This project aimed to communicate difficult heritage through visualisation and virtual reality (VR). Digital communication tools are well suited to increasing accessibility and participation in archaeology, and virtual reality offers the unique potential of immersive experience where the user gets to feel the history with their senses. This project was connected to the research project ‘Frozen in Time - histories of life and moments of death at Sandby borg’ and related to these research questions in the project connected to ‘difficult heritage’.

Through a collaborative effort between the Dept. of Museum Archaeology at Kalmar County Museum, RISE Interactive and Linnaeus University, a VR demo was produced with the aim to engage the user in the story of Sandby borg through interaction, storytelling, and an immersive virtual experience. The VR demo was used as material to initiate dialogue about difficult topics like violence and the mentality of war in a difficult cultural heritage like Sandby borg, in relation to contemporary society. In many cases the VR demo made an emotional impact and test user got an immersive, intimate experience but also felt they learnt more about Sandby borg. The project also aimed to function as a stepping stone for potential future developments of VR products made to communicate through archaeology and cultural heritage. The project have been published in a report, as a case study in a licentiate thesis in dec 2018 by Fredrik Gunnarsson and as paper waiting for peer review.