"ASMR [Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response] 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 emerged, dedicated to watching the work of designers and content creators who aim to trigger their viewers. They do so by whispering or eating, touching or tapping, and more besides. This exhibition is the first to be dedicated to this feeling, and the field of creativity that is growing around it." - Weird Sensation Feels Good - The World of ASMR, The Design Museum, 2022.
Exhibition: Weird Sensation Feels Good: The World of ASMR
Cost: £12
Location: The Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High St, London W8 6AG
Closest Tube: High Street Kensington (turn left out of the station & walk for 5 minutes - follow signs for Holland Park if unsure)
"Sausage" Pillows - more on these a bit later on...
Not my usual Sunday "cup of tea" (that would be a spin class, a cuppa and a park wander) but after recent self-assessment, and feeling slightly embarrassed that I've lived in London for almost a decade and rarely take advantage of the "culture", I called on a friend to help me explore with some museum hopping around the capital. Thus, we set to a plan - starting at The Tate Modern, before walking over Blackfriars Bridge, onto the Circle Line and swiftly around to High Street Kensington, for my first ever experience of ASMR - to be fair, I hadn't heard of it until a few days previously, so I didn't really know what to expect other than something a bit different (and the sighting of what appeared to be a giant sausage sofa on a recent Instagram post) - at the Design Museum.
I can very quickly describe my enduring feelings of the exhibition, in one word: Weird. Not necessarily a bad thing, more a "hmm" emoji face of consideration.
Design Museum front entrance.
So, where do we start? I'm going to go with the beginning... The Design Museum itself is a really interesting building set adjacent to Holland Park in a lovely part of London. I'd recommend spending some time in this area before or after your visit due to the plentiful coffee shops, pubs, restaurants and of course, Hyde Park being a less than 10 minutes walk away. There's a big public space on entering the building, with a mixture of people milling around, sipping coffee, or perusing the souvenir shop. There are a number of exhibitions to view at any one time with varied costs. If you've made it this far, you'll know that we'd signed up for the weird one so trundling down the stairs we went, possibly in trepidation.
*Pro Tip* = Take a £1 coin with you; it'll mean you can lock your bag and/or coat in a locker and won't need to carry it around with you - it gets warm in there!
One of the interesting - & extremely comfortable - seating sections.
Coats and bags locked away, we scanned our tickets and entered the exhibition - not before being handed a 2 pence piece each, to use inside. Thought 1: Intriguing. Thought 2: Cashback on the entry price! I digress. On entering, you're met with printed words about ASMR on walls and your first taste of those aforementioned "sausage" sofas. Thus, we settled down onto what would turn out to be the first of many comfy sections that afternoon. As you'll see from a few of the pictures shared, my simple brain cannot come up with a simpler way to best describe them. Sitting in this first section, we are met with four screens, each showing something different, and we were greeted with the repetitive noise of what sounded like someone running their fingers through a comb. The scenes on the screen were a bit too leftfield for me to describe but one of them did appear to be a comb, with parts of it falling off, which would correlate with the noises we were hearing. Anyway... Also, sorry if you were expecting a high brow art critique of the exhibition. That definitely isn't happening here.
Squidgy bag - what do you do?
Moving into the next section, we were met with plenty of interactive, sensory activities and - due to the staggered entry into the exhibition (i.e. our entry time was for between 4-4:15pm) - with it being much less crowded that you would expect, after only a few minutes, we were able to try out a few things. I was slightly puzzled and at some points, freaked out by what I was seeing/hearing but apparently, that's what ASMR is all about. So, without providing too many spoilers, you can squeeze things, clap at things, listen to things, and pick up a host of ordinary objects to create your own soundscapes from. The bag in the image to the left is one of many, hanging from railings that you walk through - when you touch or squeeze the bags, something happens but you'll have to get yourself there to find out what that is ;-) .
There's an entire Bob Ross room - I know there are a lot of BR fans out there but admittedly, I'd never really watched any of his work before, so the setup (dark rooms, multitude of glaring screens) was quite soothing. After a few minutes, you realize that you're watching the different stages of him creating a painting, which is actually on the wall in front of you. It was pretty mesmerizing watching him create a mountain scene with a knife (who knew that you can paint with a knife!?).
A quick interlude to mention that those with queasy stomachs should avoid the corner where there's what looks like a very true-to-life tongue flexing and dripping into a large tank of water. Moving swiftly on...
Feet up, with Björk on my screen.
Finally, we moved into the main event and, people, don't forget to take your shoes of for this one! This is the vast area of sausage (or intestine) cushions, arranged in a fashion that could almost be representative of an IKEA vs David Bowie music video face-off. The area is actually really comfy but you're faced with a number of different videos on screens that you watch with headphones - if you look right, you'll see me [my feet] watching a 3-minute, 1988 documentary snippet of Björk taking off the back of a TV and comparing it to a small city. Random.
Confusing viewing but could do with this comfort in my house though!
We didn't make it around to all of the screens as there were a few people in the general area. I did manage 1 minute watching a blank screen, listening to a voice whisper random thoughts - a little chilling. Despite the strangeness of the content, it was nice to lay in comfort (and you are definitely encouraged to make yourself comfortable!). It's not just screens and comfort either because in the middle of the room, there are more headphones and a plastic model of a head with ears. After a short while wearing the headphones, you realize that the model head in front of you is hearing your words/movements, and relaying that directly into your headphones. Thus, imagine the "joy" amongst the otherwise contented headphone-wearers (including myself) when, amidst the the surrounds of mild confusion and quiet, a child no older than 10, walks up to his sister (also a member of the headphone contingent, standing next to me) and whispers "PENISSSSSSS" into the ear of one of the plastic models. Unbeknownst to him, all of us got that sound bite clearly in our headphones, and the onset of laughter broke the peace. His sister calls him "such an idiot" then regales the story to her Mum who gives us all a knowing, semi-apologetic look, to which I reply "absolutely fine, highlight of the day for me so far, thank you!".
Laura really getting into the ASMR vibe here.
That concluded the exhibition for us. Approximately 45 minutes well spent. It was kind of tiring in a weird way, as your senses are certainly attacked from all angles. We left feeling somewhat bemused. Personally, I was glad that I gave it a go and did something different with my Sunday. I definitely want to take greater advantage of the wealth of museums and exhibitions available in my home city, many of which are free. Thus, I'll leave you with the image-right of my friend Laura, whom without, I probably would not have got my backside to the Design Museum for a while yet. Here she is doing some ASMR, maneuvering the object in front of her to create some interesting noises in her headphones - and she's fully immersed, as you can see :-D . Oh, and if you were wondering about the 2 pence pieces that were handed to us at the entrance, just take a look at the cover photo to this blog article, very reminiscent of childhood memories in the arcade at the seaside.
I hope you enjoyed my ramblings - the exhibition runs until 10th April, 2023, so you've still time to get yourself there if you're open to something a bit different. There's a great, local vibe, pub just a few minutes walk directly south of the museum too - The Scarsdale Tavern on Edwardes Square, where I digested my ASMR visit with a bowl of chips and a Pepsi Max under the outdoor heater.
Thanks for reading.
Map of the ASMR Exhibition at the Design Museum, London.
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