URBN ASMR explores states of alienation, disembodiment and fractured sensation in urban space, and conceptualises new ways to atmospherically “relate” to the urban landscape, using tropes and techniques from ASMR media phenomena.
This project is couched in ongoing research investigating whether contrived, mediated and artificial modes of experience have bearing on their legitimacy or authenticity. It is also framed by feminist philosophies which acknowledge the benefits to foregrounding “other ways of knowing”, or non-intellectual knowledge, which is often backgrounded and undervalued from Western patriarchal viewpoints. This includes the hard-to-articulate aspects of experiencing space in an embodied way, meaning the senses work inseparably and intuitively. With this understanding, ASMR content creation can be regarded as a feminist research methodology, as with the lack of concrete scientific/intellectual research attached to it, research into efficacy of the form has occurred anecdotally through intimate disclosure of subjective experiences distributed across forums, blogs, and YouTube comments by thousands of people.