Paper short abstract:

Based on my experience of applying this technique in the context of the HANDMADE project I will be discussing how I see, as a psychologist, the potential that mobile eye tracking has for the cross-disciplinary study of embodied skilled material practices.

Paper long abstract:

The development of mobile eye-tracking allows experimentation with different types of eye movements ‘in the wild’ while action happens in real time. Based on my experience of applying this technique in the context of the HANDMADE project I will be discussing how I see, as a psychologist, the potential that it has for the cross-disciplinary study of embodied skilled material practices. In the context of the HANDMADE project mobile eye-tracking was used, in conjunction with other visual methods, to capture movement and to understand how the eye of the potter touches the clay. Mobile eye-tracking allowed the tracking of the eye’s pathway (made of fixations and saccades) in relation to the pathways of the hand. This can help anthropologists understand the temporality of making and the correspondences between sight and touch.