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

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]