Doodling with the eye-tracker

Doodling with the eye-tracker (while drawing/doodling), 2021

The selected drawings below are the outcome of an exploration that transforms the gaze into a method of doodling with eye-tracking technology.
The idea of doodling with the eye-tracker coincided with doodling by hand, and eventually started to seep into mundane activities such as when brushing my teeth, staring at the bedroom ceiling or staring at the wall texture. I started the exploration of doodling with the eye-tracker after my 1st annual review that took place in September 2020, also following suggestions from my supervisory team.

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For this specific project, I wore the Pupil Core monocular eye-tracking headset while doodling/drawing using a pen and paper. These type of drawing exercises mostly took place around October 2020 – July 2021, and contributed towards a new way of drawing with the eye-tracker that differed from the initial drawing exercises of my hand that had concerned notions of observational drawing.

Anecdote:
When entering the second year of the practice research I attempted to break away from certain observational drawing conventions that had influenced most of the study, that mainly involved the exercises of delineating my hand and things in my apartment. The notion of doodling seemed to be a good way of exploring this, by eliminating pre-set parameters towards the methods of the practice.

The first doodling experiment consisted in simultaneously doodling with both the hand and eyes while wearing the Pupil Core monocular eye-tracker. The hand doodling took place on a green graph paper and a multi-coloured BIC pen was used as I intuitively found myself elaborating the hand doodle through the squares presented by the surface . Concurrently to this, I attempted to move my eyes into projects of doodling across the squared paper, with the intention of outputting an eye-tracking doodle.

The doodling exercise happened on different days throughout October 2020, which eventually prompted the use of different colours. The resulting eye-tracking data from the differing day was eventually developed into a drawing and given a corresponding colour to the doodle on paper, as the drawings were also superimposed.

Doodling with the eye-tracker while also mark-making on paper
A selection of individual eye-tracking doodle outcomes done on different days throughout October 2020
Digital drawings with eye-tracking
Pupil Core monocular eye-tracker, Pupil Player, Rhino 3D

Doodling with the eye-tracker while also mark-making on paper
Two digital video loops with eye-tracking complied throughout different days October 2020
Pupil Core monocular eye-tracker, Pupil Player, Rhino 3D

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Doodling with the eye-tracker while making a frottage of my room’s wall texture
October 2020
(Left) Eye-tracking doodle (10008 recorded points 81 seconds)
Pupil Core monocular eye-tracker, Pupil Player, Rhino 3D
(Right) Frottage
Pencil on graph paper
5.5 x 5.5cm

Doodling with the eye-tracker while making a frottage of my room’s wooden floor
October 2020
(Left) Eye-tracking doodle (9664 recorded points 78 seconds)
Pupil Core monocular eye-tracker, Pupil Player, Rhino 3D
(Right) Frottage
Pencil on graph paper
5.5 x 5.5cm

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Anecdote:
In April 2021 I travelled from Edinburgh to Malta and had to quarantine for fifteen days due to the COVID-19 regulations at the time. Being confined within a space for a number of days is disorienting. The concept of the passing of time fluctuates.

While in quarantine I kept myself active and further explored the eye-tracking doodling exercises. One of the exercises consisted in doodling each passing day on my calendar planner, while also wearing the eye-tracker in order to contemporarily doodle with my eyes. The hand drawing was made with a BIC multi-coloured pen and the Pupil Core monocular model was used for the eye-tracking drawing. The data was later developed into drawings with Pupil Player, Rhino 7 and Grasshopper. I did this exercise for the first 9 days of the quarantine (out of 15), as at a certain point it became too time consuming.

The images above illustrate (from left to right): The doodled planner page, The 22nd April eye-tracking doodle, The 23rd April eye-tracking doodle, The 24th April eye-tracking doodle, The 25th April eye-tracking doodle, The 26th April eye-tracking doodle, The 27th April eye-tracking doodle, The 28th April eye-tracking doodle, The 29th April eye-tracking doodle, The 30th April eye-tracking doodle.
The animation below represents a superimposition of all the resulting eye-tracking doodles.

Doodling with the eye-tracker during quarantine
Digital video loop representing a superimposition of the resulting eye-tracking doodles
Pupil Core monocular eye-tracker, Pupil Player, Rhino 3D

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Eye-tracking doodle while brushing my teeth (19062 recorded points 154 seconds), October 2020
Digital drawing with eye-tracking
Pupil Core monocular eye-tracker, Pupil Player, Rhino 3D

Eye-tracking doodling while brushing my teeth, November 2020
Two digital video loops with eye-tracking
Pupil Core monocular eye-tracker, Pupil Player, Rhino 3D