ASMR, or autonomous sensory meridian response, videos are a recent internet phenomena. YouTubers take sensitive microphones and make long videos for their viewer’s enjoyment, and to elicit said response. ASMR is often described as a tingling sensation in the head and spine, and is said to be profoundly relaxing. The videos sometimes have hundreds of thousands of hits. The vloggers themselves are a new species of service workers. Here I strung together short clips of them in that role, for a impressionistic, snapshot-like experience of these often hour-long videos.

Sam Rosenblatt