ASMR

The autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a sensory phenomenon, sometimes referred to as a "brain orgasm," which involves pleasant tingling sensations in a body in reaction to certain stimuli. This article analyzes ASMR within the framework of ideas put forward by the musique concrète that offered new sensibilities of musical expression and promoted attentive listening to matter. At the same time, we treat sonic practices of ASMR as inspired by the concepts developed by New Materialism, especially the notions of physicality and materiality of sound recognized within the ontology of its vibrational force.

W artykule autorka dyskutuje nowe zjawisko kulturowe, znane jako ASMR, w szczególności jego zainteresowanie multizmysłowością, w perspektywie posthumanistycznej, związanej z niehierarchicznością ludzkich zmysłów. Tekst analizuje wybrane filmy z gatunku ASMR opublikowane w serwisie internetowym YouTube, skupiając się na sposobach ukazywania w nich różnych wrażeń zmysłowych (wzrokowych, słuchowych, dotykowych, zapachowych, smakowych), stawiając tezę, że praktyki ASMR promują posthumanistyczny typ wrażliwości oraz zachęcają do wytwarzania alternatywnych trybów doświadczania świata.

En este ensayo se propone al ASMR como un agente intrínseco de la sociedad del rendimiento, aquella en donde el tecnoestrés domina sobre una gruesa capa de los habitantes citadinos. El fenómeno ASMR de YouTube se vislumbra entonces como una forma de aminorar el tecnoestrés, pues permite al trabajador encontrar un espacio de sosiego y atención plena, elementos indispensables para disfrutar este tipo de videos, generalmente largos, con una cadencia tranquilizante. A través de ellos, la mirada se revalora y el individuo experimenta texturas mediadas por su pantalla y audífonos.

I aim to produce a close reading of two Youtube phenomena with evident psychoanalytic underpinnings —ASMR and Satisfying videos. These types of videos can be seen to aestheticize or attach a positive valence to what could otherwise be considered a pathological symptom.  Videos in the ASMR and Satisfying genres (with 72,700,000 and 136,000,000 Google Video results, respectively, at the time of writing) stage an interpassive obsessive-compulsion. They clean floors pristinely, take tiny bites of food or obsessively drum on objects so we don’t have to. And they can do so breathlessly, in an hour-long barrage, devoid of narrative context. 
In their titles the videos are billed as soporifics and stress-alleviators. From a psychoanalytic angle, one wonders whether such a self-help system would create a negative-feedback loop—deferring onto the Other the obsessive rituals which were already a distraction from one’s fear of the lack in the Other. Should we consider these videos a partial-object pornography, addictive on a primordial level? Or might the neurotic-aesthetic video actually help the viewer reconfigure the distribution of her own jouissance, as it purports to?

This essay consists of two parts. First is an in-depth introduction to Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), a condition where people experience pleasurable sensations from specific visual and aural materials on the Internet. Second is an analysis of various theories on material culture that may help us to understand and contextualize this hitherto unexplainable but burgeoning phenomenon.

Comment nommer, partager, mettre en scène, en bref, institutionnaliser une émotion nouvelle ?
Quelles conceptions du corps et des émotions les vidéos ASMR donnent-t-elles à voir ?
En quoi le succès de l'ASMR sur Youtube est un révélateur des nouveaux paramètres de l'initimité et de l'extimité dans les sociétés modernes ?
Comment créer du senti (physique et émotionnel) dans un environnement numérique ?
L'ASMR est-il symptomatique d'une démocratisation du soin ? Doit-on y voir l'emergence d'un nouveau paradigme émotionnel, plus empathique, expressif et altruiste ?
Telles sont les questions auxquelles ce mémoire s'attache à répondre.

This article analyzes the popular media phenomenon called ASMR, which
has been flourishing on YouTube for several years, especially one genre of
video called “Fixing You”, in the context of affect theories proposed by Steven
Shaviro, Holly Willis, Gregory J. Seigworth, and Melissa Gregg. “Fixing
You” videos, following the science fiction aesthetics where the viewer is cast
as a broken robot to be repaired by an artist playing the role of a mechanic
or a doctor, give expression to free-floating feelings pervading contemporary,
soon-to-be posthuman, reality. Making use of numerous post-cinematic
tools, these artworks fit into the posthumanizing trend visible in the latest
cinematic and media art, proposing reflection on the assemblages of human
and non-human orders and pointing to alternative, non-rational, affective
ways of experiencing the world. Interestingly, ASMR experiments which do
not treat the anthropocentric perception of reality as the central axis – neither
in the context of human agency nor perspective – instead of emanating fear of
the current/future position of man, they are a source of considerable pleasure
and joy for the audience.

The term Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response or "ASMR", as a sensation, has been in the private realm of our spatial semantic experience (of the primal nervous system response) for eons.  Though more prevalent in our communal prehistory, it's infrequency today relates to the lack of  experience which uniquely aligns the brain's and heart’s different levels of function.  This enables the body  to perform a unique calibration of our brain’s functional capacity while nurturing a practice to foster healing. (More about this is discussed at the end of this article.)

A recent study (nature experience reduces rumination) shows how a brief nature experience (90-min walk in a natural setting), decreases both self-reported rumination & neural activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex (sgPFC), whereas a 90-min urban setting walk had no such effects on rumination/neural activity.

This points to deep language roots & its power to affect primitive parts of our brain as other studies have associated the sgPFC w/a self-focused behavioral withdrawal linked to rumination in both depressed & healthy people.

This reveals a pathway by which nature experience may improve mental well-being & suggests accessible natural areas within urban contexts to be a critical resource for health in the urbanizing world.

For the non-science minded,  it's simple to say it this way: "Nature seems to provide a non-verbal language switch to buffer rumination, a handmaiden of anxiety and depression. . . while elevating our personal, spiritual discourse.  Putting love under the microscope shows, in addition to shaping the brains of infants, "Mother Nature's Love" acts as an actual template for 'bonding' and has far reaching effects on a person's ability to form deeper moral and ethical connections throughout life."

Additionally, internal-dialogue (self-talk) prosody studies of the rhythm, pitch, tone and volume of human sound intonation clearly indicate emotions are conveyed clearer & faster -- that way -- than with any word-based vocabulary. The brain responds differently when emotions are expressed through vocalizations (sounds such as growls, whispers, laughter or sobbing, where unintelligible or even no words are uttered) as an "older" systems/structures within the brain preferentially process emotion expressed through vocalizations.

In a study to show how human sounds convey emotions clearer and faster than words. . .  results show participants brains recognized emotions in unclear statements (non-verbal, inaudible, whispered vocalizations) faster and/or more significantly than the emotions in the clear statements (verbal, understandable, speech).

