The Ethical Companion – Emerging Conversations on Conscience and Trust

Emerging technologies are reshaping creative, educational, and professional practices. Yet their opaque nature raises ethical concerns around transparency, manipulation, and accountability. Current responses often focus on regulation and technical safeguards, while ethical awareness among professionals remains limited and disconnected from practice.
This Professional Doctorate (PD) trajectory addresses this gap by creating The Ethical Companion, an interactive, multimodal screen-based artwork that serves as both a research instrument and a teaching tool. Conceived as an artistic installation, it transforms abstract ethical dilemmas—such as bias, authorship, and privacy—into tangible, sensory experiences. Through these encounters, the work invites students, educators, and the public to engage in critical reflection and dialogue about emerging technologies.
The project applies a Research-through-Design methodology, integrating artistic experimentation, iterative prototyping, and participatory engagement within a living lab at Inholland University of Applied Sciences. Students from creative, technological, and educational disciplines will co-create the installation, generating insights into interdisciplinary collaboration and ethics-driven learning.
Expected Outcomes:
An interactive installation as a public artwork and catalyst for dialogue on digital rights and societal implications.
An educational framework embedding experiential ethics into curricula through scenario-based tools and collaborative formats.
Design principles for ethically aware Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and creative practice.
This trajectory advances knowledge in education, HCI, and the arts by operationalizing ethics in real-world contexts. It demonstrates how multimodal interaction can make ethical tensions emotionally resonant and informs design practice through participatory and value-sensitive approaches. Collaborations with Nxt Museum and CHI Nederland ensure relevance across cultural and professional domains.