The exhibition that wants you to nod off
SENDING visitors to sleep would be a nightmare for most museums, but curators of one show dream of exactly that.
The first exhibition on Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) is opening in the UK, and curators hope the public will turn up and doze off.
ASMR is a physical reaction to images and sounds that can prompt tingles and a feeling of wellbeing.
Visitors to the Design Museum exhibition will be invited into a spa-like gallery to learn about the phenomenon, which has a huge community of devotees online, and sample the sensation itself, using sounds like rustling newspapers, the tapping of fingernails and gentle whispering.
Museum-goers trying out the experimental exhibition can watch and listen to ASMR “triggers” in a specially designed lounge made of 1km-worth of pillows, and are invited to “chill out” under the watchful eye of staff.
James Taylor-foster, the lead curator, said visitors falling asleep would be “the greatest compliment” for the show, adding: “In some ways, it’s the idea of a spa. The starting point is a space of vulnerability, you take your shoes off, and relax and feel... It’s about slowness and softness and gentleness.”
The exhibition in London explains the phenomenon of ASMR to visitors, outlining physical effects ranging from tingling descending from the head down, to a feeling of gentle euphoria.
The show will explain how this brain response has been used by an online community of bloggers, who create videos featuring these sounds for the benefit of viewers hoping to relax.
Mr Taylor-foster said these works by so-called “Asmr-tists” will feature in the show, and visitors will be invited to create their own ASMR sound-scapes.
The exhibition at the Design Museum runs from May 13 to Oct 16.