This may support how our brains initially evolved to be able to quickly determine whether certain vocalizations or sounds are threatening, with a secondary development of determining if certain words or speech are threatening.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160118134938.htm

It takes a tenth of a second for our brains to begin to recognize emotions conveyed by vocalizations.  This matters not whether the non-verbal sounds are growls of anger, laughter of happiness or cries of sadness. Significantly this research uncovered:  we pay more attention when an emotion (such as happiness, sadness or anger) is expressed through vocalizations than we do when the same emotion is verbalized as speech.

M.D. Pell, K. Rothermich, P. Liu, S. Paulmann, S. Sethi, S. Rigoulot. Preferential decoding of emotion from human non-linguistic vocalizations versus speech prosody.  Biological Psychology, 2015; 111: 14 DOI:

Diese Arbeit soll das popkulturelle Phänomen ASMR zunächst näher erläutern, seine Geschichte näher beleuchten sowie auf seine verschiedensten Formen bzw. Äußerungen eingehen. Der Fokus verlagert sich im darauffolgenden Kapitel auf die noch immer währende Diskussion, ob ASMR denn nun als Kunst bezeichnet werden darf, gefolgt von Argumentationen, inwieweit sich ASMR in der zeitgenössischen Kunst verorten kann und schlussendlich, wie die Betrachterin bzw. der Betrachter in einem Ausstellungsraum mit ASMR konfrontiert werden kann.

How to write out a pandemic? This calls for writing with those interruptions and precarities that often elicit a rush of stories, starting in contaminating and indeterminate encounters at the interface of feminist technoscience and multispecies ethnography (Tsing 2015, 20, 37). What other forms might writing take and whose genres of response might cipher this pandemic’s onslaught of forces?

This essay contextualises the project [ASMR] Reading You to Sleep. Soft Spoken Relaxation about Pathologies of Capitalism. The text looks at the increase of sensorial and affective narratives within the popular culture industry. In this context, different authors have identified a therapeutic turn characterised by the transformation of collective discomfort into depoliticised entertainment, which is distributed in therapeutic online communities. The therapeutic self-care imaginaries offer a new sensorial aesthetic and tactility that produce tingles or triggers as part of the immediate demand for satisfaction and the urgency for sensorial and physical experiences in the entertainment industry. These imaginaries or trends are characterised by a collective intention to deal with illnesses associated with late capitalism and its pathologies: anxiety, insomnia and depression.

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR for short) is an online movement that has recently moved from peripheral freakiness to mainstream weird.

You know. Those videos of people, usually women, whispering sweet nothings into your ear whilst tapping on an exfoliating brush, going through painstaking efforts to make you feel relaxed. Many of you will probably think it strange or fetishistic — which it is, and also isn't. Hear me out.

The movement promises relief from anxiety, depression, insomnia, and other symptoms that are increasingly becoming more common to those living in late capitalist's risk society. I analyze ASMR as pharmakon (Bernard Stiegler), as being at once a cure and a poison. ASMR plays into the very crisis of care it promises relief from through the uncritical adoption of stereotypical caring roles, which perpetuates devalued feminized care labor, the participation in the highly lucrative (exploitative) self-help industry, which perpetuates the resilient subject (Sarah Bracke), as well as by playing into economy of attention through sh*t like commodity fetishism and IKEA... Dear Lord, IKEA..........

But the ever-growing popularity of ASMR indicates that there is a need for... what, exactly? We are currently living in an age of chronic crisis, in a society that is utterly devoid of care. In order to make care indispensable, the concept needs to be taken out of the gendered private. I question how the popularity of ASMR urges us to rethink our social contract on the basis of care ethics. What do concepts like care and protection mean in an age where social neglect has become the norm?

PS. Yes, the title is an ode to George Michael. I will love him forever.

Artykuł prezentuje zjawisko ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, tłum. pol. samoistna odpowiedź meridianów czuciowych) z perspektywy ogólnej i lingwistycznej. Definicja pojęcia i zreferowanie stanu badań stanowią wprowadzenie do klasyfikacji wyzwalaczy ASMR ze względu na zmysły stanowiące źródło doświadczania tzw. efektu ASMR. Autor przedstawia argumenty za włączeniem dotyku i zapachu do klasyfikacji wyzwalaczy. Lingwistyczna analiza zjawiska koncentruje się wokół fonetycznych właściwości wyzwalaczy głosowych, aspektów onomastycznych – analiza gramatyczna i konceptualna wyodrębnionych 17 klas medionimów (nazw kanałów ASMR) oraz dyskursu jako przestrzeni, w której realizowane są funkcje – fatyczna i socjalizująca (budujące  więź w obrębie społeczności ASMR; ich realizacja leży po stronie artysty ASMR) oraz ewaluatywna i perswazyjna (ich realizacja leży po stronie odbiorców nagrań).

Słowa kluczowe: ASMR, neurobiologia, zmysły, synestezja, fonetyka, onomastyka, medionimy, konceptualizacja, dyskurs, funkcje języka,

The secrets of ASMR – a general and a linguistic perspective.

Abstract
The article presents the concept of ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) from a general and a linguistic perspective. The definition of the notion and a review on the state of research is followed by a classification of ASMR triggers based on the senses which constitute the source of experiencing the ASMR effect.  The author argues that touch and smell be included in the classification of the triggers. The linguistic analysis focuses on the following issues: the phonetic properties of the voice triggers, onomastics – a grammatical and conceptual study of the 17 classes of medionyms (names of ASMR channels) which were distinguished in the present research, and the ASMR discourse as the space where phatic and social functions are carried out on the part of ASMRtists as factors developing bonds within the ASMR community and where evaluative and persuasive functions are prominent in the comments of the recipients. 

Keywords: ASMR, neurobiology, senses, synesthesia, phonetics, onomastics, medionym, conceptualisation, discourse, language functions

Presentation on demystification & tapping into the sequence of the brain-hormone cycle to appreciate how best to create the mood, emotions and sensations felt during a Virtual Reality Experience (VRE).

People experienced how the sequence of sense-forming awareness -- when appropriately timed w/"biochemical response intro" of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins -- actually mirrors our consciousness forming in the womb and early infancy. 

As well, they discovered how attuning to this sequence can help create more virtual synesthetic experiences (as they have us access and animate threshold-level stimulus from multiple senses) which enhances both creativity and vision/imagination.

