We noted earlier how gift giving is ‘socially occasioned’
and so it should
be no great surprise that it appears to shape
the social aspects of visiting. While Laaksolahti et al.’s
system also allowed users to share gestural responses to art,
the responses produced were not personalized or gifted to a
particular recipient [15]. It
is the gifting of experiences that
are crafted specifically for the recipient that makes our
approach, and the interactions it produced, unique.
Experiencing the gift together creates a strong mutual
obligation between pairs. The recipient is obliged to
c
omplete the experience and comply with instructions as we
saw in all experiences (even the unsuccessful one involved
completion and partial compliance). For their part, the giver
has a vested interest in ensuring that the recipient is able to
complete the
experience, at least by not interrupting them,
but also by actively supporting them, joining in with the
actions and often leading the way.