Conscious voting
justicaeleitoral (The Supreme Electoral Court of Brazil)
justicaeleitoral is a YouTube channel owned by the courts of Brazil. Ahead of their 2022 general election, the institution published a playlist of ASMR works focused on one object: the electronic voting machine. Used since 1996, and considered by some to be one of the more successful digital voting methods, the device is—as a design object—straight out of the eighties. Intended to familiarise voters with the process, the videos were featured by John Oliver in his deep dive into (at the time of writing outgoing President) Jair Bolsonaro. See the complete playlist here.
Tags/Triggers: Intentional ASMR, Political, Learning, Object Oriented ASMR
Elephant folio
Julie Rose Bower for the Victoria & Albert Museum
Julie Rose Bower, who’s Meridians Meets is part of WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD: The World of ASMR, has been developing the ASMR at the Museum series since 2020. The works seek to tap into the inherent ASMR in a museum context, allowing for close exploration of delicate objects. In this episode, librarians Vicky Worsfold and Caroline Penn from the V&A’s National Art Library carefully fold an elephant folio – a really big book. See the expanding ASMR at the Museum playlist here.
Tags/Triggers: Intentional ASMR, Learning, Object Oriented ASMR, Soft Spoken
“Feels Like Prada”
David Sims and Ferdinando Verderi for Prada
In 2021, Prada released their Fall/Winter 21 campaign advert. Using the format of ASMR, the 60 second film presents a variety of garments and accessories as material objects. There’s a lot of leather, shining silver, and so on. Too short in duration and too artfully edited to be considered a work of ASMR, the ad is a good example nonetheless.
Tags/Triggers: Intentional ASMR, ASMR and Advertising, High Budget ASMR
Endnote: in connection to the extension of WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD: The World of ASMR at the Design Museum, an exhibition in collaboration with ArkDes, we recently released a behind the scenes mini-documentary – Life of the ASMRtists. Watch it on NOWNESS.