The Participants

Abstract

While universities increasingly offer institutional support for academic filmmaking, in the specific case of ethics this support can sometimes become an impediment to creativity. The requirement to follow comprehensive university ethical procedures - which are usually developed with great care and attention to the needs of researchers but with little or no focus on creative practice research - might stymie the artistic practice of filmmakers. My video The Participants: a reflection on the ethics of smartphone filmmaking as research aims to offer a provocation intended to challenge university practitioner-researchers to consider the ethics of their practice, but also, at the same time, a provocation to university ethics protocols and procedures. Specifically, the films seeks to encourage the viewer to reflect on the ways in which filmmaker researchers working in in public places might better consider the ethical issues raised by their practice, especially when subsequently employing (and manipulating) footage of individuals who have not given their consent to be filmed. For The Participants I used an iPhone 11 to capture video images of tourists videoing with their smartphones at Grand Central Station, New York.