ASMR as a New Intimacy Practice in Western Culture

The most popular videos on this topic have over 60 million views on YouTube. The term ranks fourth in the classification of the most searched phrases on this platform. The aesthetics of this phenomenon was used in the marketing activities of the largest global brands such as KFC, Pepsi, Zippo and IKEA. Evidently, we are talking about ASMR, which has been successfully conquering the digital world for several years. ASMR, or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, is a physical phenomenon of a very specific sensation of tingling beginning within the skull and then gently moving into the neck area and down towards spine. It can also affect the entire body, passing through it like a pleasant shiver. Until recently ASMR was treated as a sleeping aid and discussed only in a few forums by a narrow group of amateurs. Currently, the published videos, in which the artists try to evoke a tingling sensation in the viewers, rhythmically tapping various objects, stroking rough surfaces, combing hair with a brush or playing a scene of a visit to a doctor, are breaking popularity records. Today, cultural meanings of ASMR require more attention from researchers. Existing studies focus mainly on the therapeutic use of ASMR or its psychological implications. ASMR understood as a cultural phenomenon or a new genre of media art is rarely explored. The aim of the project is to investigate what exactly is the cultural phenomenon known as ASMR and what the growing interest in this practice may show in the context of contemporary changes in human intimacy practices. It seems that ASMR in its intention contributes to building new practices of intimacy, in which both the artist-creator of ASMR and the viewer of the performance, as well as the technical equipment (cameras, microphones) take an active part. In order to answer these questions in detail, it is necessary to look at the ASMR phenomenon from various perspectives and place it in various contexts. As part of the project, a multi-faceted analysis of a wide body of media messages and ASMR artistic practices published on YouTube will be carried out. For example, the project will ask about the historical contexts of ASMR to see what previous artistic activities inspired the creation of ASMR and why. It will also seek to answer other questions. Can ASMR be considered a new music genre or a new genre of post-cinema? How does ASMR address gender roles? What kinds of affects circulate in the space between the artists and the viewers? Why is ASMR particularly fond of science fiction aesthetics? Has sleep been thanks to ASMR irretrievably transformed from the last bastion of intimacy and privacy into a manageable commodity? And finally, what is inherently new about this new practice of intimacy?

In the project "ASMR as a New Intimacy Practice in Western Culture," it has been demonstrated that cultural and media phenomenon known as Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) contributes to building new mediatized and digitized practices of intimacy in the contemporary Western society. The project explored the internet phenomenon of ASMR in the context of contemporary changes of human practices connected to establishing, maintaining, and nurturing intimacy. It has been shown that ASMR culture is rooted in the variety of processes of human-machine interactions and interlacings attempting to convey the multifaceted nature of intimacy. In the project, I investigated various communication strategies and modes (emotional, linguistical, interactive) used by the creators of ASMR content published on video sharing social media platforms, mainly YouTube, to establish affective connection with the audience in terms of fostering the feeling of intimacy, enhancing user's mood and wellbeing, improving user's sleep quality, and providing user with helpful and convenient digital tool for self-care. Numerous techniques and modalities utilized by the ASMR artists in the videos, e.g., highlighting the presence of technological interface, implementing non-human and posthuman viewpoints, roles, and perspectives, and employing fragmentary and non-linear narratives, were identified throughout the project. Such strategies were recognized as being based on the interplay between various factors, including aesthetic, affective, and epistemological ones, in which artist-creator, viewer-listener, technical equipment (cameras, microphones), and various accessories and props featured in a video take an active part. Furthermore, the project determined that ASMR videos constitute a post-cinematic art form, in which a particular kind of sensibility called 'posthuman' is manifested and an emotional structure of 'post-cinematic affect' is revealed. Posthuman sensibility assumes that humans are only one element of a vast network of interconnected beings - and not by any means the most important one. This notion does not fill ASMR culture with anxiety but instead forms a source of relaxation for the ASMR community members who can experience a feeling of intimate interdependence of human and non-human beings. Post-cinematic affect is a specific emotional structure present in ASMR videos, related to the posthuman form of sensibility, and co-created through various post-cinematic techniques. Overall, the research demonstrated that ASMR videos portray activities that are sonically and visually engaging, intimate in nature, appealing to the senses and stimulating the body, rather than being semantically relevant. Sounds and visuals interacting affectively with the body of the viewer-listener of ASMR video play a key role in the construction of a multimodal experience of the surrounding reality which is symptomatic for the person living in the twenty-first century. The project can stimulate debates in scientific environments revolving around affective aspects of media and touching on the multifaceted nature of intimacy in cultural discourses.