4 October 2011
Dundee to take part in international identity management study
Researchers from the University of Dundee are among a team of academics from UK universities sharing in a £1.36million grant to examine future technologies of identity management.
The three-year IMPRINTS project will be led by Professor Liesbet van Zoonen of Loughborough University, alongside colleagues from Dundee, Essex and Northumbria. It is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). An additional grant has been awarded by the Department of Homeland Security in America to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to simultaneously conduct the study in the US.
IMPRINTS (Identity Management: Public Responses to Identity Technologies and Services) aims to assess how and why the UK and US public will engage with particular future practices, services and technologies of identity management, while resisting others.
Iris and full-body scans, and face or voice recognition have already become well-known practices, but innovations like implantable chips, odour scans, online ‘object’-passwords and mobile identity-sharing are on the horizon. It is unclear whether and why members of the public will embrace these innovations or reject them.
The Dundee aspect of the project will be led by award-winning jewellery designer Dr Sandra Wilson, from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, part of the University. Dr Wilson will be responsible for exploring responses to identity management in art and design.
She said, 'It is in art and design that we often find examples of resistance to new technologies, services and experiences for example artveillance or sousveillance art that draws to the public's attention issues such as loss of privacy, and the increasing power associated with these processes.
'Through the project we also aim to enable different communities to voice their opinions and support the creation of new more acceptable and pleasurable forms of identity management.'
Professor Van Zoonen, Chair of Media and Communications at Loughborough, explained, 'There is a peculiar paradox between the eager sharing of personal details on social network sites, and the deep anxieties about, for instance, biometric identification or a national identity card.
'In this project we aim to gain a better understanding of such anxieties and appetites, and understand the way citizens will respond to new identity management technologies, services and practices in order to promote trustworthy and pleasurable processes of identity verification.'
To achieve this understanding, researchers will work with stakeholders from civil society and government, security and commercial sectors in both the UK and US.
Because of the rapid advance in identity management technologies, services and practices (IM-TSP), the research team will draw upon future scenarios as presented in film, literature, consumer trend reports, policy reports, research, and security exploration to first map out the expected landscape of identity management.
A range of interview stimuli including online avatars and art installations will be used to probe taboos and desires among the public. The research will then produce bespoke instruments for interactive policy, prototype and design development.
The project brings together experts in design, computer science, political science, media, psychology, sociology, and risk management, and findings will inform future government and security policy on identity management and its implementation, as well as provide resources for further research.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
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