The thing I really like about the topic I have chosen is that not much is known about ASMR. Of course it is now recognised but there is no real scientific backing or knowledge behind the subject. A great summary of the research that has gone into it closely resembles this; Some people feel ASMR, some people don’t… and we don’t know why. Groundbreaking stuff isn’t it? I think this gives me quite the opportunity to delve deep into the community of ASMR in order to discover if emotions are the basis of this feeling or if it is in fact science. 

I feel this is important to explain as there isn’t really elaborate background research that has been undertaken into the specifics of the ASMR Community itself, only the science or apparent science behind the phenomenon. I want to be clear now as the state of my ideas have evolved around this topic that this isn’t merely research into what ASMR is itself, but how the community who revolve around ASMR feel the phenomenon to be, how it helps them and why there is a misunderstanding of what the concept is to those who don’t have the ability to experience it. This is something that I don’t think is accurately represented on the internet today and is why the aim of my investigation is to achieve this clarity.

That being said it is important to try and work with what we do have on the internet and as background research. Research conducted at the University of Sheffield concluded that ASMR does induce feelings of relaxation, but only in people who regularly watch it. “In the first study of its kind into the physiological underpinnings of ASMR, researchers from the University of Sheffield found that those who experience the phenomenon had significantly reduced heart rates while watching ASMR videos compared to people who do not experience ASMR” (Savvy, 2019). I think this is an important aspect to touch on because although not directly it does ask questions about the ASMR community. Those who do not watch regularly do not experience relaxation. Is this because of predisposed opinions, misinformation or just not giving something a chance because it seems weird? Definitely aspects of my research that need to be touched on but interesting nonetheless.

In terms of the ethicality when conducting this research, I believe some changes may need to be made. Collecting data from Youtube comments could be a no go because I don’t believe I have permission to use these comments as it is a breach of privacy and intellectual property. I could cut around this by still using the comments by removing all association to the individual who posted the comment. Either way, to counteract this I am going to really need to rely on my observational research and more importantly my auto ethnographic research to effectively convey my thoughts of the ASMR Community.

Reference list

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-asmr-real-or-just-a-pseudoscience/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180621101334.htm#:~:text=ASMR%20is%20the%20sensation%20experienced,and%20spreading%20down%20the%20body.

In this week’s blog post we are focusing on three key aspects of my ethnographic research on the ASMR community: Problematising my approach when conducting a media ethnography, my research plan and the schedule of my research. The purpose of this research process is to ensure that all of the goals needed to complete my research are of sound achievability and that there is adequate research here to be conducted.

In terms of problematisation, my ethnographic research will be aimed at understanding and perhaps even attracting a new audience to the ASMR community. I say this as the topic of ASMR and it’s online community can spring a variety of negative connotations and those negative connotations (as with anything) come from a lack of understanding. I aim to conduct this research by targeting existing viewers of ASMR on various subcategories of videos in the niche as well as new viewers who may not experience or do not understand what this whole niche is about. Additionally I hope to gain more understanding into how listeners who casually, moderately and regularly listen to ASMR explore their own categories of relaxation. This involves understanding how they listen, when they listen, why they listen and what all of these aspects offer them in terms of satisfaction. This info specifically will help me again to pitch the idea towards those who are unfamiliar or less understanding of the subject.

Now, with my research plan I’m hoping to use both observational and auto ethnographic research methods when conducting my research of the ASMR community. The observational research methods used will involve reading comments under youtube videos, checking out ASMR sub reddit for varying trends and also rediscovering my own trends, observations and ideology regarding my experiences around ASMR. My auto ethnographic research methods will include personal journaling that includes how I access ASMR, why I choose to watch the content I do, how I actively participate in the community and the results of this self reflection. My hope is that the analysation of my own personal experiences within the ASMR community will help me to better understand the cultural experiences of others. 

