Eye gaze in musical interaction

During ensemble playing, musicians are challenged to convey their intentions towards each other and to coordinate their actions. To that purpose, they can rely on several nonverbal means of expression: the produced musical sounds, bodily movements, facial expressions and—the focus of this research—gaze. Since the 1990s, researchers have increasingly investigated the bodily aspects of musical performance. While the study of ensemble interaction initially benefitted solely from the examination of bodily movements, more recently, it is getting enriched by inquiries into gaze behaviour as well (Biasutti et al., 2016; Bishop et al., 2019a; Fulford & Ginsborg, 2014; Fulford et al., 2018; Kawase, 2009, 2014a, 2014b; King & Ginsborg, 2011; Moran, 2010; Morgan et al., 2015a, 2015b; Vandemoortele et al., 2015, 2016; Williamon & Davidson, 2002; Yamada et al., 2014). The current research was encouraged by the recent development of mobile eye-tracking, and involved pioneering work in the newly emerging domain of gaze in musical interaction. Novel insights were gained through observational and self-observational study, which, respectively, dealt with partner-gazing as an externally observable phenomenon and the musician-researcher's personal conceptions of gaze as a communicative instrument in ensemble playing. Specifically, a mobile eye-tracking experiment with four trios, a mobile eye-tracking experiment with the researcher's trio, and a self-reflective study in the researcher's chamber music practice formed the basis for a wide range of analyses. The results can be summarised according to three categories of insights. Psychological factors, a first category, were the focus in two analyses in the observational eye-tracking study. These dealt with the impact of the individual and the rehearsal stage on the amount of partner-gazing, and the relation between partner-gazing and the compositional form. Insights into ensemble playing as a multimodal issue form a second category. Specifically, an analysis as part of the observational eye-tracking study verified if leader-follower roles before a joint entrance can be derived from the way gaze and bodily movement are interwoven. The self-reflective study supplements the findings with insights from the researcher's own practice. Finally, the self-reflective study also shows how gaze can be activated in a broad range of unique situations. Gaze can become relevant in response to a great number of ensemble goals related to the interaction among the musicians, stage presence, and individual needs. These goals can overlap or conflict with each other with respect to gaze. Moreover, one can monitor several physical aspects of partner-gazing in case one deliberately activates gaze. For instance, a musician can regulate the duration of a partner-gaze or avoid unnecessary head movements while changing gaze direction. Thanks to its wide range of analyses, the dissertation invites new lines of thought and research regarding a subject which has hitherto remained underexplored in both the literature and chamber music practice. Gaze in ensemble playing is often a matter of automatic, non-deliberate behaviour, so that it is easy to consider it an unimportant aspect of ensemble playing. This research, however, shows that it most certainly plays a sophisticated role in various practice situations.status: accepte