Have you ever asked yourself, “what does a sheep do in its free time?” Or wondered what it would be like to see the world through a sheep’s eyes? Or how the view would be if you could ride on a sheep’s back down the mountainside? Now you can—or, sort of—thanks to a new project by the Faroe Islands’ tourism board called Sheep View 360. The project was created by Visit Faroe Islands employee Durita Dahl Andreassen, who strapped cameras to sheep across the islands to give the internet a virtual tour of her home country.
The 18-island archipelago, whose name originally means “Sheep Island,” is situated between Iceland and Norway. It has become a popular destination for folks looking for a scenic getaway with plenty of hiking and natural landscapes, although it remains largely underexplored. Google has not sent one of their street view camera teams to the Faroe Islands yet, so Andreassen launched a #wewantgooglestreetview campaign and released a petition for supporters to sign.
Sheep View 360 is Andreassen’s temporary solution to the Islands’ underappreciation until she can persuade Google to visit the islands. “The Faroe Islands may be rugged and remote, but this collection of 18 islands in the North Atlantic also provides some of the world’s most magical landscapes and it is time that this hidden Nordic nation is revealed to the world,” Andreassen wrote in the a petition post on Visit Faroe Islands’ website. “Taking matters into my own hands, I decided to create my own version of Street View—Sheep View 360.” On Visit Faroe Islands’ Sheep View 360 page, visitors can see where on the islands Andreassen’s sheep have covered, learn about the importance of sheep to the culture of the Faroe Islands, and see photos from Sheep View 360 on Visit Faroe Islands’ Instagram.
Sheep outnumber the human population of about 50,000 across the Faroe Islands nearly two to one, so it makes sense for the Islands’ presentation to be from their perspective. Although her sheep provide a unique experience for internet users to see the Faroe Islands from a native’s perspective, Andreassen says Google is the only company large enough to cover the Islands with the depth it has covered other parts of the world.
Anyone interested in supporting the campaign can sign the petition here. Andreassen encourages followers of the petition to spread awareness of the campaign on social media using the hashtags #VisitFaroeIslands, #weWantGoogleStreetview, and #Sheepview360. According to The Guardian, Google declined to comment on any plans to visit the Faroe Islands but pointed the publication to instructions on how to create your own Street View.
Sign the petition and check out one of Andreassen’s Sheep View 360 videos below!
The video’s 3-D, so be sure to drag around the screen and take a look!
Feature Photo Credit: Visit Faroe Islands | Instagram
Tori Bilcik
Tori is a senior journalism major at Emerson College and a firm believer that a handful (or three) of cheese can instantly improve any dish. When she’s not scouring the artisan cheese aisle at Roche Brothers for wheels and wedges she can’t afford, she’s probably drinking tea, eating cheap pizza, or listening to sad emo punk music.
