Using digital layers to evoke nostalgia in hybrid gifting.

Lead Research Organisation: University of Nottingham
Department Name: School of Computer Science

Abstract

Gifting is a tradition in which people all over the world are familiar with and partake in habitually. Reciprocal gifting has been a part of life from primitive societies and have since become a foundation for modern social life and moral economy [1]. This research focuses on the idea of hybrid gifts, hybrid gifting is an emerging industry which involves a physical gift incorporating a digital aspect. An important aspect of this research is the introduction of nostalgia through digital layers. Nostalgia has been utilised in marketing and advertising to make people feel safe and used as a means for brands to connect with consumers [2], however little research is evident within gifting and nostalgia. Therefore, this research will aim to explore this gap in literature whilst creating innovative and exciting hybrid gifts. To explore this area there are three main aspects to consider, firstly is it possible to evoke nostalgia through personal data in a gifting scenario. Based off findings hybrid gift prototypes will be developed to explore the idea of evoking nostalgia through digital layers in a gifting context. A final aspect of this research focuses on the use of prototypes in a commercial environment to explore the application of nostalgic digital layers.

Planned Impact

We will collaborate with over 40 partners drawn from across FMCG and Food; Creative Industries; Health and Wellbeing; Smart Mobility; Finance; Enabling technologies; and Policy, Law and Society. These will benefit from engagement with our CDT through the following established mechanisms:

- Training multi-disciplinary leaders. Our partners will benefit from being able to recruit highly skilled individuals who are able to work across technologies, methods and sectors and in multi-disciplinary teams. We will deliver at least 65 skilled PhD graduates into the Digital Economy.

- Internships. Each Horizon student undertakes at least one industry internship or exchange at an external partner. These internships have a benefit to the student in developing their appreciation of the relevance of their PhD to the external societal and industrial context, and have a benefit to the external partner through engagement with our students and their multidisciplinary skill sets combined with an ability to help innovate new ideas and approaches with minimal long-term risk. Internships are a compulsory part of our programme, taking place in the summer of the first year. We will deliver at least 65 internships with partners.

- Industry-led challenge projects. Each student participates in an industry-led group project in their second year. Our partners benefit from being able to commission focused research projects to help them answer a challenge that they could not normally fund from their core resources. We will deliver at least 15 such projects (3 a year) throughout the lifetime of the CDT.

- Industry-relevant PhD projects. Each student delivers a PhD thesis project in collaboration with at least one external partner who benefits from being able to engage in longer-term and deeper research that they would not normally be able to undertake, especially for those who do not have their own dedicated R&D labs. We will deliver at least 65 such PhDs over the lifetime of this CDT renewal.

- Public engagement. All students receive training in public engagement and learn to communicate their findings through press releases, media coverage.

This proposal introduces two new impact channels in order to further the impact of our students' work and help widen our network of partners.

- The Horizon Impact Fund. Final year students can apply for support to undertake short impact projects. This benefits industry partners, public and third sector partners, academic partners and the wider public benefit from targeted activities that deepen the impact of individual students' PhD work. This will support activities such as developing plans for spin-outs and commercialization; establishing an IP position; preparing and documenting open-source software or datasets; and developing tourable public experiences.

- ORBIT as an impact partner for RRI. Students will embed findings and methods for Responsible Research Innovation into the national training programme that is delivered by ORBIT, the Observatory for Responsible Research and Innovation in ICT (www.orbit-rri.org). Through our direct partnership with ORBIT all Horizon CDT students will be encouraged to write up their experience of RRI as contributions to ORBIT so as to ensure that their PhD research will not only gain visibility but also inform future RRI training and education. PhD projects that are predominantly in the area of RRI are expected to contribute to new training modules, online tools or other ORBIT services.

Publications

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Studentship Projects

Project Reference Relationship Related To Start End Student Name
EP/S023305/1 01/10/2019 31/03/2028
2274217 Studentship EP/S023305/1 01/10/2019 30/09/2023 Rebecca Gibson
 
Description Hybrid gifting is the merging of physical and digital objects to create a single gift. We investigate evoking the emotion of nostalgia using personal digital media in hybrid gifts. Through a qualitative approach, so far, we have uncovered benefits, consequences, and complexities of evoking nostalgia within hybrid exchanges. We understand through our work how nostalgic digital memories can communicate sentiment from gift-giver to recipient, and the importance of a physical object to deliver this. We have uncovered specific roles involved within hybrid exchanges including: roles of the gift-giver, recipient, nostalgia, media, and physical/digital objects.
Exploitation Route These outcomes may be of interest to those researching hybrid environments, gifting, or studies underpinned by the emotion of nostalgia. We also aim to reach those in fields of marketing and consumer research due to relevant implications of this work. The specific roles we have uncovered may be used as a design lens for studies within the technology-meditated reflection space.
Sectors Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections

 
Description Doctoral Consortium- DIS '21: Designing Interactive Systems Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The doctoral consortium involved a group of ten PhD students, who all presented their work to the chairs. Each person received feedback and suggestions for their work. Here we presented the direction of the PhD and initial findings.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Participation in Workshop- Weaving connections and advancing gift giving knowledge- Academy of Marketing 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This workshop involved researchers from different Universities discussing the future direction of gifting research. This involved presenting our work on nostalgic hybrid gifts and viewing other presentations on current gifting work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021