WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD

ASMR is a term that describes a physical sensation: euphoria or deep calm, sometimes a tingling in the body. In recent years an online audience of millions has grown, dedicated to watching the work of designers and content creators who try to trigger this feeling in their viewers. They do it by whispering or eating, touching or tapping, and more besides. This exhibition is the first dedicated to this feeling, and the emerging field of creativity that has grown up around it.

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. As academic institutions around the world seek to make sense of the phenomenon, creatives—known as “ASMRtists”—are building on a cultural movement that transcends language and culture in favour of bodily ‘feels’.

Like meditation or yoga, ASMR happens to both your body and to your mind. It is not about speed, but about focus and slowness. ASMRtists1 do not seek to entertain but to relax; for experiencers, it offers a degree of insulation from a noisy, wandering world. Through sound and film, shared through broadcasting platforms such as YouTube, works of ASMR make room for close-looking, close-listening, and close-feeling.

ASMR injects the Internet with softness, kindness and empathy. As a form of digital intimacy2, it offers comfort on demand, standing against the feeling of isolation that constant connectivity can deceptively breed. Anecdotally, ASMR is being used as a form of self-medication against the effects of loneliness, insomnia, stress, and anxiety. This is a cue to its success, and to its transcendental appeal3.

WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD is the first exhibition of its kind to lift ASMR out from your screen and into public space. Step into an acoustically tuned environment and understand how people are deploying new and existing tools and materials to negotiate a complex world.

SOFT GOSSIP by Claire Tolan

SOFT GOSSIP 4comprises two immersive sound performances: Many Tongues in the Evening: Chorus and One Tongue in the Morning: Meditation. Both performances explore themes of hospitality, riddles and gossip, as well as the discipline, intimacy, and close-contact of close-listening. The sunset performance on October 2, 2020 featured a whisper chorus while the sunrise meditation on October 3, 2020 was a solo performance.

Claire Tolan is an American artist and programmer living in Berlin. Since 2013, much of her work has emerged from the sounds of ASMR. Between 2014 and 2019, Tolan hosted You’re Worth It, the ASMR show on Berlin Community Radio. She has collaborated on recording and performance projects with artists such as Holly Herndon, Inger Wold Lund, Hanne Lippard, Camilla Steinum, and Susan Ploetz. Alongside Holly Herndon, Tolan is a participant of the exhibition WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD with the audio work Lonely at the Top from the album Platform (2015).

Virtual ASMR with Melinda Lauw

In this performance, Melinda Lauw explores agency of the audience and subverts traditional subject-object relationships in ASMR through storytelling, DIY craft, and puppetry. Playing the role of a puppet master, Lauw turns ASMR trigger objects into living characters. The online audience is invited to be her assistant, making decisions on a new ASMR puppet that they co-create during the live broadcast5. The story includes a visit to a mysterious island and a tiff between Mother Brush and her new friend, a mischievous little horse.

Melinda Lauw is an artist, experience designer and immersive creator working across the fields of art, culture, immersive entertainment and experiential marketing. She is the co-founder of Whisperlodge ↗, a production company pioneering the practice of live ASMR. Since 2016, their hit immersive show has toured New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles and has been featured on Netflix and in The New York Times.

Plug-in Poetry

Plug-in Poetry, a mini-podcast series featuring contemporary Swedish poets ↗, created in conjunction with the exhibition in collaboration with Bon Magazine ↗.