Weird Sensation Feels Good: The World of ASMR at Design Museum

What is it that really gets you going? Is it the sound of a comb gently grating across a microphone, the landscape paintings of Bob Ross accompanied by his whispered narration or maybe the calm unemotional reading of the shipping forecast?


If any of the above makes you feel euphoric, deeply calm or triggers a tingling sensation then that’s an Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response or ASMR – and it’s the focus of an interactive exhibition at Design Museum.


ASMR isn’t something new, the inclusion of a machine where you insert a coin and it spirals round a black and white funnel is something many visitors will have enjoyed in their childhoods when these contraptions could often be found in shopping centres. However, the advent of the Internet and the push back against our always-on culture has given ASMR more prominence as people seek escape from a busy noisy world in the scrunching of objects or a repetitive slicing motion.


Now that’s not to say that everything will appeal to all as a robotic rhythmic tongue dripping saliva was clearly the one exhibit proving to be the most disturbing judging by the looks on the faces of visitors. But that’s the beauty of ASMR, everyone has a different trigger and that tongue clearly works for some people - though we’re not sure if we’d like to meet those people.


It finishes with an expectedly calm installation where people can kick off their shoes, lie down on some bean bags, slap on some headphones and lose themselves in the world of precision dog grooming.


This exhibition will appeal to those new to ASMR and those who regularly disappear down a YouTube rabbit hole of watching ASMRtists at work. It’s a fun and inventive exhibition, and the type of left-field show that museums should be embracing more often - this weird sensation definitely feels good.


Weird Sensations Feels Good: The World of ASMR at Design Museum. 13 May - 16 October, £9.50-10.90.