Furthermore, they Xperienced & learned how to evoke several basic sensory-animating, autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) triggers. Ultimately, they gained some appreciation of how future media platform understanding and collaboration between:

1) game developers,
2) those "in the know" on bio-physiology of these technological advances,
3) those who "know the psych of trauma", and significantly,
4) therapists, can integrate these elements into workable UX and discover more suitable therapeutic apps for a wide variety of conditions ranging from neuropathy to Alzheimer's, PD & dementia.

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) is a pseudoscientific neologism for a pleasurable tingling sensation reported by a growing number of people in response to soft sounds such as whispers, crinkles, and taps. ASMR is described as a “headgasm” where tingles start in the scalp or neck and radiate throughout the body. An active community of enthusiasts has emerged on YouTube in support of videos crafted by “ASMRtists.”
Characteristics of the videos include a strong sense of personal intimacy, long-duration unedited streams, and high fidelity recording made with “3Dio” binaural microphones shaped like human ears. These and other techniques invite the viewer into increasingly realistic online spaces defined by acoustic simulation. In recent months, the ASMR genre has pushed beyond the confines of two-dimensional screens with interactive videos that allow the viewer to freely explore three-dimensional space and sound. These new media formats explode the limits of mechanical reproduction as a microcosm of lived experience, instead functioning in and of themselves as ongoing macrocosmic events, placing them in dialogue with other recent musical trends including ambient music and acoustic ecology.
Using theoretical frameworks from Cusick, Kittler, Attali, and Scarry, I argue for an aesthetics of ASMR that challenges longstanding assumptions about the social politics of sound. Rather than being defined by structures of power, representation, and narrative, the ASMR community embodies a sound world defined by grace. Although virtually indistinguishable from music (and at times explicitly equated with it), ASMR completely lacks delimited roles of composer, performer, and audience. Additionally, ASMR counters popular concern about the mediating nature of digital interfaces in society and the art world. Rather than hedging individual subjectivities through the use of symbols, texts, and stylized or abbreviated forms, ASMR appears to foster personal intimacy, vulnerability, and authenticity through a heard, embodied, and shared practice.

Swedish Centre for Architecture & Design unveils:

"The virtual vernissage of 'WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD'—an exhibition about ASMR.

Tune in (with headphones) to learn more about a field of design mediating mind & body.

Although we built this exhibition for the mind and for the body, for now (and for obvious reasons) we invite you to experience it with your ears and eyes!

Like many works of ASMR, this virtual vernissage will be best experienced from a comfortable spot and through your favourite pair of headphones."

WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD
April 8–November 1, 2020

As little as a decade ago, ASMR (“Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response”) was largely dismissed as a figment of the imagination. Today the term represents one of the largest movements on the Internet, and it has become impossible to ignore. . .

Randy Eady takes you deeper into the exhibit.
https://lnkd.in/dAtqS7Y

WSFG ~§~ ASMR (First of its Kind)
A wonderfully-delightful ASMR exhibit offering up a smattering of ASMR-evocation techniques is now the centralized focus of  an avant-garde ArkDes arrangement.          By R.Eady, KR Therapeutics

There are approximately 5.2 million autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos on YouTube which the world's most popular video sharing platform. Users watch ASMR videos for long hours and in series, and there are even individual ASMR YouTube channels consisting of such videos. When the question is coming up of why these contents are so popular on YouTube, scientific researches revealing that ASMR videos have psychological outputs in most cases to reduce the anxiety levels of the users and to relieve the audience. The inclusion of ASMR content in the professional media content production ecosystem by opting out of the YouTube communication channel created the need to discuss the context of media and communication studies as well as the psychological dimensions and outcomes of the issue. In this context, selected content consisting of popular ASMR videos on YouTube and produced advertisements with ASMR technique was presented to the participants (n=10). Electrodermal (GSR) and heart-volume (PPG) data were quantitatively collected from the participants. At the same time, quantitative outputs were supported with observation and in-depth interview methods. In the context of the results obtained from the study, as well as those who are relieved in terms of motivation from those who experience the contents, the presence of those who are disturbed in the direction of various variables have been observed. It has also been determined how these motivational changes provide communication and interaction output related to brand, product or service through the content shown. The fact that the results regarding the effects of ASMR contents in the media and communication studies literature have not been examined with such a mixed methodology is noteworthy as the original aspect of the research. It is thought that the results obtained from this research can be the basis of theoretical and practical studies which can be realized in the context of media and communication literature via ASMR contents.

This paper explores tensions between scientific understandings of the internet phenomenon known as Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) and accounts of the experience put forth by people who experience ASMR (also known as ASMRers). While current scientific research into the therapeutic affordances and the physiological, neurological, and psychological determinants of ASMR have failed to produce satisfactory accounts of the experience, ASMRers label and describe the phenomenon in scientific terms to give the experience scientific validity. So far, this strategy has worked, infusing a series of scientific inquiries into the strange uniqueness of the experience. That said, efforts to understand the ASMR experience through modern scientific, technological, and conceptual strategies is not only limiting, but futile. ASMR is incomprehensible from the standpoint of modern scientific discourse because of the unique, posthuman constitution of the ASMR body. This has led to what I call the ASMR Paradox: growing efforts to describe ASMR, a scientifically inaccessible experience, in purely scientific terms. In consideration of this paradox, the following reflection piece explores the tension between scientific discourses regarding ASMR and the seemingly diametrical experiences of ASMRers. I conclude that, while the former is indebted to western humanist thinking, the latter expresses a posthumanist configuration that is incompatible with the scientific rhetoric currently being used to describe it.

