Joanna Łapińska

In the article, the author discusses a new cultural phenomenon known as ASMR, in particular its interest in multi-sensuality, in a posthuman perspective related to the non-hierarchical nature of human senses. The text analyzes selected ASMR videos published on the YouTube website, focusing on ways to show different sensory impressions (connected with images, sounds, haptics, aromas, flavours), putting forward the thesis that ASMR practices promote posthuman type of sensitivity and encourage the production of alternative modes of experiencing the world. 

This article focuses on the perception of sleep in the digital culture of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), examining both viewer-listeners’ online discussions about the impact of ASMR videos on their sleep and the content of audiovisual materials published on YouTube. The paper posits that sleep is viewed in two ways in the ASMR community; on the one hand, in a capitalist sense as a manageable and controllable object, and, on the other, as an element that escapes this discourse. The ASMR culture, while affirming contemporary normative sleep patterns, simultaneously invites its enthusiasts to slow down, unwind, and relax, thereby aligning itself with the slow movement.

Sensory Garden as a Place of Affective Coexistence of Human and Non-Human Subjects in a City

The article analyzes the idea of a sensory garden as a place of symbiotic affective coexistence of human and non-human subjects in urban space, based on the concept presented in the study of green areas belonging to the “Zachęta” Housing Cooperative in Białystok prepared in 2018 by a team from the Białystok University of Technology. The article tries to answer the question of how the sensory garden becomes a space inviting to build affective connections between the entities that co-create it, and whether this reveals its potential leading to the blurring the boundaries between oppositional categories of “nature” – “culture”, “subject” – “object”. The authors note that the concepts of critical posthumanism appreciating the affective relationships between human and non- human actors, as well as non-humans going beyond the functional framework created by human, resonate in the idea of the sensory garden presented in the study. The sensory garden becomes a productivity sphere appreciating the value of the multi-sensory experience of the world, in which humans and non-humans find countless, often non-obvious ways of interacting with each other. 

* Badania – sfinansowane z subwencji przekazanej przez Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego – zostały zrealizowane na Politechnice Białostockiej w ramach pracy badawczej nr S/WA/1/17. Dotyczy Haliny Łapińskiej.