I’ve never used auto ethnographic research before so I’m quite excited to implement this in my work. This could be the best type of work to implement this type of research into and I hope it is as effective as I am led to believe; “It is concluded that the academic rigour of autoethnographic studies should be established to enhance its credibility and value and that the criteria used needs to be judiciously determined and applied” (Le Roux, 2016). 

In terms of a schedule I have created a little digital timeline below that should give you a rough idea of when I’ll be conducting each stage of my research.

Reference List

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13645579.2016.1140965

Hello once again, today we are going to be taking a closer look at the ASMR community, the spread of that community online and where it all leads to. To clarify before we begin, a large portion of this information was surprisingly already researched by Think With Google – ASMR videos are the biggest YouTube trend you’ve never heard of.  They’re use of graphs and trending Google information has really narrowed down the reach of this community and also how it all came to be.

The term ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) was only coined in 2010! Let that sink in. The feeling of ASMR has been known for years and years but only recently has there been some scientific understanding and recognition. Although the vast majority of Youtubers really started making ASMR videos in the 2010’s, all you need to do is take a look at Bob Ross’ “The Joy of Painting” to understand that this has been a niche for quite some time. 

To fully understand the reach of this content we need to take a deeper dive into some of the more in depth aspects of Youtube as a field site and how that impacts the online community. As the ASMR trend has begun to grow, various brands have caught on to just how big this trend is and have seen the potential of using websites like Youtube to create their own ASMR advertisements. For example, “KFC has embraced the trend. In a YouTube video, the actor George Hamilton, portraying Colonel Sanders, whispers sweet nothings about pocket squares and enjoys the sounds of KFC’s new crispy fried chicken”(Mooney and Klein, 2016). Another great example of brands using a combination of Youtube and ASMR to advertise would be W Magazine with their “… Explore ASMR” series which has seen the likes of Cardi B, Jennifer Garner and many more female celebrities exploring what ASMR is in front of the camera. W magazines’ exploration of this trend has become increasingly popular due to the fact that many ASMR videos take the form of beauty care videos, makeup tutorials and many other women’s beauty and personal attention type videos.

I think the key takeaway here is that although ASMR is still a niche, there are so many sub-categories and sub topics that all fill into that niche that there is something for everyone who are willing to relax a bit more while still viewing something that they enjoy outside of ASMR specifically. I think what I am trying to say is explained a whole lot better by the Google team; “Regardless of how ASMR works, there is clearly a huge, engaged, and growing audience that responds to it. And as a brand, you don’t have to “get it” to benefit from it. You just have to engage this unique and largely untapped community in any number of creative ways”(Mooney and Klein, 2016).

Reference List

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/asmr-videos-youtube-trend/#:~:text=Coined%20in%202010%2C%20ASMR%20(autonomous,whispers%2C%20accents%2C%20and%20crackles.

https://www.thelist.com/82546/untold-truth-asmr/

 I stumbled upon ASMR videos on youtube probably around three years ago now and I have been addicted to them ever since. They allow me to become relaxed in a short amount of time and I tend not to sleep well until I’ve listened to my ASMR video of choice before bed.  For those of you who don’t know what ASMR  is or what it entails I will try my best to explain it for you. 

ASMR, which stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response is a sensation people get when they watch stimulating videos or experience certain visual or audio triggers in real life – usually ones that involve personal attention. Many people describe the feeling you get when you experience ASMR as “Tingles” that run through the back of someone’s head and spine. Many people say the feeling is deeply relaxing, and can even cause them to fall asleep. Though this is the case, many people do not feel the effects of ASMR and tend to dislike it. Thus making it a niche. 

I’m super interested in exploring the concept of ASMR as a media niche as I believe (although it is becoming increasingly popular) it is a heavily stigmatised subject. I think it is definitely a form of media that has sexual connotations that aren’t necessarily true, but has also been a form of media that has been drastically sexualised as well. It is a subject that can be hard to explain to people who have no idea what it is and is difficult to understand for people who don’t or can’t experience it. 

