Side EffectsInvestigating Research Ethics inVisual & Performing Arts Matt Hargrave & Sylvia Ellis

What if we were to disregard the ‘side effects’ of our performances, our installations, or our photographs? In a media saturated society the performing and visual arts are ever more concerned with the live event: these art forms are designed to affect the living in real time. They are often the result of highly personal and affective creative processes; and they implicate audiences, both as observers and participants. The guiding research question of this project is: How do we teach undergraduates about research and practice as research in a way that enables them to think reflexively about its potential impact – its side effects?There is perhaps a tendency both in the creation of art and in the doing of research to wish that ethics were indeed something that could be ‘done by phone’. In this resource pack you will find forms, administrative procedures, checklists, glossaries of complex words: in short, all things that appear to get in the way of making that installation or working with this community group. At their best they can seem like a nuisance and at worst like a sort of ‘thought police’ putting your project at risk. We want to suggest that, used thoughtfully, these procedures are in fact a helpful starting point for a rich subject specific ethical framework.

Outcome 1: a step by step guide to research ethics in performing and visual arts

Outcome 2: collaboration with PALATINE research project, Ethics in Applied Drama. With Frances Rifkin, Utopia Arts and Bill McDonnell, Sheffield Universityhttp://www.palatine.ac.uk/development-awards/. The main outcome will be a set of ethical guidelines for use in the HE curriculum, in teaching. In HE the guidelines will raise vocational awareness for students and in the world of employment support professionalism for practitioners.

Outcome 3: Student participation in the writing of a subject specifics code of ethics:

‘At the beginning, I thought that “ethics” was simply to do with the safety and well being of the participants and facilitator. I now can see that it is so much more. It is to do with every single decision, every belief or thought that you undertake, every action that you make, every activity that you ask your participants to partake in and every way that you ask them to do it. It involves planning, practice and evaluation, and comes into every aspect of your project.’ Third Year Drama Student

Outcome 6: Teaching materials and series of case studies:Who owns the research or the product of research?How do you ensure researcher safety?How do you negotiate competing project agendas?What is good practice?

Outcome 4: Enhanced bibliographic and resource information for undergraduates

Beech, Dave (2008) ‘Include me out!’, Art Monthly, no. 315, pp.28-9

Bishop, Claire (2006) ‘The social turn: collaboration and its discontents’, Artforum International, Vol. XLIV, No. 6Hughes J (2005)'Ethical cleansing? The process of gaining 'ethical approval' for a new research project exploring performance in place of war' Research in Drama Education 10:2 229-232 McDonnell, B. (2005) ‘The politics of historiography- towards an ethics of representation’ in Research in Drama Education, Vol 10: 2, 127 - 138Shaugnessy, N. (2005) Truth and lies: exploring the ethics of performance applications in Research in Drama Education Vol 10: 2, 201 – 212Research Ethics in Art, Design and Media - http://www.biad.uce.ac.uk/research/rti/ethics/

Outcome 5: Conference Papers & Enhanced staff research activity:Hargrave, M. (2009) Provocation paper: ‘Theatre, disability and the crisis of identification’ at TaPRA Study Day , The Aesthetics of Uncertainty’ at Manchester University

‘(Rese

arch has)

frequently

experience

d a sense

of

colla

psing voca

bulary –

where th

e language w

e

have used, o

r the prin

ciples

we have advocated have

colla

psed in

the fa

ce of o

ur

experience

s and w

here it

has been im

possible to

advocate a se

t of fi

xed

princip

les. ’

Jenny Hughes,

Theatre in

Place of W

ar

‘…at the time of

Needleman’s death he was

working on several things.

He was creating an Ethics,

based on his theory that

‘good and just behaviour is

not only more moral but

could be done by phone.’

•

Woody Allen

‘…th

e s

o-c

alle

d

pati

ent

does

the

diffi

cult

thin

g

- ta

lks

of

the t

hin

gs

that

trouble

him

and t

he s

o-c

alle

d

analy

st t

ake

s th

e

fall

out.

B

oth

the

pati

ent

and t

he

analy

st a

re t

he

reci

pie

nts

of

these

si

de e

ffect

s, o

f all

the t

hin

gs

said

and

implie

d a

nd

unin

tended…

‘

A

dam

Phill

ips

‘…to

pra

ctise

eth

ically

and

to w

rite

ethi

cally

abou

t tha

t pra

ctice

…to

write

with a

refle

xive

awar

enes

s of t

hose

class

subj

ectiv

ities

,

cultu

ral a

nd id

eolo

gica

l

belie

fs a

nd v

alue

s, an

d

stru

ctur

es o

f thi

nkin

g

and

feel

ing…

’ Bill

McD

onne

ll