ASMR at London’s Design Museum
Have you ever experienced a spine-tingling euphoria so soothing that it feels like champagne bubbles fizzing along your spine? You might realize a feeling like this as you encounter ‘Weird Sensations Feel Good: The world of ASMR’ at London’s Design Museum. The exhibition is the first of its kind exploring the growing internet subculture of ASMR, captivating the senses of millions through its audio-visual aesthetic frissons. Soft tapping, evocative whispering, and meditative humming are a small selection of triggers specially crafted by ASMR-tists (people who make ASMR) in the exhibition, through a hybrid of digital and physical forms.
Two cacti wrap around themselves in an infinite embrace in Oscar Pettersson’s visual ASMR piece ‘Cactus Cuddle’. I feel enchanted, almost sensing the prickling thorns of cacti touching the back of my neck as thistle and skin repetitively make contact. The moving image intertwines both pain and comfort into an intimate slithering spiral, evoking a peculiar hypnotic feeling. It’s a prime example of found visual ASMR content on the internet. But does this shift of visual ASMR from one screen to another truly force us to contemplate its design?
Physicality is an additional dimension built onto the digital ASMR experience through the exhibition’s instagrammable centrepiece: a cosy cushioned enclosure scattered with monitors and headsets. Taking my shoes off before entering, I sink into the soft noodle-like forms which smother the walls of the installation, immersed by sounds of snipping scissors and crinkling bedsheets. The pale folds and creases of the soft sculpture around me are evocative of a human brain: our all-feeling organ, and the site of which feel-good tingles are felt. Ironically, it’s within this interior both physically and aesthetically that we experience ASMR two-fold.
The exhibition ends with Julie Rose Bower’s ‘Meridians Meet’, which invites physical exploration of ASMR through interactive installations. Museumgoers can observe their hands clap inside an echoing cave, attentively touch fabrics, and discover audio textures with brushes and microphones. This tactile experience transcends the digital boundaries of the internet movement, enticing my curiosity for sensory exploration as I become the ASMR-tist. I hope the future of ASMR continues to broaden past its nicheness, inviting comfort and sensory delight as an art form in its own right.
