Millions of people all over the world regularly watch videos where someone creates sounds using various objects and whispers into a microphone. This is part of the hunt for so-called tingles: warm, relaxing “brain massage” which can best be produced by audio and visual stimuli.

The phenomenon has been popularized as Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR). Most ASMR videos feature some kind of human presence. This project examines whether a human presence is necessary in order to trigger ASMR or whether the experience can be triggered via animated graphic objects.

I created my own animated ASMR-material and tested it in a digital survey. The survey opened on April 23rd and closed on May 14th 2018 with 560 finished submissions. The results are summarized in this video.