ABSTRACT
Sensory probes are devices designed to deliberately disrupt ethnographers’ habits and cultivate new ways of noticing in the field. They bear witness to the fact that ethnographers often do fieldwork out of habit, using improvised practices developed over time and implicitly from others. Sensory probes help us to not take too much for granted in fieldwork, to develop the intricate muscles of our sideways glances and avoid the traps of complacency. It is an ethnographic device that is useful not only for the individual fieldworker but can also help align the sensibility of a team of ethnographers in a common project. Collaborative ethnographic projects are becoming increasingly common and demand creative approaches to teamwork. The sensory probe is a seemingly simple yet potentially powerful device for opening up a new kind of exchange and insight in team projects. Ultimately the sensory probe acts as a disruptive prompt for discontinuity and elicits a form of education, through both the crafting and following of instruction, for sensing ethnographers.
