About: Trials fascinate us because they present a single question — innocent or guilty. But trials can also be used to tell us about a particular society at a particular time. This project focuses on a famous legal case from the early modern period, the Amboyna Conspiracy Trial of 1623. In this trial, Dutch authorities accused a group of English merchants and Japanese mercenaries of plotting to seize control of a castle on a remote island in modern-day Indonesia, killing anyone who resisted.
The videos were filmed in Heidelberg, Germany during an international conference. The project itself was collaboration between two international institutions, while also pulling knowledge from a British legal expert.
Winner of the Australian State Library: Digital History Prize
Website Implementation
I led the web design and implementation for this project. The “What’s Your Verdict” trial engine was modeled to mimic the uncertainty approach used by the popular podcast Serial, releasing new layers of information as the process unfolds.
