Digital Technology and Human Vulnerability: Towards an Ethical Film Praxis

数字电影技术，以其看似亲密和无限的能力，为越来越多的观众上演他人的痛苦，改变了观看者与脆弱者之间的遭遇。虽然在电影理论、媒体和艺术的争论中，这种“伦理”遭遇是很多讨论的主题，但研究人员还没有充分考虑数字在其中的影响，从业者也缺乏详细的伦理准则，远远超出了基本的同意或良好做法的问题。这项研究探索并反思了数字技术的使用如何改变我们对人类脆弱性的接触、理解和回应。在这项初步研究中，该团队将与伯明翰厄丁顿约翰·泰勒临终关怀中心的一组弱势成年人合作，共同制作数字电影。这个电影制作项目与艺术治疗和临终关怀中心的福祉团队联系在一起，并由其提供信息，将为参与者提供即时的治疗益处，但也将通过作为研究的一部分开发的数字空间--在线互动网站和展览--对所有利益攸关方产生持久的影响，并将这些电影和材料带给更广泛和新的受众。伦理问题是这项研究的核心，不仅因为它涉及脆弱的成年人，还因为它依赖于关于在电影理论、教育和艺术实践以及全球伦理辩论中调解他人痛苦的伦理讨论。由从业人员和研究人员组成的多学科团队将共同努力，通过最初的知识交流讲习班、每月审查会议以及为网站和展览的发展作出贡献，确定、分享和应用各自领域与人类脆弱性接触所固有的伦理问题。通过所有这些，这项研究将为数字艺术和媒体研究人员和从业人员开发一个伦理电影实践的原型模型，以便在第三部门得到更广泛的应用，并作为进一步研究发展的基础，特别是为这项先导研究启动的更大的项目奠定基础。

Digital film technology, in its seemingly intimate and infinite capacities to stage the suffering of others for an ever wider audience, has transformed the encounter between those watching and the vulnerable other. While this 'ethical' encounter is the subject of much discussion within film theory, and media and arts debates, researchers are yet to consider fully the impact of the digital within it, and practitioners lack detailed ethical guidelines that move far beyond basic questions of consent or good practice. This research explores and reflects upon how the use of digital technologies transforms our engagement with, understanding of, and response to human vulnerability. For this pilot study, the team will work with one group of vulnerable adults, those affected by terminal illness at the John Taylor Hospice in Erdington, Birmingham, to co-create digital films. This filmmaking project, linked to and informed by Art therapy and the wellbeing team at the hospice, will provide immediate therapeutic benefits for the participants but will also have enduring impact, for all stakeholders, through the digital spaces that will be developed as part of the research-the online interactive website and the exhibition-and which will bring these films and materials to wider and new audiences. Ethical issues are at the heart of this research not simply because it involves vulnerable adults, but because it depends upon ethical discussions about the mediation of the suffering of others within film theory, educational and arts practice and global ethics debate. The multi-disciplinary team of practitioners and researchers will work together to identify, share and apply the ethical issues inherent to engaging with human vulnerability from their respective fields through an initial knowledge exchange workshop, monthly review meetings and through contributing to the development of the website and the exhibition. Through all these the research will develop a prototypical model of ethical film praxis for digital arts and media researchers and practitioners, for broader application for the third sector but also as the foundation for further research development and in particular for the larger project that this pilot study initiates.