I think conducting ethnographic research on the ASMR community can help others to better understand the norms within the niche and also help to de-stigmatize the topic of ASMR in general. The online video communities like Youtube have facilitated a gathering of those who experience ASMR, and as a result hundreds of videos have been produced, viewed and shared with the goal of inducing this sensation. Gaining a better understanding of this community through ethnographic research may also help to uncover deeper scientific concepts behind the idea of ASMR and how it exactly induces relaxation. As I said before, it is becoming increasingly popular over time and even since I joined the community three years ago massive growth can be seen. Conducting more research on this community might be able to also provide information as to how media niches slowly become popular and how those specific communities spread the idea of a niche to those who aren’t familiar.

I believe exploring this is quite interesting and actually something I’ve been wanting to write about for a little while now. This Digital Artefact project could just be the perfect opportunity to explore it.

As I have mentioned countless times before, the Project I had decided to undertake was a study on the impact of coffee consumption and access on University Students and the effects this consumption may have on various factors revolving around student life; Study habits, productivity, social life, etc. 

Though this was the main aim of my research, I was urged to change the direction of my project a little bit in order to involve the current COVID-19 situation and how that may affect the coffee drinking habits and experiences of University students and the inability to socially interact over a cup of coffee that many people rely on to start their day at Uni. 

This task was incredibly daunting at first as I have never conducted research before in my entire life, not even one singular Google Form. As time progressed though and I became both comfortable with the ethics involved in the process as well as how I was going to manage this project under the remote learning circumstances I felt quite comfortable.

Having completed this project there are some things I would do differently though. I think doing some face to face interviews would’ve been great in order to collect more of the “experience” aspects I talk about in my opinion piece as well as being able to ask more specific questions. I think if this aspect of my research wasn’t affected by COVID-19 I would potentially have a more structured analysis of my statistics and become better prepared for whatever other research projects I do in the future. I also wish I was able to get stats from other groups of people, including staff, I just feel it would have added a bit more depth to my research and then I could relate my works to other aspects of Uni life and potentially outside the scope of University. Another thing I should mention was the lack of males who responded to my survey, the number of respondents was low anyways but regardless, more male input could have potentially changed some aspects of  my research but hey, you never know.

Otherwise, I am quite happy with how everything has turned out and I’m quite proud of the work I have done, which is hopefully moderately interesting! 

A link to my Survey

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdv8RDfjLfA1fIfEUJ82UcJWRr6Q_BEVkHZqokEnaQ95ATX-A/viewform?usp=sf_link

I have always found the idea of our campus having so many different cafes and places to grab that quick caffeine fix quite fascinating, along with the various debates as to where the best cup of coffee can be found at UOW. This relates to my research proposal of discovering whether the amount of coffee University students have access to on campus and consume has a negative or positive effect on productivity within their studies.

Caffeine can influence several factors that affect a University student’s health and wellbeing and by conducting more research on this mostly untouched study the answers could pay dividends in learning more about how coffee/caffeine affects a University student in his or her’s daily studies. I believe this research could be potentially critical in identifying or narrowing down correlations between caffeine intake and productivity, caffeine intake and sleeping patterns and finally caffeine consumption and the influences it has in a social setting and an academic setting. 

This research should be able to be completed through online questionnaires, polls and other means of collecting both qualitative and quantitative research methods. This means I can collect great statistics in a timely manner which will allow me to analyse and perhaps conduct further study on my topic without time management becoming an issue. Hearing from students and potentially staff at the University is the most effective way to gain insight into whether or not coffee/caffeine and access to it on campus has a positive or negative effect on the various factors mentioned above. I believe this research topic is relevant as I think there are an equal amount of people who rely on a caffeine fix to get through their busy day compared to people who don’t see it as a necessity. My aim is to find out if this access and reliance on coffee/caffeine as a University Student ultimately has productive or sterile impacts on study habits, productivity and moods.

