Week4: Ethical Review
- Hannah Rees
- Jun 21, 2021
- 7 min read
Ethical Review
Implement feedback from webinar into PDF
Friday submission doc
Reflect on feedback given from Phase 1 pdf
research into ethical considerations and graphical style??
Update on Week 4 developments
I had a reply from two of the leaders of YDW – both saying it’s a great idea and one designer, Jai, has offered to speak to me on Zoom to discuss the frameworks needed and the potential for rolling out this idea in line with THIS YEAR’s YDW.
Ok, so mild panic and delight at the thought of this becoming a reality – and in under 4 months, but they seem to think it’s do-able.
It’d be so fantastic to be able to work with them to create this, and even just to have a workshop space where I can speak to many different people about climate change.
So, this leads me into the ethical considerations needed – initially I was thinking there wasn’t much for me to consider, only that i’ll be leading workshops groups but with this potentially becoming a reality, I have a lot more to think about. I’ve recreated the Ethical Review form, I felt I needed more space to be able to go into more detail.
Ethical Review
After the email from Jai, I realised the initial ethics review I’d written on the original document supplied by the University wasn’t detailed enough and I needed to look at my work properly and correctly. This could now become a reality and my quick review I’d written just didn’t cut it.
After recreating the document, I felt able to really give enough detail and information to consider the full ethical impacts of my project.
Draft Treatment
This was fairly easy to write out as not much has changed from last week – however, I have the email from YDW and this will be the biggest change in the next few weeks, so, granted, things will change.
However, this is a draft treatment and a draft framework and is something to help guide us and keep us on path for this project.
I wanted to start looking into a graphical display for this project, as it’s something I want to work on and spend time getting right. I’m so far just looking at creating a very green and vibrant colour display, in order for the positivity of this project to shine through. It’s not all doom and gloom!
I’ve chosen the title “Climate Change : Their Future, Our Choices” and I feel this succinctly represents this project and it’s aims. Of course, it’s again subject to change! I also didn’t know how “researchy” to make this brief, as there wasn’t much space – I’ve been reading a lot and educating myself on this topic and I feel that perhaps the aims and objectives could have been more of a powerful paragraph to portray the necessity of this work… Or maybe I’m just reading too much into this draft treatment!
Critical Path
So this was another sector where I didn’t know quite how in-depth to take it… At this current stage, my work is very much in the early stages and so a strict critical path is quite difficult to do. I’m sure after the feedback this week this will be adapted and developed but so far it’s something to work towards, as vague as it may be!
Feedback
Research Question:
Your research question is ambitious and tackles a fundamental problem. However, you must reduce/reframe it to help you move forward with your project. The term ‘design’ encompasses too many disciplines for anyone to be able to address them all. Even reduced to ‘graphic design’, the question still needs reframing to reflect what you are describing in your document. Are you really attempting to find a worldwide, one-size-fits all solution?
I definitely know my research question is vague and all encompassing – I need to really consider what we are attempting to answer here, it’s not a huge solution being offered here, but a consideration of the future and predictions cast.
In your document, you refer to local communities, designers and business owners, which makes me think you want to create a project tailored to a specific (local) audience, and this could be reflected in the question. Furthermore, it sounds like you are interested in three specific outputs which are workshops, exhibitions, and film. These three media point to different directions: social interaction, mediation, and storytelling. You could flip your approach and start from your desired outcome to try and refine your research question.
Locality is important here – bringing it back to York would be a vital part of the project in order to make people really aware of the situation that would occur locally. So much of what we se and learn about with Climate Change is how it affects other areas/other people and not so much in our own local environment. I also really need to think about the outcome for this project, from a Masters Perspective. i.e. yes, I’ll be creating a project with York Design Week, but I also need to look at how I’ll be recording or showing peoples reactions in line with the requirements for this degree
Another key aspect to consider is that you should be able to answer the question with your project, and I am not sure you would be able to in this case: it is a problem that generations of designers have attempted to solve without much success. Many people are aware of the climate catastrophe yet fail to change their lifestyle. Try and write a question to which you can successfully answer.
An example of a format which successfully managed to change people’s lifestyles was the citizen’s climate assembly: https://www.climateassembly.uk
Here participants reflect on the experience
Aim / Objective / Purpose:
Again, your overview is ambitious, perhaps too ambitious – how can anyone hope to work with all sectors? Maybe you could name the specific sectors you intend on working with, and their geographical location.
I think narrowing down on the sectors I want to work with is important here – I don’t think I can take on everything I’ve proposed here
The objectives are more specific, which is good. I feel like the objectives could form the starting point to then develop the aim and purpose more precisely. What is it about your project that makes it different from a Greenpeace / XR / Practical Action / Future Earth campaign? What makes you feel confident that workshops, exhibitions and film are the most appropriate answers to your question?
Again, working backwards from my projected outcome I think will really narrow down my research question and help me understand my exact targets.
Target Audience:
You can be more specific in your target audience: we already know you want to connect with local designers, business owners and local communities. I am assuming the visitors to the exhibition will thus also be local to York. People would presumably also have to be interested in York Design Week. This means a certain socio-cultural category of people – young, with some degree of education, probably not primarily families with young children. Unless you imagine different contexts for the workshops, exhibition and film (primary schools? Market stalls? Etc.).
There is a definite local theme here and I want to keep this in mind. Based on the previous couple of years of York Design Week, a lot of the attendees were either young professionals with an interest in design, or young families wanting to do something different during half term. It runs for a week and involves a lot of different people which is the most valuable aspect here. Of course, i’d also run into a lot of tourists and people who want to have a chat about this, but that’s just as valuable, we want to start that conversation with people.
Written submission:
It makes sense to think about a written proposal so you can share the result of your academic research in the relationship between graphic design and climate change activism. However, I would also encourage you to think about what kind of practical output you could submit. Workshops, film and exhibition are great material to submit as part of a well-rounded submission composed of theory and practice. On the other hand, I am not certain that a business proposal is the most appropriate way to include your proposal for York Design Week. The project you would submit may offer more depth and interest.
I definitely know I want to submit a film, I’m hoping I can record the project at York Design Week and record peoples reactions to include in this film. I just don’t know what kind of projection it would have on this work, and that’s what I need to understand fully. I agree also that a business proposal probably might not be an appropriate consideration.
Research:
The challenge will be to understand the latest research on climate change, which according to some academics is biased to not sound too catastrophic (e.g. Jim Bendell and Deep Adaptation theories); but also, the latest in graphic design/exhibition/workshops/films used to convince and incentivize people to act differently; and then to convey both in a way that is novel / interesting.
I agree with this point, I just don’t think right now I really know what sort of film I’d be able to create, and I really need to focus the next few weeks on speaking to experts. Trying to get non-biased opinions could also be tricky.
Using interviews is an effective way of getting to know your audience, but it may not be where you find the best quality research on climate change and/or design.
Ethical Considerations: At this point it seems like you have considered ethics. As your project progresses it may be necessary to revise these. For instance, how necessary is it for you to record interviews? This can be addressed at a later stage.
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