Dünyanın en popüler video paylaşım platformu Youtube’da günümüz itibariyle yaklaşık 5.2 milyon otonom duyusal meridyen tepki (ASMR) videosu bulunmaktadır. ASMR videoları kullanıcılar tarafın-dan uzun saatler boyunca ve seriler halinde izlenmekte, hatta sadece bu tarz videolardan oluşan özel ASMR Youtube kanalları yer almaktadır. Bu içeriklerin Youtube üzerinde neden bu kadar popüler ol-duğu sorusu gündeme geldiğinde ise ASMR videolarının çoğu durumda kullanıcıların kaygı düzeyle-rini azaltma ve izleyicisini rahatlatması yönünde psikolojik çıktılarının olduğunu bulgulayan bilimsel araştırmalar gündeme gelmektedir. ASMR içeriklerinin Youtube iletişim kanalından çıkarak profesyo-nel medya içerik üretimi ekosistemine dâhil olması, konunun psikolojik boyut ve çıktılarının yanı sıra, medya ve iletişim çalışmaları bağlamında da tartışılması gerekliliğini ortaya koymaktadır. Bu çerçevede Youtube’da yer alan popüler ASMR videolarından ve ASMR tekniği ile prodüksiyonu yapılmış reklam-lardan oluşan seçili bir içerik katılımcılara sunulmuştur (n=10). Metodoloji dâhilinde katılımcılardan elektrodermal (GSR) ve kalp hacim (PPG) verileri nicel olarak toplanmış; aynı zamanda gözlem ve de-rinlemesine görüşme yöntemleri ile de nicel çıktılar desteklenmiştir. Araştırmadan elde edilen sonuçlar bağlamında, içerikleri deneyimleyenlerden motivasyonel anlamda rahatlayanlar kadar, görüntülerden çeşitli değişkenler doğrultusunda rahatsız olanların da varlığı gözlemlenmiştir. Bu motivasyonel deği-şimlerin, gösterilen içerik üzerinden marka, ürün veya hizmet ile ilgili nasıl bir iletişim ve etkileşim çıktısı sağladığı da tespit edilmiştir. Medya ve iletişim çalışmaları literatüründe ASMR içeriklerinin etkilerine yönelik sonuçlara böyle bir karma metodoloji ile bakılmamış olması, araştırmanın orijinal yönü olarak dikkat çekmektedir. Bu araştırmadan elde edilen sonuçların, ASMR içerikleri üzerinden medya ve iletişim literatürü bağlamında gerçekleştirilebilecek teorik ve uygulama temelli çalışmalara zemin oluşturabileceği düşünülmektedir. // There are approximately 5.2 million autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos on YouTube which the world's most popular video sharing platform. Users watch ASMR videos for long hours and in series, and there are even individual ASMR YouTube channels consisting of such videos. When the question is coming up of why these contents are so popular on YouTube, scientific researches revealing that ASMR videos have psychological outputs in most cases to reduce the anxiety levels of the users and to relievethe audience. The inclusion of ASMR content in the professional media content production ecosystem by opting out of the YouTube communication channel created the need to discuss the context of media and communication studies as well as the psychological dimensions and outcomes of the issue. In this context, selected content consisting of popular ASMR videos on YouTube and pro-duced advertisements with ASMR technique was presented to the participants (n=10). Electrodermal (GSR) and heart-volume (PPG) data were quantitatively collected from the participants. At the same time, quantitative outputs were supported with observation and in-depth interview methods. In the context of the results obtained from the study, as well as those who are relieved in terms of motivation from those who experience the contents, the presence of those who are disturbed in the direction of vari-ous variables have been observed. It has also been determined how these motivational changes provide communication and interaction output related to brand, product or service through the content shown. The fact that the results regarding the effects of ASMR contents in the media and communication studies literature have not been examined with such a mixed methodology is noteworthy as the original aspect of the research. It is thought that the results obtained from this research can be the basis of theoretical and practical studies which can be realized in the context of media and communication literature via ASMR contents.

This paper examines the sensory mechanics of the Velcro hook-and-loop fastener and its use as a sound object in contemporary sound-based art and the autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) community. With the neologism, BDSMR, I attempt to unpack the notion of velcro as a sound-fetish object by situating it within an emerging audiovisual culture, one that engages in cyborgian practices of sensory stimulation and optimizable arousal. Exploring these new modes of "listening in on" materials-oftentimes with disembodied binaural ears-we reveal the ways in which the dynamics of the sound object reorientate our understanding of the sensate body and its relationship to the eroticism of aurality. In doing so, I present my own Velcro-based sound sculptures in an attempt to form a dialogue with the velcro material as an artistic medium.

Although it may initially seem odd, ASMR is both incredibly popular (frequently getting millions of organic views and ASMRtists accruing subscriber numbers in excess of a million) and used cross-culturally and through multiple generations.

It can be an intensely relaxing feeling and can be used as one of life's everyday solutions to relieving stress and anxiety, counter-triggering trauma and helping with insomnia by inducing sleep while maintaining general health & well being.

In the face of trauma , ASMR can be a tremendously useful tool  in rejuvenating feelings of agency as the "felt expression of self".

The science of self-talk (prosody) shows how these effects may be mitigated via processes  pointing to the deep roots of language and its power to affect the most primitive parts of our brain.  Using plasticity interventions to "put the brakes" on trauma emotions that narrow our possibilities -- metaplasticity practices like those that focus "self as a detached observer" paradoxically -- create a sense of "felt presence" -- which enables the cerebral cortex (core of thought), and another in the amygdala to gain a measure of psychological distance that emboldens self-control.

These often source from sensations  emanating in the nervous system as pre-language expressions of safety and calm in very early childhood.  As self-perspective embraces these primal body rhythms it affords the post-traumatic self with more advanced strategies for coping, leading, eventually, to an unfreezing of most – if not all – of the self’s assets from the trauma.

This is where sensory animation can be most dazzling and influential with trauma burden.  When unleashed inexplicably; these stimulations (such as, surprising temperature shifts -- delivered to the extremities or ASMR-induced head tingles) feed our fancies as well as encourages recovery.

Creating spatial ambiguity in this way, must be done gently (and slowly) w/generous support of the knees, back and neck...  And it can be a powerful, brain-enhancing, cognitive-enriching, soma-therapy.

Precise ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) elicitation taps into primal brain-body response in a similar way to help many w/PTSD, anxiety and even substance abuse issues. It lays the foundation for demystifying how these sensations (and the hormones underpinning them) help create the mood and emotions that emerge.  Assuring a captivating and robust engagement are hallmarks of a tingly experience rife with therapeutic potential.

Sleep frequently intersects with media technologies in routinized yet unpredictable ways. This article proposes a concept of " drowsing " to describe how sleepiness occurs and persists across aspects of banal media life. Focusing on nighttime tablet use and blue light engagement, we argue that sleep requires a multidimensional and embodied account of how cultural practices, biological rhythms, and incidental occurrences interact. Ultimately, focusing on sleep suggests the contradictory roles that technologies play within the duration of everyday life—both providing a sense of calmness and deceleration, even as they accelerate life or contribute to long-term bodily harm.