Do you need coffee in order to get through a productive day of uni work? *PED’s = Perfomance Enhancing Drugs. #bcm212 #mycuriosity

— Michael Black (@MichaelBlack54) March 22, 2020

There has been some research into this topic but it mainly focuses on very specific correlations related to caffeine use in students. For example, one source I used, “CAFFEINE INTAKE IN COLLEGE STUDENTS, M. Caldarone. 2015,” measured the use of caffeine intake in college students but related that data specifically to sleeping patterns and the effect that poor sleeping patterns can have on a student who relies on caffeine. Nonetheless, this information is useful and shows there is an issue to be researched here.

The other three sources I looked at when deciding whether or not to pursue this idea of research highlighted many statistics in terms of coffee intake regarding students at University. The statistics these websites showcase often include surveys taken at specific universities, statistical trends that may provide insight into why students have an increased intake of caffeine and the overall effects of that intake on productivity and creativity. They also point out the effects of caffeine on the brain and how those effects may create different activity in the mind of a student under certain conditions compared to someone else.

SOURCES USED:

Bucher, J., Fitzpatrick, D., Swanson, A. and Abraham, S., 2019. Caffeine Intake Habits and the Perception of Its Effects on Health Among College Students. The Health Care Manager, 38(1), pp.44-49.

Caldarone, M., 2015. CAFFEINE INTAKE IN COLLEGE STUDENTS. [online] Available at: <https://library.ndsu.edu/ir/bitstream/handle/10365/27839/Caffeine%20Intake%20in%20College%20Students.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y&gt; [Accessed 26 March 2020].

Hong, J., 2016. Caffeine And College, Do They Go Hand In Hand? | Student Health And Counseling Services. [online] Shcs.ucdavis.edu. Available at: <https://shcs.ucdavis.edu/blog/archive/healthy-habits/caffeine-and-college-do-they-go-hand-hand&gt; [Accessed 26 March 2020].

Scott, R., n.d. The Real Effects Of Caffeine On Students’ Performance | Coffee Geek Lab. [online] Coffee Geek Lab. Available at: <https://coffeegeeklab.com/effects-of-caffeine-on-students-performance/&gt; [Accessed 25 March 2020].

The Making Process of this artefact has been quite fun. As stated in my other blog posts the idea was initially going to revolve around music. Although I was very interested in doing this I realised that music, fashion and urban culture all came hand in hand, which is why I decided to include all of those aspects in my magazine. I aimed to be colloquial with my language so that people who read it would be able to identify with my opinions and ideas easily. I also tried to really blur the lines between this magazine becoming a tutorial on how to succeed as an urban youth and an opinion based read in which people can decide for themselves whether this fits the description of a true urban magazine.

When making the zine I decided to split it up into three parts, music, fashion and a culture section which will change topics with the coming volumes I release. So the fashion section is a little guide on what I believe is trendy at the moment and what I believe fits the description of an urban outfit. The music section will again change in each volume, but in this installment I decided to make a playlist of songs I am currently enjoying at the moment and also a little spiel on what I think urban music is about. Lastly, the culture section in this installment involved a guideline to successful nightlife adventures. A list of rules if you will. All of these will change over time and I think that one of the bigger decisions I decided to make in the process of putting this all together. I thought, why not make a mini zine which can be expanded upon in the future instead of just a one time thing which will never be touched again.

My Digital Artefact is a mini magazine which highlights my curation of Music, fashion and culture in an urban aesthetic. I called it “Urban Etiquette” and I hope to add more volumes to the zine in the future. The magazine covers my go to clothing items to wear at the moment, my favourite club tracks that I’m currently listening to and a brief section on club etiquette for those who love to go out. 

As stated in my other blog posts the idea was initially going to revolve around music. Although I was very interested in doing this I realised that music, fashion and urban culture all came hand in hand, which is why I decided to include all of those aspects in my magazine. I aimed to be colloquial with my language so that people who read it would be able to identify with my opinions and ideas easily. I also tried to really blur the lines between this magazine becoming a tutorial on how to succeed as an urban youth and an opinion based read in which people can decide for themselves whether this fits the description of a true urban magazine.

