Hong Kong ASMR show triggers ‘weird sensation’ of internet trend with things you can touch

Since ASMR took the internet by storm during the pandemic it has been a private, virtual experience. Weird Sensation Feels Good changes that

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A section of “Weird Sensation Feels Good: The World of ASMR” at Airside in Kai Tak. The show features works from international and Hong Kong artists designed to create a “very personal” sensory experience. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 1:15pm, 22 Mar 2025

Coined in 2009, the term autonomous sensory meridian response – ASMR for short – describes a tingling yet calming sensation triggered by audiovisual stimuli.

For more than a decade it existed only on the fringes of the internet. Then, during the Covid-19 pandemic, ASMR videos took the world by storm.

At a time when people were confined to their homes, this very specific type of viral media, characterised by low-pitched sounds and slow-paced videos, offered a sense of comfort with their whispered sounds and oddly satisfying visuals of mundane activities.

Unlike other trends that have come and gone in today’s internet culture, ASMR’s popularity has not diminished. Some of its practitioners and early adopters are even taking the internet phenomenon offline.

Visitors in the ASMR arena at Weird Sensation Feels Good: The World of ASMR, at Airside mall in Kai Tak until July 13. Photo: Jonathan Wong

The immersive exhibition “Weird Sensation Feels Good: The World of ASMR” began in 2020 at the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design (ArkDes) in Stockholm. It then travelled to London’s Design Museum in 2022 and now comes to Hong Kong on its first stop outside Europe.

The travelling show’s first iteration was “very experimental” as ASMR was fairly unknown back in 2020, says lead curator James Taylor-Foster.