News/May 2019
Gift App Brighton Museum

We’re thrilled to announce that Gift will soon open at Brighton Museum. Following testing last year, a new version of the app will be available for free to everyone visiting the museum until October 2019.

The project gives visitors the chance to create their own digital playlist from the museum collection and send it to someone they care about.

Developed to explore the role of virtual museums in establishing meaningful user experiences which allow for personal, complex and emotional encounters with art and cultural heritage, Gift is the culmination of a three-year research project that started in January 2016.

“If you’ve ever made a mixtape for someone, this is the same, except with objects from a museum. What you choose to include is totally up to you. You might choose a picture that triggers a memory of a time you spent together, or just features their favourite colour. It’s a personal gift which will speak directly to the person you send it to.” Says Nick Tandavanitj, Lead Artist for the work at Blast Theory.

Gift project collaborations are currently taking place in over 20 museums across Europe and the US, exploring how new technologies in museums can be adapted to the needs of museums and visitors. In particular, the researchers are interested in how mobile apps can enhance experiences in physical spaces.

Gift is free with Brighton Museum admission until October 2019. Take a look at the Brighton Museum GIFT page for opening times and how to get to the museum. To get a taste of the Gift experience, watch the project video (7 minutes). 

Visit the Gift project website for more information, or read the academic background and research to Gift, in the 2019 paper Seeing with New Eyes: Designing for In-the-Wild Museum Gifting

 

 

GIFT is a three year research project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 727040. It is a collaboration with IT University Copenhagen, University of Nottingham, University of Uppsala, Blast Theory, Next Game, the Europeana Foundation and Culture24.