CRITICAL SEEING: using film, ethnographic, and deliberative methods to form multimodal representations of ICU decision-making dispute, and to model practices of conflict reduction

Deciding whether to continue intensive care is increasingly complex. Mismatched expectations and cultural differences often lead to conflict between clinicians and families—sometimes ending in court, where rulings are inconsistent and rarely establish clear precedent. Many families experience moral injury and clinical staff face burnout from protracted disputes. Better policy and processes are needed, but these require deeper understanding from all parties of the intricacies, benefits, and potential harms of modern ICU treatments. Traditional survey methods are limited in their ability to represent dispute complexity. Our vision is to unite intensive care experts, patient groups, nurses, and legal professionals through the multimodal practices of film, ethnography, and citizen science, to foster more meaningful engagement. Using observational, deliberative, participatory, and reenactment techniques, we will record the emotional and procedural dynamics of ICU decisions, encourage critical dialogue among stakeholders and with the wider public, and model alternative conflict‑resolution methods. Our outputs include a shareable toolkit and online materials, a feature film, and a multiscreen installation. The aim is to discover better ways of communicating the social, legal, ethical, and cultural dimensions underpinning ICU conflict, in order to facilitate new approaches to reducing its incidence and the harms that arise.