[Air-L] avatar research ethics

[Radhika Gajjala]

exactly.
could we study the puppet - inert?
what would be the point?
textual analysis and semiotic analysis does have a point - but we dont  
ever really get IRB permission for that...
so its the methodology that leads to the need or not?

On Mar 8, 2008, at 8:02 AM, Steve Jones wrote:

> The puppet/puppeteer analogy is an interesting one. Indeed, what if
> one were studying a puppet? Would human subjects approval be
> necessary? Where does one draw the line? The study of the puppet,
> inert, we might presume to not be study of a human subject (although
> maybe the puppet is in some way an "artifact" representing its maker
> and one would be required to have human subjects approval?). The study
> of the puppet as a "medium" for interaction with the puppeteer we
> might presume to be study of a human subject (that is, a study of the
> puppeteer via the puppet) but a) to what degree, if at all, does the
> puppet "represent" the puppeteer? and b) what if the puppet had some
> agency of its own? Then there's the study of the puppet engaged in a
> play. Perhaps the play is entirely scripted, perhaps it is entirely
> improvised, or it is somewhere in-between. Is the study in any case
> human subjects research?
>
> Sj
>