Monday, December 02, 2019
Shifts in the genre of ASMR videos. The frustrating thing with journalism about ASMR (which, in case you don't know, stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response and is an audiovisual genre intended to provoke 'tingling' or 'floating' sensations in its audience for sleep or relaxation) is that it often assumes the reader has never heard of ASMR and so it's always focused on explaining the sensory phenomenon.
As a result there isn't much discussion of the genre itself, which is dynamic like any other genre, and has evolved over time. Every article seems to repeat the same really basic discussions of the subtypes of videos: soft speaking and personal attention roleplays; smooth gestures and movements (including deft handmaking and machine manufacturing); abstract 'triggers' including mouth sounds and tactile manipulation of objects.
Like any media genre, ASMR has gone through trends and technological experiments that are only really noticeable to longtime ASMRtists or viewers. I'm fascinated to see that binaural recording setups seem less popular now. A few years ago heaps of people were using the 3Dio binaural mic that has the fake ears, or a similar two-mic setup; formally, many of the videos produced with such setups had a lot of emphasis on deliberately brushing, whispering into or otherwise interacting with the mic, which would often appear onscreen in the videos.
But now a lot of ASMRtists seem to work with a single offscreen omnidirectional mic, and rely either on their performative skills or on montage effects. The earliest ASMR videos were single takes, or several takes edited seamlessly together as one shot, intended to read as 'live'. But the more interesting videos now will use intercut shots and layered audio, or try for more abstract visual effects with voiceovers, or field recordings rather than the traditional bedroom studio.
Also, these days I see more of those in-ear binaural mics that look like earbuds. ASMRtists who use models (for example, for massage, facial and hairdressing videos) will get the model to wear them, which provides a very specific surrogate sensory experience for the viewer.
I'm also noticing that while interpersonal, retail, beauty treatment and medical settings remain popular in roleplay videos, esoteric 'magical-thinking' practices such as reiki, tarot, astrology and witchcraft are becoming more mainstream in ASMR.
One of the best ASMR roleplays I’ve seen recently was a dystopian scenario where you have to visit the security department at your corporate workplace to have your face mapped and scanned because you aren’t showing up on the facial recognition cameras in the foyer. The ASMRtist appears as a kind of pragmatic fellow worker who knows this is annoying to you but is gently and professionally assessing you so you can get back to work. I found it so relaxing I was falling asleep in front of my computer and had to stop it halfway.
The creator is called Ancient Whispers ASMR, and she's Canadian. She's a relative newcomer to ASMR, and while her early videos were mystical – focused on guided meditation, esoteric things like crystals and tarot readings, she has since embraced green-screen effects that instantly put her into a much wider range of scenarios, and she's embraced sci-fi and fantasy settings.
I've also just discovered this incredible account 'ATMOSPHERE' that does "cinematic ASMR". I think she might be Russian or Eastern European. It's way more immersive and narrative than most ASMRtists, and has so much attention to effects and background sounds. She's done kind of historical fantasy ones as well as futuristic sci-fi ones.
While I haven't watched all of her videos, they are quite ambitious in that they seem to occupy a shared narrative universe where characters recur. For instance, there's one where a character who was first seen reading Tolstoy to you in a train carriage reappears at the tailor's atelier where you are now being fitted for a ball gown.
What I love about ATMOSPHERE is that it embraces the grey area between ASMR and older audiovisual genres. The production values are still clearly homemade, but they make me wonder: what would a Hollywood ASMR movie be like to watch? Imagine how great the sound could be in Dolby Atmos, and how stunning and immersive the visuals could be.
The trouble is that outside the ASMR subculture, ASMR is a joke and people think it's just about caressing microphones seductively and whispering and tapping things. While some musicians and actors have appeared in novelty ASMR videos, I doubt that any writer or director would actually build a movie around it.
As a result there isn't much discussion of the genre itself, which is dynamic like any other genre, and has evolved over time. Every article seems to repeat the same really basic discussions of the subtypes of videos: soft speaking and personal attention roleplays; smooth gestures and movements (including deft handmaking and machine manufacturing); abstract 'triggers' including mouth sounds and tactile manipulation of objects.
Like any media genre, ASMR has gone through trends and technological experiments that are only really noticeable to longtime ASMRtists or viewers. I'm fascinated to see that binaural recording setups seem less popular now. A few years ago heaps of people were using the 3Dio binaural mic that has the fake ears, or a similar two-mic setup; formally, many of the videos produced with such setups had a lot of emphasis on deliberately brushing, whispering into or otherwise interacting with the mic, which would often appear onscreen in the videos.
But now a lot of ASMRtists seem to work with a single offscreen omnidirectional mic, and rely either on their performative skills or on montage effects. The earliest ASMR videos were single takes, or several takes edited seamlessly together as one shot, intended to read as 'live'. But the more interesting videos now will use intercut shots and layered audio, or try for more abstract visual effects with voiceovers, or field recordings rather than the traditional bedroom studio.
Also, these days I see more of those in-ear binaural mics that look like earbuds. ASMRtists who use models (for example, for massage, facial and hairdressing videos) will get the model to wear them, which provides a very specific surrogate sensory experience for the viewer.
I'm also noticing that while interpersonal, retail, beauty treatment and medical settings remain popular in roleplay videos, esoteric 'magical-thinking' practices such as reiki, tarot, astrology and witchcraft are becoming more mainstream in ASMR.
One of the best ASMR roleplays I’ve seen recently was a dystopian scenario where you have to visit the security department at your corporate workplace to have your face mapped and scanned because you aren’t showing up on the facial recognition cameras in the foyer. The ASMRtist appears as a kind of pragmatic fellow worker who knows this is annoying to you but is gently and professionally assessing you so you can get back to work. I found it so relaxing I was falling asleep in front of my computer and had to stop it halfway.
The creator is called Ancient Whispers ASMR, and she's Canadian. She's a relative newcomer to ASMR, and while her early videos were mystical – focused on guided meditation, esoteric things like crystals and tarot readings, she has since embraced green-screen effects that instantly put her into a much wider range of scenarios, and she's embraced sci-fi and fantasy settings.
I've also just discovered this incredible account 'ATMOSPHERE' that does "cinematic ASMR". I think she might be Russian or Eastern European. It's way more immersive and narrative than most ASMRtists, and has so much attention to effects and background sounds. She's done kind of historical fantasy ones as well as futuristic sci-fi ones.
While I haven't watched all of her videos, they are quite ambitious in that they seem to occupy a shared narrative universe where characters recur. For instance, there's one where a character who was first seen reading Tolstoy to you in a train carriage reappears at the tailor's atelier where you are now being fitted for a ball gown.
What I love about ATMOSPHERE is that it embraces the grey area between ASMR and older audiovisual genres. The production values are still clearly homemade, but they make me wonder: what would a Hollywood ASMR movie be like to watch? Imagine how great the sound could be in Dolby Atmos, and how stunning and immersive the visuals could be.
The trouble is that outside the ASMR subculture, ASMR is a joke and people think it's just about caressing microphones seductively and whispering and tapping things. While some musicians and actors have appeared in novelty ASMR videos, I doubt that any writer or director would actually build a movie around it.