Over the past decade, ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) has emerged from whisper-quiet corners of the Internet to become a bullhorn of speculation on the human sensorium. Many consider its sonically induced “tingling” to be an entirely novel, and potentially revolutionary, form of human corporeality—one surprisingly effective in combating the maladies of a digitally networked life: insomnia, anxiety, panic attacks, and depression. Complicating these claims, this article argues that ASMR is also neoliberal repackaging of what Marx called the reproduction of labor power. Units of these restorative “tingles” are exchanged for micro-units of attention, which YouTube converts to actual currency based on per-1,000-view equations. True to the claims of Silvia Federici and Leopoldina Fortunati, this reproductive labor remains largely the domain of women. From sweet-voiced receptionists to fawning sales clerks (both of whom are regularly role-played by ASMRtists), sonic labor has long been a force in greasing the gears of capital. That it plays a role in production is a matter that ASMRtists are often at pains to obscure. The second half of this article performs a close reading of what might be considered the very first ASMR film: Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. Through this film, the exploitative dimensions of ASMR can be contrasted with its potential for creating protected spaces of financial independence and nonnormative corporeal practices.

ÖZET

Kaligrafi, dünyanın farklı yerlerinden birçok yazı stilini kapsayan geniş bir terimdir. Bazı kaligrafi formları mürekkebe batırılmış bir fırça kullanılarak oluşturulurken, diğerlerinde metalik veya sivri uçlu bir kalem kullanılmaktadır. İki bin yılından sonra yaratılan modern kaligrafide ise genellikle sanatçıların kendi serbest biçimli el yazılarından ve geleneksel araçların yanı sıra bilgisayar teknolojilerini kullanarak özgün stillerini türettikleri görülür. Son yıllarda kaligrafların harf formlarını araştırıp yeniden tanımlamasıyla beraber kaligrafinin başlı başına bir sanat formu haline geldiği görülmektedir. Bazı kaligraflar geleneksel yazı sanatı kurallarını artık sorgulamaya başlamışlardır. Hatta tek biçimli ve katı düzenli bir kaligrafi yapısından çıkarak, harflere ve kelimelere daha heyecan verici, kişilik kazandırılan, serbest formda ve özgün bir hale dönüşen çalışmalar yapmaktadırlar. Bu da yaratıcılığı desteklemekte ve tamamen bir kuralsızlığın olmadığını, aslında her kaligrafın kendi yazı sanatının kuralını kendisinin belirlediğini göstermektedir. XXI. yüzyılda kaligraflar, sanatçılar ve tasarımcılar farklı kültürlerden etkilenmekte ve bu etkileri kendi kültürleri ile yoğurarak çalışmalarına yansıtmaktadırlar. XXI. yüzyılda yazı sanatının, kendini ifade etmek ve deneysel çalışmalar yapmak için yeterli potansiyele sahip bir alan olduğu görülmektedir. Bu yüzyılda kaligraflar estetik tarzlarını ve kişiliklerini yansıtmak için, çevrelerindeki her şeyden ilham alarak canlı renkler, cesur düzenlemeler ve yenilikçi malzemeler kullanarak çoğunlukla kendi alfabelerini oluşturmuşlardır. Özgün harf formlarını yaratmanın doğru ve yanlış yolları olduğu klişesi geçerliliğini yitirmiştir. Grafiti sanatından her yıl oluşturulan binlerce dijital yazı tipine ve blogosferde el yazılarının patlamasına kadar, tipografideki mevcut eğilimlerde açıkça görülmektedir. Bugünün deneyimli kaligraflarının birçoğu, meslektaşlarının birbirinden farklı kaligrafi stillerini tanımlayabilmektedirler. Geleneksel kaligrafiden farklı olarak günümüz modern kaligraflarının stilleri kendilerine özgün yaklaşımlarıyla diğerlerinden kolaylıkla ayırt edilebilmektedir. Yazının kültürler içindeki gelişimi incelendiğinde çeşitli yazı stillerinin ortaya çıkışı ve değişimleri izlenebilmektedir. Yazı stillerinin gelişimi ile birlikte kaligrafinin önemli bir kültürel iletişim aracı olarak kullanıldığı ve kültürle birlikte değiştiği ve dönüştüğü görülmektedir. Kültürlerin aktarılmasında önemli bir etkiye sahip olan kaligrafi, estetik unsurlar taşıyarak el yazısında kültürlere özgünlük katmaktadır. Bu makalede günümüz yazı sanatında kullanılan yeni teknoloji ve yöntemler ele alınmıştır. Teknolojinin tasarıma dahil olması ve teknolojik araçlardaki hızlı gelişim çeşitli kaligrafi sanatçılarını da etkilemiştir. Bu makalede literatür taramasına dayalı olarak, XXI. yüzyılın yazı sanatı konusunda yeni yaklaşımlar geliştiren ve çalışmalarıyla uluslararası boyutta ön plana çıkan kaligrafi sanatçılarını kapsayan görsel taraması yapılmıştır. Seçili görseller üzerinde nitel araştırma ve betimsel değerlendirmelere dayalı olarak yapılan inceleme sonucunda Denis Brown, Loredana Zega, Stefan Sagmeister ve Luca Barcellona'nın kaligrafi çalışmaları ele alınmıştır.


ABSTRACT

Calligraphy is a broad term that covers many writing styles from different parts of the world. Some forms of calligraphy are created using a brush dipped in ink, while others utilize a metallic or sharp-pointed pen. In the modern calligraphy created after the year 2000, however, artists are, observed to derive their original style from their free-form handwriting and by using traditional tools as well as computer technologies. In recent years, it has been observed that calligraphy became an art form in itself, with calligraphers researching and redefining letter-forms. Some calligraphers now started questioning the rules of the traditional art of writing. They even stepped out of the uniform and rigid structure of calligraphy and started creating works with letters and words that are more exciting, personalizing, free-form, and original. This supports creativity and shows that there is no pure irregularity; indeed, each calligrapher determines their own rules of writing. In the 21st century, calligraphers, artists, and designers are influenced by different cultures and they reflect these impacts on their works by infusing them with their own culture. In the 21st century, writing is observed to be a field with sufficient potential for self-expression and experimental studies. In this century, calligraphers often created their own alphabets, using vibrant colors, bold arrangements, and innovative materials, to reflect their aesthetic styles and personalities, inspired by everything around them. The stereotype that there are right and wrong ways to create original letter-forms has expired. This is evident in the current trends in typography, from graffiti art to thousands of digital fonts created annually and to the explosion of handwritings in the blogosphere. Many of today's experienced calligraphers can identify different calligraphic styles of their colleagues. Unlike traditional calligraphy, the styles of modern calligraphy can be easily distinguished from others with their unique approach. When the development of writing in cultures is examined, the emergence and changes of various writing styles can be observed. It is seen that, as a result of the development of writing styles, calligraphy is used as an important cultural communication tool and it transformed along with the culture. Calligraphy, which has an important effect on the transfer of cultures, adds originality to the cultures in handwriting by carrying aesthetic elements. In this article, new technologies and methods used in today's writing are discussed. The inclusion of technology in design and the rapid development in technological tools have also influenced various calligraphy artists. In this article, a visual literature-review was conducted, covering calligraphy artists who developed new approaches to the art of writing in the 21st century and came to the forefront with their studies. As a result of the examination based on qualitative research and descriptive evaluations on selected images, the calligraphy works of Denis Brown, Loredana Zega, Stefan Sagmeister, and Luca Barcellona were discussed.

