ASMR for Empaths

ASMR for Empaths (2021) is a digital video work foregrounding touch and sound, featuring a gestural performance with handmade ceramic objects. This video was created as a gesture of care, and is intended as an offering to the most empathetic, absorbent, and porous among us, for whom stresses accumulate in the body and mind. Special thanks to Jackson 2bears for his production work on this video.

ASMR (auto or autonomous sensory meridian response) is described as a tingling sensation that begins at the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. A pleasant form of paresthesia, often compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia–I was attracted to the idea that this could be used to reach out across distances to create the sensation of touch in remote viewers. I stumbled on ASMR completely by accident when I was strategizing how to exhibit my recent body of work, Objects for Empaths during the global pandemic. Working within the format of ASMR video I was able to create a performance-for-video work featuring the handmade ceramic objects paired with gesture. The formal aspects that were borrowed from ASMR video content are not the only thing shared with the genre. ASMR content is often intended to bring about a sense of calm…my work is aligned in sentiment, and intended as an act of care.