Vibrations of Worldly Matter. ASMR as Contemporary Musique Concrète

Abstract

The autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a sensory phenomenon, some-times referredto as a “brain orgasm,” which involves pleasant tingling sensationsin a body in reaction to certain stimuli. This article analyzes ASMRwithin the framework of ideas put forward by the musique concrètethat offered new sensibilities of musical ex-pression and promoted attentive listening to matter. At the same time, we treat sonic practices of ASMR as inspired by the concepts developed by New Materialism, especially the notions of physicality and materiality of sound recognized within the ontology of its vibrational force.

Keywords

• asmr
• musique concrète
• new materialism
• sonic materialism
• vibration