The Open University

The Pelagios Network

The Scrapbook

The Pelagios Network bring together knowledge and skills from the humanities, cultural heritage, computing and data science. The network is dedicated to creating connections and deeper insights into historical artifacts and places of interest, bringing them to life by providing a rich context.

The challenge

Over 60 seconds our film needed to explain why the Pelagios Network is important, what it does and enables, and how viewers were able to get involved. Appealing to an audience of academics, curators, students, web developers and data scientists, the film required a friendly tone with an inviting call to action.

The film

The Pelagios Network is based on connection, the connection of information about historical sites and artifacts and the connection between the people and disciplines that find this information. To capture this essence, we made much of the imagery incorporate connection. This took several forms, such as threads running through different media and loops connecting people across the community. A diverse range of characters and role references emphasised the inclusivity of the network while the inclusion of iconic artifacts and landmarks rooted the film and network in its core area of research and work. All of this was joined a strong script and a friendly and approachable voiceover, telling the story of the Pelagios Network and delivering an inviting and clear call to action to its audience.

About the client

Since 2011 the Pelagios Network has been connecting links from various sources to bring new insights to artifacts and ancient sites. Based on collaboration, they draw on the skills of academics, curators, archivists, web developers and data scientists. Together these people enable activities such as annotation, pedagogy and visualisation, bringing new depths of understanding.

The context

Find out more about the Pelagios Network here, and find out how to get involved.