This document discusses ethics and human participants in practice-based research. It provides an overview of key considerations for designing research, collecting data, and ensuring ethical conduct. Specific methods and challenges are explored, including issues around informed consent, privacy, risk management, and balancing open-ended creative work with participant well-being. Contemporary issues like privacy in a surveillance society and engaging public bystanders are also examined.

1. Masters in
Creative Technologies
(MA/MSc)
Ethics and Human Participants
23 October 2015
Dr Tracy Harwood, Senior Research Fellow
Institute of Creative Technologies / Usability Lab @ De Montfort University
E tharwood@dmu.ac.uk

2. Piano Stairs (Fun Theory)
Rolighetsteorin, Sweden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

3. Antony Gormley’s Event Horizon
(New York)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/arts/design/19gormley.html?_r=0

4. Dismaland Bemusement Park
(Banksy et al) Weston-Super-Mare UK

5. overview
™ Designing research
™ Doing data collection
™ Conduct and Process
™ Contemporary issues
™ new technologies
™ neurosciences
™ mixed methods (transdisciplinarity)
™ Scenarios

6. PBR research context
Do people become
engaged with the
artefact? Is that
engagement sustained?
What are the factors
that influence the nature
of the engagement?
Does engagement relate
to pleasure, frustration,
challenge or anger, for
example?Edmonds, Introduction to PBR, see materials posted Nov 2013

7. overview of creative engagement
expectation
unintended
expectation
deliberate
expectation
intended /
in control
expectation
intended /
uncertain
or
unexpected
interaction
mode
interaction
phases
adaptation
learning
adaptation
anticipation
deeper undertanding
Edmonds, Introduction to PBR, see materials posted Nov 2013

8. PBR research context
PBR has allowed researchers to (Candy & Edmonds, 2011)
™ “…ask questions that would not have surfaced any other way. It has
enabled me to connect to audience experience of the work; my own
experience of the work (in a systematic way).”
™ “…create artworks, come up with conclusions that have practical relevance
to the creation of interaction artworks.”
™ “…follow a methodology closely related to the professional practice as an
artist I have been following over many years.”
™ “…address my research questions through practice and to create new
knowledge through practice.”
™ “…investigate the broader implications of (this) earlier work: why that
research was of interest to my arts practice.”

9. PBR research context
™ PBR implies the need to consider
ethics
™ Intention (of research)
™ Product (consequences –
positive/negative)
™ Conduct (authorship, intellectual
property, plagiarism,
fabrication, negligence)
™ Process (conduct of research,
governance, compliance,
reputation, treatment of
humans as sources of data)
Stahl, 2013, human research ethics (video), www.dmu.ac.uk/research/research-and-governance/

10. ethics : the DMU policy
™ Research environment based on
™ Honesty > intention towards research
™ Openness > accessibility of outputs
™ Care > respect for environment of research as well
as participants
™ Integrity > declaration of conflicts of interest
™ Accountability > aligned with T&Cs of any funding
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/documents/research-documents/ethics-faculty-procedures/ethics-and-governance-general-/
dmu-guidelines-good-research-practice.pdf

11. ethics : the requirements
Ethical issues to be formally considered during an ethical review
by Faculty research committee (DMU ethics form) -
• Collection of data directly from people (e.g. interviewing,
surveying, questionnaires, observation of human behaviour)
• Collection of data about individuals whose identity can be
detected from the data (includes the use of archived data in
which individuals are identifiable such as patient records)
• Research involving a possible danger to the researcher
• Research involving illegal activities, activities at the margins
of the law or activities that have a risk of injury
• Research that may give rise to ethically relevant results
www.dmu.ac.uk/research/ethics-and-governnance/

12. Ethics : misconduct
™ Falsification
™ Plagiarism
™ Misrepresentation of data
™ Breach of duty of care
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/documents/research-documents/ethics-faculty-procedures/ethics-and-governance-general-/
dmu-guidelines-good-research-practice.pdf

13. designing research
validity
An interactive model of research design (Maxwell, 1996)
methods
research
questions
conceptual
context
purposes

14. doing data collection : method
™ existing data set interrogation
™ + readily available and cost effective
™ - historical
™ observation
™ + non-intrusive(?) and response rates
™ - interpretation
™ survey
™ + straight forward and easily analysed
™ - sample bias, response rates and cost

15. doing data collection : method
™ focus groups /
interviews
™ number of participants
™ moderator
™ roles
™ discussion
™ stimuli
™ duration

16. doing data collection : method
™ neuroscience / human factors analysis
™ psychology
™ physiology
™ behaviour

17. doing data collection: sampling
™ homogenous
™ maximum variation
(heterogeneous)
™ critical case
™ confirming/disconfirming case
™ snowball/chain
™ typical case
™ political
™ purposeful (random)
™ convenience

