdam for the Preservation and Presentation of the moving image program . The text was twice as long as it should be and was far more theoretical than I had initially planned for. However, I was pleased about the result in the end, and I think I still am. The text is about many…
This text discusses exposure to acetic acid and nitrogen dioxide in film inspection, in the context of measurements made at the National Library of Norway in 2021. Table of Contents The nitrate inspections of 2019 Inspection methodology The “characteristic” smell of nitrate Health and safety Measuring exposure Acetic acid Ventilation issues Nitrogen dioxide Ambient nitrogen dioxide…
Recently, I stumbled upon an old shoot-’em-up game called Tyrian , released in 1995. While I’ve never played Tyrian, the name sparked a wave of nostalgia, reminding me of a distinct game with a similar title. Gaming ur-memories Playing games was probably my favourite past-time growing up. I have a handful of these very fond memories of playing games. The memories from before 1998 - when I…
I recently made the decision to move my home page from Jekyll to Hugo . The primary motivations behind this migration were to simplify things by only using a single static site generator type for the pages I work on. Having set up a Hugo page before, getting everything up and running again was not too difficult. Some frontmatter, formatting, and paths had to change, some URL aliases had to be…
Presentation at the Digital libraries: storage for now and forever conference hosted by the IFLA Preservation and Conservation Center at the National Library of Poland. The presentation is a crash course through digital storage and digital preservation practices at the National Library of Norway over the past 20 years. It concludes with current status and our future plans. Link to PDF The event…
Kodacolor lenticules Kodacolor sheen Your browser does not support the video format/codec. Kodacolor film processed by deep-dolce Your browser does not support the video format/codec.
I have typed out various specific cataloging procedures, I have pushed for certain cataloging changes, and I have specified requirements of our new cataloging system, but I have never spelled out the overarching principles I base my thoughts on. This post is an attempt to start spelling out some possible overarching principles about cataloging. Perhaps some ideas make little sense outside of my…
There is a lot of “cool” things happening in the AI/ML field, but as other, more poignant, people have stated, there is an abundance of downsides, pitfalls and straight up dangers lurking in the background of it all. Ludicrous power and water usage (I wonder how many liters of water I wasted, in the creation of my little OCR script ), the reproduction and ossification of the status quo…
Over the last year or so, I’ve been dabbling with various scripts to manipulate video, metadata etc. I’ve been running a wide range of experiments, amongst others grading film scans using Python and Jupyter notebooks (with massive help from Paul Duchesne ) and trying use the IFIscripts for digital preservation of the scans of my grandparent’s Super8 home movies. I’ve been a…
Presentation held at the FIAF CDC Workshop “So Much More Than Non-Film: Cataloguing Film-Related Materials” in Stockholm 25.05.2023. Presentation focused on the ongoing migration work from the Mavis system to Axiell Collections at the National Library of Norway. Emphasis on how the LRM/EN15907 models can be applied in a generic manner for different types of materials. Some thoughts on…
Digitising autonomous colours poses a range of challenges (“chromatic callier-effect” 1 , autonomous colours falling outside scanner spectral sensitivities 2 , etc.). There is no perfect solution or equipment to overcome these challenges though. Every institution has to come up with a solution based on educated guesses and the equipment available - Settle on something pragmatic and…
Presentation for FIAF CDC Preservation/Restoration Documentation Task Force about current and future(?) practices of documenting preservation processes at the moving image archive of the National Library of Norway. Examples based on film scanner/post-processing processes, but future aims are general and can be applied to other processes as well. Link to PDF
Three layer risoprint of a photography processed using Stochaster.
Video backdrops for a club night at Lokal bar, Trondheim. Made using the LZX Vidiot, 3trinsRGB+1c, BPMC premium cable and an assortment of video mixers. Youtube excerpts
Music video/visuals for KEVINTHECREEP - Getaway boat. Made with a simple sound reactive LZX Vidiot patch and a BPMC Premium Cable. Youtube
Mix of southern 90s rap, with an emphasis on Memphis. Micro run of 20 tapes made at Tapedub, Berlin. Bandcamp
I’m tired of paying soundcloud for hosting files. Slowly moving all my stuff here. Launch webamp player Cover Title Duration Year Details HOLMGANG 96 59:44 2019 View details A mix of early gabber/hardcore/turbo music that's been on my mind for two decades. Public Domain - The Puritan (The Voice Mix) El Bruto - Hardcore Motherfucker Obliterator - Mind Twist Dark Destination - Don't Fuck With…
Work Experience Product lead Digital Preservation (National Library of Norway) Nov 2023 -> Present Working on product design for digital preservation services. Skills: preservation metadata , digital preservation . Senior advisor moving image cataloging and metadata (National Library of Norway) Jan 2024 -> Present Extensive work on setting up new data model for moving image metadata and…