The problematization of the idea of creativity resulting in the revision of concepts about autonomous, creative, and human self has been a reality since the end of modernism, or maybe even longer. Postmodernism, as well as theories of posthumanism and new materialism, dealing with categories such as materiality, virtual reality, transgression, hybridization, etc., offer some reflections on the idea of non-human creativity, which is no longer an attribute immanently assigned to human , but a result of interaction between human and non-human elements, including the affective friction of bodies made of matter. Mostly inspired by the theories and methodologies of posthuman studies, studies in new materialism, and new media studies, the article aims to answer the question about the types of creativity appearing in a new YouTube phenomenon-autonomous sensory meridian response videos massively published in recent years. The article is an attempt to give a comprehensive account of the idea of posthuman creativity-with its sub-types like sensual creativity or techno-creativity-visible in extremely popular, however under-researched, autonomous sensory meridian response artworks. The paper puts forward the thesis about autonomous sensory meridian response being a model artistic phenomenon in which the entanglement of human and non-human matter results in a form of posthuman creativity. Numerous examples of autonomous sensory meridian response videos have been analysed, pointing to the specific modes of creative collaboration of human and non-human elements on the film set. In conclusion, it has been shown that autonomous sensory meridian response artworks become the product of posthuman creativity resulting from mutual, affective interaction of bodies.

This article is in support of:  BioEnergetic adjunctive support for pallidal pliancy and metaplasticity (homeostasis) in Parkinson’s @ International Conf on PD & Movement Disorders, Frankfurt, GE 11-13 Aug 2015

How are the ways our re-wired worlds precisely fail the evolved sensory animation desired by our bodies and minds?  Do all the exquisitely, clumsy animal-robots swimming about in the amniotic fluid of our quasi-virtual, internet age show us how essential it is to have the sense to grasp the natural expansive evolutionary impulse of consciousness?  And is the child-like expression of ASMR one of our portals to re-integration?

In addressing these questions we examine if systems biochemistry in conjunction with advances in biophotomodulation could greatly facilitate the continuing search for therapeutic agents, as seen in natural constraint conditions in the brain, more realistically than other systems available so far to improve neural rhythm function (plasticity) and subsequent balance confidence.

In the article, the author discusses a new cultural phenomenon known as ASMR in a posthuman perspective, especially from the perspective of new materialism (Karen Barad), studies of things (Bjørnar Olsen, Ewa Domańska) and affective studies (Jane Bennett, Sara Ahmed). The article analyzes selected ASMR videos published on the YouTube website in terms of the affectivity of the objects used in them, arguing that ASMR cultural practices encourage the production of human-non-human assemblages of subjects and objects built of “vibrating matter” (Jane Bennett).

Dalmasso AC (2019) “Like Organs of One Single Intercorporeality”. Notes on ASMR Video Culture. In Grabbe L., Rupert-Kruse P, Schmitz NM (eds.), Technobilder. Medialität, Multimodalität und Materialität als medien- und bildtheoretische Konzepte der Technosphäre, Büchner-Verlag: Darmstadt.

This article focuses on the perception of sleep in the digital culture of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), examining both viewer-listeners' online discussions about the impact of ASMR videos on their sleep and the content of audiovisual materials published on YouTube. The paper posits that sleep is viewed in two ways in the ASMR community; on the one hand, in a capitalist sense as a manageable and controllable object, and, on the other, as an element that escapes this discourse. The ASMR culture, while affirming contemporary normative sleep patterns, simultaneously invites its enthusiasts to slow down, unwind, and relax, thereby aligning itself with the slow movement.

