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Charting Ethical Tensions in Multispecies Technology Research through Beneficiary-Epistemology Space

Steve Benford, Clara Mancini, Alan Chamberlain, Eike Schneiders, Simon Castle-Green, Joel Fischer, Ayse Kucukyilmaz, Guido Salimbeni, Victor Ngo, Pepita Barnard, Matt Adams, Nick Tandavanitj, Ju Row Farr

TL;DR

Cat Royale navigates an unusually complex ethical approval process by integrating an artist-led multispecies project with Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI). The authors introduce the beneficiary-epistemology space to map who benefits and what knowledge is considered valid across disciplines, using three IRBs (AWERB, CSREC, CARE) as focal points. The study highlights internal and external tensions among beneficiaries, epistemologies, and institutional norms, and demonstrates how explicit framing and advisory expertise can improve future ethics practice. The work offers a practical framework for ethical review of multispecies technology research with potential applicability to broader non-human stakeholders.

Abstract

While ethical challenges are widely discussed in HCI, far less is reported about the ethical processes that researchers routinely navigate. We reflect on a multispecies project that negotiated an especially complex ethical approval process. Cat Royale was an artist-led exploration of creating an artwork to engage audiences in exploring trust in autonomous systems. The artwork took the form of a robot that played with three cats. Gaining ethical approval required an extensive dialogue with three Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) covering computer science, veterinary science and animal welfare, raising tensions around the welfare of the cats, perceived benefits and appropriate methods, and reputational risk to the University. To reveal these tensions we introduce beneficiary-epistemology space, that makes explicit who benefits from research (humans or animals) and underlying epistemologies. Positioning projects and IRBs in this space can help clarify tensions and highlight opportunities to recruit additional expertise.

Charting Ethical Tensions in Multispecies Technology Research through Beneficiary-Epistemology Space

TL;DR

Cat Royale navigates an unusually complex ethical approval process by integrating an artist-led multispecies project with Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI). The authors introduce the beneficiary-epistemology space to map who benefits and what knowledge is considered valid across disciplines, using three IRBs (AWERB, CSREC, CARE) as focal points. The study highlights internal and external tensions among beneficiaries, epistemologies, and institutional norms, and demonstrates how explicit framing and advisory expertise can improve future ethics practice. The work offers a practical framework for ethical review of multispecies technology research with potential applicability to broader non-human stakeholders.

Abstract

While ethical challenges are widely discussed in HCI, far less is reported about the ethical processes that researchers routinely navigate. We reflect on a multispecies project that negotiated an especially complex ethical approval process. Cat Royale was an artist-led exploration of creating an artwork to engage audiences in exploring trust in autonomous systems. The artwork took the form of a robot that played with three cats. Gaining ethical approval required an extensive dialogue with three Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) covering computer science, veterinary science and animal welfare, raising tensions around the welfare of the cats, perceived benefits and appropriate methods, and reputational risk to the University. To reveal these tensions we introduce beneficiary-epistemology space, that makes explicit who benefits from research (humans or animals) and underlying epistemologies. Positioning projects and IRBs in this space can help clarify tensions and highlight opportunities to recruit additional expertise.
Paper Structure (24 sections, 2 figures)

This paper contains 24 sections, 2 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Ethical processes within HCI
  4. Ethical review process in artist-led HCI
  5. Ethical review and disciplinary assumptions in ACI
  6. A Brief Introduction to Cat Royale
  7. The design of Cat Royale
  8. The experience of Cat Royale
  9. Cat Royale's Ethical Review Process
  10. Initial internal ethical discussions
  11. Discussions with the Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body (AWERB)
  12. Discussions with the Computer Science Research Ethics Committee (CSREC)
  13. Discussions with the Committee for Animals and Research Ethics (CARE)
  14. Discussion: Revealing Ethical Tensions
  15. Beneficiary-epistemology space
  16. ...and 9 more sections

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: The the three cats (Clover, Pumpkin, and Ghostbuster) playing with a toy (left) and the robot arm lifting the feather helicopter toy from the rack (right)
  • Figure 2: Beneficiary-epistemology space reveals the disciplinary alignment of Cat Royale and its three IRBs and hence the tensions in its ethical review process.