2nd of September 2022 - Consent Forms

Before beginning this blog I was wondering whether or not I should submit this collage/painting to the first crit of 4th Year. My confusion arose from the fact that I had initially created it for a competition and used photographs of old artwork in it, and some Hamma bead creations made by my youngest sister. In order to find the answer to my queries, I emailed one of my professors who informed me that since it was just the summer project it would be allowed. Nevertheless, I should make sure to document what is from previous and other people's work.


With this in mind, I would like to highlight these key pieces of the collage and where they came from:

1. The orange square features a square of tracing paper with dots drawn using a black G-tec C4 fine liner. I cut and folded them into shape during my second year of fine art undergraduate studies at Newcastle University in the zine-making and book-binding strand with Theresa Easton when I was learning how to make Turkish Map folded zines. 

2. The blue squares highlight photographs either of or from my GCSE or A-level years in secondary school.

3. The two red squares frame the Hamma bead creations made by my youngest sister.

 More importantly, I should make sure that I have a written consent form signed by my younger sister - documenting whether or not she is ok with her creations being included in my college. When formatting the consent form I referenced: 

> https://www.a-n.co.uk/conversations/artists-consent-form/ 

(Fenwick 2015)

> http://www.hra-decisiontools.org.uk/consent/examples.html

("Examples - Consent And Participant Information Sheet Preparation Guidance." 2022)

Though the last two website concern consent forms in more of a medical context as opposed to an art context, it was still useful what reccomendations they gave for adapting consent forms to children. These pertained to things like including pictures or drawings, nice fonts, and simple language. 

> https://www.ncl.ac.uk/research/researchgovernance/ethics/ethicstoolkit/toolkithumans/

("Human Participation - Research - Newcastle University" 2022)

This website was a comprehensive list of things to consider when involving others in one's research, and obtaining someone's informed consent. Indeed  I found the clarification on how exactley to inform a participant in one's work the most useful. This subsection of the webpage served as a reminder to give time to my younger sister to really think about whether she wanted to give her consent, or answer any questions she may have had. Lastly, it also advised that I should take to doubly reassure her that she has the right not to give her consent (both in writing and verbally), and what were to happen if she were to do so. Namely I would remove her creation from my collage and return it to her. 

My first draft (based largely off of the A-N artists consent form) appeared like this: 

Looking at the advice from the Medicines for Children's Research Network as linked to on the hra- decision tools website (Guidance Document For Researchers Designing Patient Information Leaflets 2022), I figured it would be better  to make the font different and add some colors. After some restructuring and recoloring, I came up with this:

I was 
I had been considering what pictures I should include in the consent form, and how they could clarify the text included within the consent form. After some deliberation I realised the best thing would be to hand-illustrate the consent form, this way I could customize the illustrations to this particular situation. Given the bespoke nature of such a consent form, I wonder if it would even be possible to call a hand-illustrated consent form an artwork unto itself. 

Knowing that the illustrations would take some time, I opted to show the consent forms to my sister and explain the process of informed consent to her, making clear to her this was optional and she did not have to sign if she did not want to. If she would rather I not use her Hamma bead creations, I could take them off of the collage. Whilst she would be considering whether she wanted to consent, I would complete the illustrations. In the end this time was not needed, as after I explained the process of informed consent, she came to the conclusion she would rather not have her Hamma bead creation in my artwork. I also made sure to ask her if she would be ok with me publicising her reasoning here or if she would rather keep it private, in the end she said she would rather her reasoning remain private and undisclosed. 

Interestingly, thriugh this discussion, I was surprised to find out that one of the Hamma bead creation I thought my sister had made, was actually made by me - according to her. Though I have no recollection of making it, it does at least mean that this twisty warped Hamma bead creation can stay on the collage. 


Whilst, I am sad to sad to see her Hama bead creation leave my artwork, I am glad at least that she felt able to say no to me, and as such I must honour her wishes. This experience will also be useful going forwards when I shall be asking others for informed consent, especially since my youngest sister said she actually preferred the first black & white draft consent form. Whilst my youngest sister is not representative of all children, I think her preference may indicate that for children of 12 years and above more formal looking consent forms may be more appealing.  I get the impression that she found the colours and comic sans rather condescending and patronizing, whereas the seemingly more plain Arial-fonted  consent form implies to her that she is mature enough to make her own decisions for herself - closer to the way an adult can. 

Part of me wonders if I had shown my younger sister the consent forms complete with the illustrations, would she have been more likely to give her consent and approval. Though there is no way of knowing the answer to this query now, and there is no way I can reverse time, I would still like to include what illustrations I would have used here for documentation purposes.



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Bibliography:

"Examples - Consent And Participant Information Sheet Preparation Guidance.". 2022. Hra-Decisiontools.Org.Uk. Accessed September 14. http://www.hra-decisiontools.org.uk/consent/examples.html.

Fenwick, Carole. 2015. "Artists Consent Form". A.N. https://www.a-n.co.uk/conversations/artists-consent-form/.

Guidance Document For Researchers Designing Patient Information Leaflets. 2022. Ebook. Medicines for Children Research Network (MCRN) Young Person's Advisory Group (YPAG). http://www.hra-decisiontools.org.uk/consent/examples.html.

"Human Participation - Research - Newcastle University". 2022. Ncl.Ac.Uk. https://www.ncl.ac.uk/research/researchgovernance/ethics/ethicstoolkit/toolkithumans/.


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