I encountered my fair share of issues during the creation of this artefact but, the ideation process was always fun to come back to and rediscover what direction I wanted to take this project in. Though many of my struggles revolved around my initial ideas of what I was going to to for my DA (which are outlined in my blog posts) the hardest part of putting this all together was learning how to use Adobe In Design. I knew I would need a software that was capable of creating a magazine with the visual components necessary to look aesthetically pleasing but, I didn’t know how I was going to achieve this. This meant I had to reach out to a few people in the Visual Arts department and learn how to use the software necessary to create my artefact. This was by far the most challenging aspect of the entire term’s worth of work.

Lastly, the utility of my artefact is to provide users with a magazine that will highlight what it means to be an urban youth through the fashion we wear, the music we listen to and culture we surround ourselves with. People may choose to follow my advice or enjoy reading my opinions on this popular culture we are surrounded by. If anything, the goal of this zine is to help people feel comfortable in their own skin and also connect with people who have similar tastes as myself and then connect those people with other people. This is just the tip of the iceberg and I plan to create many more volumes of this magazine from the inspiration of other works and hopefully branch out into magazines that cover entirely different topics.

Here is the link to my magazine. I had trouble uploading it on the internet so for now this is the only way to access it. If there is trouble accessing it please let me know. Cheers!

file:///Users/michaelblack/Downloads/mike%20(1).pdf

The prototyping process for my digital artefact has required some ideation since my last blog post update. The initial idea revolved around the creation of music, music journalism and music promotion. This led me to create a pitch for a platform in which the progress of unreleased music could be monitored and receive feedback – consumers through artists- either through the use of a blog, twitter or another platform. This then changed to the idea of creating a music magazine which I presumed would be my final change to the artefact topic. That being said, I lost scope and direction for how exactly I would cover a wide range of music genres in one magazine. After reaching out to friends in the Visual Arts department I decided to iterate again and turn the music magazine into a collection of Urban lifestyle norms, music and fashion, and I called it Urban Etiquette. This meant that I could cover a broad range of topics that interest me, also add in my own opinions on those topics and try to be creative in terms of how the zine was going to look visually. The latter was a challenge as I had to learn how to design my magazine using Adobe In Design, which was the best software to use in order to create the look I was going for.

 

It was a long process but that’s what I had come to expect as the making process approached and at the end of it all, it looks great. The artefact is not a finished product though, moreso a taster for what is to come. The following weeks will provide me with the opportunity to finish the magazine and then find the right platform to post it on, ensuring that it is able to read digitally like a magazine and so that others with similar interests may view it. By this stage of the entire process, I have come to accept that if my assumptions are proven wrong I don’t stop my project – I iterate!   

I’m gonna run you through the early stages of my beta digital artefact which is a music/urban etiquette magazine. I’m still in the early stages in terms of a fully fledged out magazine but it is coming along nicely. The magazine has taken a lot of inspiration from a few magazines on Vice’s website such as club etiquette Volume 2 by a writer or writers who go by “the dance pit”. That magazine highlights the writers love for club music and also showcases their own personal experiences through nightlife and urban streetwear which is associated through the club scene and festival scene.

As I said before my zine, which is still in the early stages of becoming a full online deliverable product aims to replicate the ideas of such vice magazines but in a broader scale. The designing process of this artefact has proven quite hard as I have had to learn how to use programs like Adobe In Design from scratch in order to create something as high quality as I had imagined it. The work that i have completed thus far has taken me quite a long time as I mainly focused on the visual aspects of the magazine in order to provide me with better direction as to where the content will fit in. This is why the filler content is in latin. Again, similarly to the last blog post, I have had to take a step back and rethink what exactly my topic of choice is. 

So as a recap, it has gone from a music platform, to a nightlife/techno magazine and now to a music, urban and streetwear zine where I use my own insights and personal opinions in order to engage with users who have similar taste. As we approach the final section of this task, I think I have finally fine tuned the direction I want my magazine to go and I’m feeling quite confident that the final result will not only impress myself but also those who choose to read it.

Here is the link to my youtube video –