We report COVID-19 deaths by vaccine types (inactivated whole-virion SARS-CoV-2 [hereinafter inactivated vaccine], BNT162b2, and ChAdOx1 vaccines), and vaccination status in Malaysia and further stratified the analysis by the presence of comorbidities. We used line list data on COVID-19 deaths until 14 September 2021, made available publicly by the Ministry of Health Malaysia.1 We limited the analysis from 24 February 2021 onwards, after COVID-19 vaccines were introduced. For all vaccine types, we defined individuals to be fully vaccinated 14 days after the final dose. We considered individuals who received only the first dose or died within 14 days after the final dose as partially vaccinated. We calculated the age-standardised mortality rate per 100,000 population (ASMR) by the direct method of standardisation using the Malaysian population2 and the World Health Organization (WHO) standard population as reference3 and their corresponding 95% confidence interval. Between 24 February 2021 and 14 September 2021, 20,823 COVID-19 deaths were recorded (Supplementary Table 1). The median age of people who died of COVID-19 was 61.0 years (interquartile range: 49–72). Most deaths (4,946/20,823 24%) occurred in the 60-69 years group (Supplementary Table 2). Males outnumbered females with a ratio of 1.33:1. More deaths occurred among Malaysians (87.5%) and those with comorbidities (72.3%). In comparison with vaccinated individuals, we observed higher mortality rates among those who were unvaccinated. The weekly ASMRs of fully vaccinated individuals were consistently lower than the partially vaccinated group throughout the study (Figure 1A). However, we found that individuals fully vaccinated with the inactivated vaccine had higher ASMRs than those who were partially vaccinated with the same vaccine after 25th August 2021. Nevertheless, we hypothesised that there was no difference between the mean ASMRs of those who were fully and partially vaccinated with the inactivated vaccine during the period of interest. We tested the hypothesis and the mean ASMRs did not differ significantly between the groups (Student's t-test, t(4)=-0.68, p>0.05). Figure 1 Download : Download high-res image (843KB)Download : Download full-size image Figure 1. COVID-19 age-standardised mortality rates by vaccine types and vaccination status in Malaysia, 24 February to 14 September 2021. (A) Time series plot of age-standardised mortality rates for unvaccinated, partially vaccinated, and fully vaccinated individuals by vaccine types. The line graphs represent the age-standardised mortality rates. The bar charts represent weekly COVID-19 positive cases. The dashed line represents the date when the Beta variant (1 April 2021) and Delta variant (26 May 2021) was first detected in Malaysia. (B) Interval plot of age-standardised mortality rates per 100000 population with 95% confidence interval by vaccine types, vaccination status, and presence of comorbidities. The total ASMRs for the unvaccinated group (47.5 per 100,000 population) were 43.2 times and 12.5 times higher than the ASMR of individuals fully vaccinated with BNT162b2 (1.1 per 100,000) and inactivated vaccines (3.8 per 100,000), respectively. Among those vaccinated (Figure 1B and Supplementary Table 3), the ASMRs of partially vaccinated individuals with comorbidities were higher than those without comorbidities across all vaccine types (BNT162b2: 3.6 times; inactivated vaccine: 2.4 times; and ChAdOx1: 3.1 times). The trends were similar for fully vaccinated individuals—the ASMRs for those with comorbidities were 8.9 times, 4.1 times, and 1.5 times higher than those without comorbidities among recipients of BNT162b2, inactivated vaccine, and ChAdOx1 vaccine, respectively. However, the difference in ASMRs of individuals fully vaccinated with the ChAdOx1 vaccine was small (by two deaths). Therefore, we could not conclude the effect of comorbidities on the mortality rates of ChAdOx1 vaccine recipients in this study. While we did not analyse immunological data in this study, the higher mortality rate among recipients of inactivated vaccines calls for close monitoring of breakthrough infections and deaths by vaccine types and further investigations into the recipients’ immunological profiles. Evidence from Hong Kong indicated differing concentrations of neutralising antibodies between the inactivated (lower) and BNT162b2 vaccine recipients (higher),4 highlighting potential differences in vaccine effectiveness. Our study findings also concur with the recent recommendations by the WHO to offer a third dose to persons aged ≥60 who received inactivated vaccines.5 In this study, we could not further describe the risk of death by the types of comorbidities. Nevertheless, other studies in Malaysia have reported that persons with diabetes, hypertension, kidney diseases, heart diseases, and cancer were at higher risk of COVID-19-related deaths.6,7 We could not infer vaccine effectiveness because we lack detailed information regarding those who received the vaccine but did not get infected/die. Vaccine allocation was not entirely random. Front line workers and older adults with comorbidities were prioritised for the BNT162b2 vaccine at first. However, subsequent allocation hinged predominantly on available stocks and supplies (Supplementary Table 4). Due to the concerns regarding the safety of the ChAdOx1 vaccine when it was introduced, Malaysia excluded it from the national vaccination programme and allowed voluntary opt-in through an online system. We opined that the recipients of the ChAdOx1 vaccine were likely to be younger and socioeconomically advantaged. Therefore, the outcome might be biased due to the populations’ lower risk of severe illness and death. This study highlighted that COVID-19 mortalities were associated with vaccination status, age, and comorbidities. The mortality rate among people who were vaccinated was consistently lower than those who were unvaccinated. Among vaccinated individuals, the mortality rate of those who received inactivated vaccines was higher than the recipients of the BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 vaccines. Vaccination coverage, monitoring breakthrough hospitalisations and deaths, safeguarding hospital capacity, and evidence-based booster strategy is critical to prevent COVID-19 mortalities.

For years now, a growing online subculture has been exchanging videos designed to induce ‘autonomous sensory meridian response’ (ASMR), a mysterious, blissfully relaxing tingling sensation held to alleviate anxiety, pain, insomnia and depression. Emerging from online health forums, ASMR culture today centres on YouTube, where ‘ASMRtists’ have used the feedback mechanisms built into social media platforms to refine a repertoire of ‘trigger’ techniques. Exemplifying a wider trend for using ‘ambient media’ as mood modulators and task facilitators (Roquet, 2016 Ambient Media: Japanese Atmospheres of Self. London: University of Minnesota Press.), ASMR culture’s use of the word ‘trigger’ is telling, gesturing towards what Halberstam ((2014) You Are Triggering Me! The Neo-Liberal Rhetoric of Harm, Danger and Trauma. Bully Bloggers. Available at: https://bullybloggers.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/you-are-triggering-me-the-neo-liberal-rhetoric-of-harm-danger-and-trauma/ (accessed 8 August 2018)) sees as a shift away from the Freudian notion of ‘memory as a palimpsest’ towards one of memory as ‘a live wire sitting in the psyche waiting for a spark’, whereby digital subjects become black-boxed nodes in a cybernetic circuit. This shift has serious implications for the humanities and is particularly resonant for scholars of life-writing. As McNeill ((2012) There is no “I” in network: Social networks sites and posthuman auto/biography. Biography 35(1): 65–82.) argues, digital technologies ‘complicate[] definitions of the self and its boundaries, both dismantling and sustaining the humanist subject in practices of personal narrative’ (p. 65). The resulting friction is highlighted in ‘ASMR autobiographies’: texts narrating the author’s experiences of ASMR and their discovery of online ASMR communities. Echoing familiar auto/biographical forms, from medical case histories and coming out narratives to tales of religious conversion, these texts show that the models of subjectivity we have inherited from Enlightenment philosophy, religion, psychology and Romantic literature retain some cultural purchase. But they also suggest digital media are fostering new understandings of personhood informed by cybernetics, evolutionary psychology, behaviourism and neuroscience. Focusing on works by Andrew MacMuiris, Andrea Seigel and Jon Kersey while also addressing a range of other texts, this article asks what ASMR autobiographies can tell us about digital subjectivity.

For years now, a growing online subculture has been exchanging videos designed to induce ‘autonomous sensory meridian response’ (ASMR), a mysterious, blissfully relaxing tingling sensation held to alleviate anxiety, pain, insomnia and depression. Emerging from online health forums, ASMR culture today centres on YouTube, where ‘ASMRtists’ have used the feedback mechanisms built into social media platforms to refine a repertoire of ‘trigger’ techniques. Exemplifying a wider trend for using ‘ambient media’ as mood modulators and task facilitators (Roquet, 2016 Ambient Media: Japanese Atmospheres of Self. London: University of Minnesota Press.), ASMR culture’s use of the word ‘trigger’ is telling, gesturing towards what Halberstam ((2014) You Are Triggering Me! The Neo-Liberal Rhetoric of Harm, Danger and Trauma. Bully Bloggers. Available at: https://bullybloggers.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/you-are-triggering-me-the-neo-liberal-rhetoric-of-harm-danger-and-trauma/ (accessed 8 August 2018))...

