A.S.M.R

 ASMR is something I'd never heard of before a few months ago, even though I'd been experiencing it for several months (maybe years) before I found out about it. I'd seen and subscribed to videos of fine art restoration by Julian Baumgartner and came to discover that they are considered among the finest ASMR videos out there. I'd also seen urbex videos by Bros of Decay, a couple of Dutch speaking Belgian brothers who travel around Europe (and sojourned in Japan) exploring abandoned castles, mansions, and houses and telling tales about them -- in English. Come to find out they too are considered ASMR by many of their fans. 

Then finally, while scrolling through some of the food videos, I came across numerous Korean Street Food videos (made and posted by various people) showing the process of creating and serving a range of so-called street foods in Korea -- though often the videos are obviously not of street vendors but of indoor restaurant cooks. ASMR. All of it.

But what is it?

Well, that took some digging. Apparently it's been a Thing online especially at YouTube for some time, and it comes from some sort of fringe psychology research. A.S.M.R. stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response which in turn refers to a physical and psychological response in many people to auditory and visual stimuli. 

"Basically, it feels like the amazing chills you get when someone plays with your hair or traces your back with their fingertips," says Heather Feather, a popular "ASMRtist" with nearly 400,000 YouTube subscribers. The dulcet tones of famed soft-spoken painter Bob Ross are among the most common ASMR triggers. Indeed, "Bob Ross" is among the terms most frequently associated with ASMR—and so are "Heather Feather" and "GentleWhispering," another top ASMRtist on YouTube.

Julian Baumgartner has well over a million YouTube subscribers, and each video he produces generally gets hundreds of thousands or millions of views. He conserves and restores fine art in a vast loft cum restoration studio in Chicago. He acts with extreme precision and care, taking as much time and resources as necessary to repair and recondition the works of art (mostly paintings) his clients send him. He describes every step and comments on the work in great detail using his "ASMR voice" speaking softly and carefully and precisely, never becoming either over excited or bored, but staying always positive and intrigued by his discoveries. Some of his videos are released with commentary, some without -- and the ones that have no commentary are referred to by him as ASMR while the ones with commentary are not, but his viewers see both as different forms of ASMR. He says he produces the videos mostly by himself, moving the camera from place to place in the studio, doing the setups, doing the restoration work both on camera and off, then editing and doing voiceovers. Occasionally, he'll ask someone else to record part of a video if he needs a tracking shot while he moves a work from one part of the studio to another. But we never see anyone else in the studio. It's never quite clear how long it takes to restore a particular piece, nor are costs ever mentioned, but those are minor details to most of his viewers. They focus, as does Julian, on the process of fine art restoration, the detail of the work, the many steps and stages that must be taken and followed, the sequence of assessment, cleaning, repair, retouching and restoration, and... the Washi Kozo paper he uses to protect and maintain the integrity of the piece while he works on it.

It's all fascinating. Seeing it done, seeing it done so well and so consistently, is rewarding in and of itself. I don't know that I experience a tingling sensation from my scalp to the tips of my fingers and toes as I watch -- which is supposedly the definition of ASMR -- but I'm always intrigued and pleased when I see the process, which is an experience I have rarely had in real life (I have on occasion witnessed conservation and restoration work in museums, but it's typically been very brief glimpses and without much or any explanation.) 

Likewise Korean Street Food videos are process oriented, usually with no talking at all, just the sounds of the work being done. The what and how of creating dozens of (say) egg toast sandwiches at one time is shown in video after video -- the skills and dexterity of the cook are featured -- while the setup and ingredients vary from place to place and the results are showcased sometimes including someone taking a bite, but often not. 

That there are so many different people posting Korean street food videos, all of which are similar, makes me wonder if there is a central clearing house for the genre. I don't know -- or particularly care. But it's one of several mysteries of where these videos come from, who produces them and how they are distributed. But those are minor questions. The process is what's important and what is on show.  

There's another set of process videos that come from a production factory in Cyprus. 5 Minute Crafts is one of their brands. Their videos have millions of subscribers and get millions of views. They purport to show "hacks" -- food hacks, household hacks, pet hacks, and on and on. Many of them, apparently, don't work or are falsely presented, but few seem to mind. And in some circles, they are considered ASMR. 

So it's out there, lots of it.