18. doing data collection : validity
™ influence of medium >
truthfulness
™ ‘we think’ > social dynamics
™ attention > preparedness to
participate
™ experience > ability to elucidate

19. PBR : complex mix of product,
conduct & process
™ legals
™ privacy in communications
™ data protection > opt-in, opt out
™ practical data management
™ scenario
™ codes of conduct (respect, competence,
responsibility, integrity)
™ ESRC / EPSRC
™ British Sociological Society
™ British Computer Society
™ British Psychological Society
™ Market Research Society

20. scenario : LG smart TV
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25018225
http://doctorbeet.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/lg-smart-tvs-logging-usb-filenames-and.html#comment-form
• What it does: information is sent back unencrypted to LG every time you change
channel, even if you have gone to the trouble of changing the setting above to switch
collection of viewing information off.
• Company rationale: LG Smart Ad analyses users favourite programs, online behaviour,
search keywords and other information to offer relevant ads to target audiences; can
feature sharp suits to men, or alluring cosmetics and fragrances to women; offers useful
and various advertising performance reports; accurately identifies actual advertising
effectiveness.

21. MRS code principles
researchers shall
1. ensure that participation in their activities is
based on voluntary informed consent
2. be straightforward and honest in all their
professional and business relationships
3. be transparent as to the subject and purpose
of data collection
4. respect the confidentiality of information
collected in their professional activities
5. respect the rights and well being of all
individuals

22. MRS code principles
6. ensure that respondents are not harmed or
adversely affected by their professional
activities
7. balance the needs of individuals, clients, and
their professional activities
8. exercise independent professional judgement in
the design, conduct and reporting of their
professional activities
9. ensure that their professional activities
are conducted by persons with appropriate
training, qualifications and experience
10. protect the reputation and integrity of the
profession

23. MRS code principles
6. ensure that respondents are not harmed or
adversely affected by their professional
activities
7. balance the needs of individuals, clients, and
their professional activities
8. exercise independent professional judgement in
the design, conduct and reporting of their
professional activities
9. ensure that their professional activities
are conducted by persons with appropriate
training, qualifications and experience
10. protect the reputation and integrity of the
profession
goods or services, or
vouchers to purchase client
goods or services, must not
be used as incentives in a
research project

24. DMU conduct principles
™ voluntary
™ autonomy - not coerced or misled
™ informed consent / language
™ awareness of recording equipment / invasiveness
™ anonymity
™ all stages of research
™ express permission for participation
™ explanation of research process
™ harm / consequences
™ understand implications
™ injury? How this is mitigated
™ children / young people
™ under age of consent > adult permission/supervision
needed
™ researcher identity

25. contemporary considerations
™ harms-benefits analysis
™ social / psychological / emotional /environmental / economic
™ conflict of interest
™ inclusiveness and justice
™ globalization / cultural sensitivity
™ multiple identities > online, offline
™ privacy/confidentiality in context of surveillance society
™ digital manipulation (eg., photography, other media)
™ PBR > experiential, user embedded, relational, interactive
™ >>> practical implications for design of research

26. scenario : iBeacon
• App, used in conjunction with a third-party iBeacon or an iPad configured as an iBeacon
• An app from a company on your device – when installed (eg., Walmart shopping app) you
allow it access to your location
• It is an ‘opt in’ system - the app and iBeacons enable pushes of ‘micro-location’-based
alerts eg., to shoppers about deals or particular sections of the store
• The beacons do this by using ‘ranging’ based on Bluetooth signal strength to determine
physical location
• Useful for indoor mapping (and retail)
http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/07/the-open-secret-of-ibeacon-apple-could-have-250m-units-in-the-wild-by-2014/

27. PBR : ethical challenges?
™ What are key issues for
practice-based research?

28. PBR : creative’s dilemma
™ Framing of experience
™ Nature of consent
™ Treatment of personal
and scientific data
™ Safety and risk
management
™ Deliberately causing
discomfort
™ Engaging bystanders in
public settings
http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Act-Otherwise-2013-Report.pdf

29. scenario : creative’s dilemma
™ control and openness
™ illusion of choice
™ devices and space
™ narrative, story and
tension
™ openness and boundaries
™ transgression
™ visceral experiences
™ levels of experience
™ interactions and endings
™ systems and models of
oppenness
™ rules vs flexibility
™ due diligence
™ audience participation
with work
http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Act-Otherwise-2013-Report.pdf

30. conclusions
• Key to ethics is harm vs benefits analysis
• University regulations
• Principals of ethical conduct in research process
• PBR > design considerations for complex
interrelationships between practice, research
questions and participants