Ethnographic Eye-Tracking Interviews: Analyzing Visual Perception and Practices of Looking

Authors

  • Christoph Bareither Universität Tübingen
  • Sarah Ullrich Universität Tübingen
  • Katharina Geis Humboldt Universität zu Berlin

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-25.2.4165

Keywords:

eye tracking, interviews, ethnography, visual perception, museum, images, digital technologies

Abstract

In this article, we present methods for the use of eye-tracking in interviews in order to reflect on visual perception and practices of looking as part of an ethnography of the senses. The methods are based on two multi-year ethnographic studies involving eye trackers. In the first one, researchers used mobile eye trackers to study how art museum visitors approach digital image technologies. In the other, they relied on stationary eye trackers to investigate practices on digital image platforms. We discuss how video recordings of participants' eye movements were made and describe the process of conducting ethnographic interviews based on the videos. The eye-tracking interviews can be used 1. to make participants aware of and think about practices of looking; 2. to verbalize in dialogue sensory and interpretative processes regarding museum objects and digital image technologies; and 3. to surface individuals' aesthetic preferences and incorporated knowledge.

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Author Biographies

Christoph Bareither, Universität Tübingen

Christoph BAREITHER is professor of cultural anthropology and digital anthropology at the University of Tübingen. In his work, he focuses on the ethnographic study of digital everyday cultures. His aim is to shed light on the transformations of everyday practices and experiences in the course of digitalization—social media, digital image technologies, computer games, machine learning—and to contribute thereby to pressing socio-political debates.

Sarah Ullrich, Universität Tübingen

Sarah ULLRICH is a postdoctoral researcher at the Ludwig Uhland Institute of Historical and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Tübingen. Previously, she was a PhD researcher in the DFG-funded project "Curating Digital Images: Ethnographic Perspectives on the Affordances of Digital Images in Heritage and Museum Contexts" at the Ludwig Uhland Institute and the Institute for European Ethnology at the Humboldt University of Berlin. In her research, she has focused on digital aestheticization at the junction of museum spaces and image-centric social media platforms. In her current project, "Blickwinkel: Eine kooperative Projektinitiative zu kreativer Kunstvermittlung und digitaler Teilhabe," funded by an innovation grant from the University of Tübingen, she transfers the findings of her ethnographic work to museum practice.

Katharina Geis, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin

Katharina GEIS is a doctoral student at the Institute for European Ethnology at the Humboldt University of Berlin. She was a PhD researcher in the DFG-funded project "Curating Digital Images: Ethnographic Perspectives on the Affordances of Digital Images in Heritage and Museum Contexts" at the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage. In her research, she focuses on digital museum work and the users of digital collection databases. In her dissertation, she examines how digital images from online museum databases are used in everyday life and curated on social media, and which modes of knowledge are created in the process.

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Published

2024-05-29

How to Cite

Bareither, C., Ullrich, S., & Geis, K. (2024). Ethnographic Eye-Tracking Interviews: Analyzing Visual Perception and Practices of Looking: . Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 25(2). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-25.2.4165

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 2 (2024)

Section

Single Contributions

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Copyright (c) 2024 Christoph Bareither, Sarah Ullrich, Katharina Geis

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