Hybrid Gifting – join the Christmas countdown clock

As part of the Hybrid Gifting project, the Mixed Reality Laboratory at the University of Nottingham has been working with Nottingham Castle to develop the Christmas countdown clock to celebrate their re-opening.

The clock was built for the Castle to host and has multiple ways of blending physical and digital interactions with different items that might be seen as gifts.  Providing a novel way to expand their digital offerings, the clock also supports the Castle’s interest in thinking about physical objects through the lens of what they mean to us, personally. Gifting is an everyday practice that immediately shifts a person’s perspective. It takes them out of their own shoes to consider what the gift receiver might think of the object and what that person would like, encouraging the giver to see the object ‘through new eyes’.

The clock exists in two forms: online, where content automatically updates every day, and in the real world, where images from the day’s content is projected on the Gatehouse between 4 and 8pm.

Online, people can watch content, submit feedback, get involved in the project by suggesting ideas and register for a prize draw.

The Gatehouse ‘real world’ projection is a bit like the bright lights on a giant Christmas tree and provides a fantastic light show that changes every day to portray unique pieces of Nottingham’s history – drawn from the Castle’s Museum collections.

Other Hybrid Gifting projects include the ‘Hybrid Chocolate Gift’, a collaboration between the Mixed Reality Lab and Studio Chocolate in Nottingham.