[Art of ASMR]

Meet “Singing ASMR”, an ASMR artist on YouTube who creates tingly lullabies

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityKarin was born in Bucharest, Romania and now resides in South Germany. She has a Magister Artium’s Degree in German literature and minored in sociology and philosophy.

Karin is also the ASMR artist known as “Singing ASMR” on YouTube.

My initial thought about her was that she might be confusing “frisson”, the chills due to music, with ASMR. I expected to hear someone singing in a typical voice, which is not commonly considered a usual trigger for ASMR.

But then I listened to one of her videos.

She sings very softly and gently, almost in a whisper voice. “ASMR lullabies” may be a great way to describe her style – her singing is likely to be soothing to children and adults alike. Her channel also includes videos of role plays, tappings, brushings, layered sounds, and more.

In my interview with Karin she shares how she came up with the idea of singing ASMR, insight about her most popular video, challenges with creating ASMR videos, ideas for ASMR research, and more.

Below are my questions in bold, her replies in italics, and links to her YouTube channel and other sites.

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Meet softlygaloshes, an ASMR artist and the founder of ASMRYouReady.com

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityRebekah “Bekah” Smith is a California resident known widely as the ASMR artist softlygaloshes.

She has created about 150 ASMR videos so far and continues to post new videos every 4 days. Her consistent production of high quality, binaural videos has attracted a growing fan base of over 90,000 followers to her channel.

But Bekah is not just a prolific ASMR artist, she is also a blogger and founder of the website ASMRYouReady.com.

ASMRYouReady.com is an extremely content-rich website. Visitors can enjoy frequently posted articles about ASMR, discussions on topics relevant to ASMR fans and artists, interviews with new and established ASMR artists, ASMR videos which can be sorted by category, and “The Tinglies” contest for ASMR videos.

She currently runs the website with the assistance of Kris, the ASMR artist known as WhisperBits. Kris is one of the content creators, as well as providing valuable web and graphic designer contributions to the site.

I interviewed Bekah to learn a bit more about her and her website. Bekah shares why she started creating ASMR videos, her motivation for creating ASMRYouReady.com, how her understanding of ASMR has changed over time, what she would say to scientists pondering ASMR research, and more.

Below are my questions in bold, her replies in italics, and links to her website and YouTube channel.

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Meet Jellybean Green, an ASMR artist on YouTube

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityJellybean Green has her Bachelor of Arts degree in performance with a minor in creative writing.

She is a freelance writer, nursing student, and mother living in the United States.

JellyBean Green is also an ASMR artist who creates videos for her YouTube channel, JellyBean Green ASMR.

Jellybean Green shares her insight for what makes a good ASMR artist, beautifully articulates a potential misconception about ASMR artists, envisions a thoughtful demonstration that would definitely motivate more clinicians and researcher to investigate the potential of ASMR, and more.

Below are my questions in bold followed by her replies in italics.

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Meet Maiko Yamamoto, director of a dance production inspired by ASMR

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Maiko Yamamoto is an Artistic Director and member of the Theatre Replacement theatre company in Vancouver, Canada. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, with a specialization in Theatre, along with a Masters of Applied Arts in visual arts.

Part of the mission of Maiko and her theatre company is to “build performances that react to contemporary existence.”

This mission was clearly manifested in a recent ASMR-inspired experimental dance work.

The ASMR-inspired show was, “The Sensationalists”. The world premiere was held May 12 – 16, 2015, at The Cultch Historic Theatre in Vancouver.

The show was created by 605 Collective, a Vancouver-based dance company, who commissioned Maiko to direct the work.

These two companies describe their final product as “an immersive performance experience that pushes both companies into new territories, exploring concepts surrounding various sensory phenomena.”

Maiko shares the first time she experienced ASMR, her favorite ASMR video, her goals of the show (which truly embody ASMR), and how the dancers used movements and words to express ASMR.

Below are my questions in bold followed by her replies in italics.

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Meet Dmitri, the ASMR artist of the massageASMR YouTube channel

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Dmitri is an Information Technologist living on the east coast of Australia, in the city of Gold Coast.

He began making massage videos and then evolved his channel into creating ASMR videos. With over 200,000 followers, this change has proven quite successful.

Dmitri was also brilliant to shift from massage only videos to massage and ASMR videos because the biology of ASMR might just be tapping into some of the same biology that causes massages to feel so relaxing.

I’m fortunate and honored that he agreed to be the first ASMR artist interviewed for this site.

Dmitri shares his thoughts about massage and ASMR, offers advice to new ASMR artists, explains an idea for an ASMR experiment, and more.

Below are my questions in bold, followed by his replies in italics.

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“The ASMRtist Show”, the first podcast about ASMR artists.

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Jose Prendes, a filmmaker in Los Angeles, has recently started a new podcast about ASMR called, “The ASMRtist Show.”

Jose records his podcast in his home studio and already has completed several episodes. I was honored to be the first guest on his show. Jose was a terrific host and it was quite an enjoyable interview.

I sent Jose some questions to learn more about him and his new podcast.  Now I get to turn the table and ask Jose questions.

Jose shares why he wanted to kick off his show with a scientist, offers insight about what makes a good ASMR artist, gives some tips for starting your own podcast, and spills the beans on which ASMR artists you will hear in his next five episodes.

Below are my questions in bold followed by his replies in italics.

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ASMR research publication helps ASMR artist to keep his YouTube channel

/ Dr. Richard / 4 Comments

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversitySensorAdi (his online identity, not his real name) is an ASMR artist on YouTube. He has been creating and posting ASMR videos on his channel “SensorAdi ASMR” since 2013.

He has posted over 150 soothing videos of himself painting, making gentle brushing sounds, softly scratching and tapping on wood, walking through leaves, and performing relaxing clinical role-plays.

It is obvious from the comments that most of his YouTube followers find his videos helpful for relaxing and falling asleep.  A comment on his most popular video from one viewer reflects the sentiments from most other viewers, “I had to listen to this right before I went to sleep and I am at complete ease and peaceful.”

He told me that one viewer even wrote to him from the hospital to let him know that his videos were helpful to him while he was getting treatment for an infection.

Knowing that his videos are helpful to others is important to SensorAdi, “It is very nice and motivating feeling to me.”

But SensorAdi is not just an ASMR artist, he is also a school teacher in Poland.

He has been teaching High School students (ages 15-19) in his current position for the past 7 years.  I asked him what makes him a good teacher and he replied, “I am honest, authentic.  I am interested in the issues and problems of students.”

Recently though, SensorAdi has had his own issues and problems.

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The first orchestral composition inspired by ASMR

/ Dr. Richard / 1 Comment

Jocelyn Morlock is the Composer in Residence of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in Canada.

She has the admirable distinction of being the first woman composer in residence in the history of this orchestra.

Now she has another terrific distinction – she may be the first person in history to create an orchestral composition inspired by ASMR.

And the title of her musical composition does a wonderful job of evoking ASMR.

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Newsweek article about Bob Ross and ASMR

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Newsweek has just published an article about ASMR.

It is a lengthy and well written piece by Joe Kloc which focuses on Bob Ross as a painter, a person, and of course, as a seminal figure in the experience of ASMR for many individuals.

Ilse Blansert is also prominently featured, providing illustrative quotes that tie in well throughout the story.

The article does not address many scientific theories about ASMR.  But I found the information about Bob Ross so well done that it did feel like a fresh piece of journalism about ASMR.

Here are some (but not all) of the most interesting bits from the article.

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