Lecture tour in Ofoten
Published 12 October 2026
The museums and libraries in Ballangen, Kjøpsvik and Narvik invite you to a lecture tour with Arne Håkon Thomassen from the Sami Parliament!
03 June 2025
Last week (week 22), Professor Gunnar Liestøl and students of media studies at the University of Oslo visited Vesterålen. On the occasion of their final bachelor’s degree in the course “Design in mobile media”, the students have developed an AR app to convey cultural heritage.
AR, or Augmented Reality, means augmented reality, and this technology was tested at Enge II close to Skipssand in Øksnes. AR works by scanning the landscape where you are, to visualize data e.g. sound, image in the real world. The AR app is about being able to see how people lived in the area around the year 1000, the year 1250 and after the Black Death in the year 1350, based on the remains of settlements, farms, etc. in the landscape. The user should be able to hold up a phone or tablet and use the app to get an authentic time picture from the selected period.
Skipssand is located in the northwest of Øksnes, and faces the open sea. The area is now abandoned, but there are several signs of lived life in this landscape.
Before the app is finished, it must be tested. The students needed test subjects who would give feedback on how the technology worked in reality. The test subjects who were there were Julie Beck Gjellesvik from Øksnes Museum, Didrik Lerstang from Øksnes municipality, Ingeborg Nordahl, Elias Jonassønn, André Bjerke and Vegar Reinholtsen from GaiaVesterålen.
After the testing at Enge II, the trip continued to Sortland. In the Gallery in Sortland is the Vesterål model. A 15m2 large 3D model of Vesterålen. Here, the AR app was tested on the model. The test subjects got to see Enge II through the app as a small window to the past.