There are approximately 5.2 million autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos on YouTube which the world's most popular video sharing platform. Users watch ASMR videos for long hours and in series, and there are even individual ASMR YouTube channels consisting of such videos. When the question is coming up of why these contents are so popular on YouTube, scientific researches revealing that ASMR videos have psychological outputs in most cases to reduce the anxiety levels of the users and to relieve the audience. The inclusion of ASMR content in the professional media content production ecosystem by opting out of the YouTube communication channel created the need to discuss the context of media and communication studies as well as the psychological dimensions and outcomes of the issue. In this context, selected content consisting of popular ASMR videos on YouTube and produced advertisements with ASMR technique was presented to the participants (n=10). Electrodermal (GSR) and heart-volume (PPG) data were quantitatively collected from the participants. At the same time, quantitative outputs were supported with observation and in-depth interview methods. In the context of the results obtained from the study, as well as those who are relieved in terms of motivation from those who experience the contents, the presence of those who are disturbed in the direction of various variables have been observed. It has also been determined how these motivational changes provide communication and interaction output related to brand, product or service through the content shown. The fact that the results regarding the effects of ASMR contents in the media and communication studies literature have not been examined with such a mixed methodology is noteworthy as the original aspect of the research. It is thought that the results obtained from this research can be the basis of theoretical and practical studies which can be realized in the context of media and communication literature via ASMR contents.

A partir de breve análise sobre dois vídeos ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response-Resposta Meridional Sensorial Autônoma), disponíveis na rede social youtube, o autor propõe ensaio a respeito da escuta contemporânea. A subcultura do ASMR e a estética do formigamento são apresentados como modos emergentes de consumo audiovisual em diálogo com as noções de anestética, de Walter Benjamin e de erotismo de George Bataille. A hipótese decorrente é o surgimento de uma realização erótica e estética autômata, fruto da relação humana nas redes sociotécnicas, que potencializa a alienação do sono pelo capitalismo tardio.

This paper looks at current forms of "heady" videos shared on YouTube or Reddit that are labelled as "trippy" or "hallucinating" and seek to make the viewer feel dizzy and inebriated. I read these as contemporary manifestations of a long-existing desire for audiovisual stimuli to cause corporeal effects that will exceed the sense modalities the videos seem to address "originally", bringing about kinaesthetic, visceral oder tactile sensations. I suggest ASMR-Videos as a specific form of heady videos, offering a certain type of high that is predominantly tactile and sedative and show continuities between historic forms of trippy videos like the Mandala films of the 1960s or the rhythmic experiments of absolute film in the 1920s, and today’s use of filmic means to this end.

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) is a term used by online communities who experience states of euphoric cranial ‘tingling’ when exposed to particular ‘trigger’ stimuli – hushed speech, ambient noises and stylized gestures among them. As concept and claimable identity (if not as experience) ASMR is essentially coeval with ‘Web 2.0’ - the move from a text-centric to a multimodal web, the proliferation of webcams and microphones and the emergence of blogging platforms, social networks, content aggregators and streaming video. ASMR ‘sufferers’ have used these tools to develop and disseminate a shared terminology, swap trigger videos and publish testimonies describing early or particularly intense experiences of the condition.

Upon first encounter, ASMR culture can seem outlandish, even alarming – here, after all, are groups of people rhapsodizing over videos of TV static, QVC presenters coring pears and teenagers giving whispered tours of their jewelry collections. Upon closer inspection, however, this culture has intriguing implications for our understanding of both life-writing and online experience.
Grappling with the perpetual problem of rendering subjective experience shareable, ASMR testimonies also foreground ways in which new media are reshaping practices of self-expression and conceptions of identity. If they echo or invoke genres like the case history and the coming out narrative, they also refunction these forms. Drawing on new media theory, queer theory and the life-writing of Roland Barthes, this paper asks what ASMR testimonies can tell us about the kinds of subjectivities currently emerging online.

Denna studie har utförts med bas i frågeställningen huruvida rosa brus kan nyttjas för att replikera den övergripande ljuddynamik som förekommer inom kli-inriktade ASMR-verk med hänseende till envelope-egenskaper samt övergripande frekvensregister och hur den akustiska karaktären av en sådan ljudartefakt kan komma att uppfattas av ett antal respondenter. Tidigare forskning inom ASMR har jämförts med auditivt inriktad litteratur för att styrka relevansen av denna sortens studie varpå ytterligare framtida forskningsutsikter har spekulerats kring.

Angreppsmetoden har grundats i användandet av en noise gate-teknik med fokus på side chain-kompression samt en vocoder för replikerandet av den ljuddynamik som har inhämtats från ett kli-inriktat ASMR-verk. Ljudtekniska data för designen av artefakten införskaffades med hjälp av spektrogramanalyser och kvalitativa intervjuer stod till grund för experimentets utförande.

Studieresultaten visade huvudsakligen på att rosa brus sannolikt besitter en god förmåga att approximera kli-ljud i det tekniska sammanhang som har studerats och därmed inge behag hos en lyssnare. Även övergångar mellan distinkt olika ljudsegment av denna typ visade sig besitta mycket goda möjligheter att inge behag.

Este micro ensayo surge como reacción al aumento de prácticas artísticas contemporáneas centradas en la tactilidad y los autocuidados. Mi propósito será contextualizar este fenómeno con la aparición del giro terapéuticocomo parte del régimen neoliberal que individualiza los problemas sociales y estructurales.

Muchas de las tendencias artísticas actuales se inspiran en fenómenos online como Oddly Satisfying Videos, ASMR o Slow Tv, que ofrecen una nueva estética sensorial centrada en tingles o triggers (cosquilleos) como parte de la demanda de satisfacción inmediata y la urgencia por experiencias sensoriales y táctiles en el capitalismo de plataformas. Estas tendencias se caracterizan por la intención colectiva de lidiar con malestares asociados al capitalismo tardío, como la ansiedad, el insomnio o la depresión.

In this programme, postdoctoral research fellow Rob Gallagher explores the world of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), a term used by online communities who experience states of euphoric cranial ‘tingling’ when exposed to certain sonic ‘triggers’ – particularly ambient sounds and soft, deliberate speech.

Through readings and conversation in collaboration with two leading ASMR artists, Gallagher investigates ASMR’s broader historical and cultural context, asking what this idiosyncratic culture says about how we consume media and construct identities online.

'ASMR' culture offers a fascinating lens both on the immemorial problem of opening up the ‘black box’ of the individual body to render somatic states and physiological phenomena shareable - and on the ways in which the networked black boxes inhabiting our desks, pockets and living rooms now factor into this problem. Taking as its point of departure Alexander Galloway’s claim that ours has become a ‘cybernetic societ[y]’ in which black boxed systems are not just pervasive but paradigmatic - and that, as a consequence, any account of contemporary culture and politics must address the terms upon which ideas, entities and identities are allowed to appear and disappear  - this paper considers ASMR’s appearance as cultural object, unpacking its implications for understandings of selfhood in the digital present.