The Journey to ASMR Story
In July last year, Shadma told me her story about Indian barbers giving massages, and how the sound of those massages and haircuts has become a source of comfort for YouTube watching crowds worldwide. I hadn't come across anything like this before, so naturally, my ears perked up after hearing this. Shadma shared a YouTube video of Baba Sen, a legendary figure in the world of ASMR, to warm me up about the topic. The video is from the mid-2000s, shot on a low-quality camera. It shows Baba Sen, a guy in his 40s giving a massage to a foreigner. There is a song playing from the film 'Saaya' loudly in the background, and it keeps getting interspersed by the melodically dragging voice of Baba Sen telling his customer to relax. The way he says 'relaxxx' is quite catchy, so much so I kept saying relax while driving around Bangalore. As a newbie on the roads of Bangalore, I found it comforting to have Baba Sen's voice in my head. But there was more to Baba Sen's massage, he appeared to sense cosmic forces around, catching the ones he wanted to merge with the customer's aura, and pulling away the ones he wanted to discard. I don't know whether it was indeed an ASMR experience for me, but Baba Sen as a character was definitely a magnetic one. It didn't take me long to decide that the lead illustration should be dedicated to Baba Sen and how he has been a calming presence for so many viewers online.
This was the initial sketch where I wanted to show Baba Sen channelling cosmic energy. But from the sketch, the initial exploration went a bit abstract trying to show the cosmic energy. I was trying to use the flow of the marbling technique, but it needed to be more direct.
Ultimately, with Shadma's feedback, I tried to bring the planetary force into the visual. It was a coincidence that around the same time, the famous photo of the James Webb telescope came up, and it helped see what space already has to offer.
Given how generally is the nature of news these days, the overall tonality can be a little dark and grim, but this particular article was much lighter and free from such heavy baggage. I wanted the overall visuals to be vibrant, a mix of digital with glitches of hand-drawn techniques. For the second illustration, the idea was to focus on how the soundscapes of ASMR become an aid for people trying to sleep. I tried to use the audio pitch map's graphic to shape up like an ikkat print blanket. I also made use of a lot of textures and print that I scanned from books and magazines to use as background graphics.
It was important to have illustrations peppered around the text so that people don't get tired by reading larger passages of text. The following illustration was a very relatable one because I am certain many of us face the dilemma of what to watch on OTT platforms because the options are plenty and being spoiled for choices is not always a good thing when making decisions. I chose to take some of the popular shows' striking visuals where the character's face is staring down at you to build up the tension.
I didn't intend to have the edges pixellated, but to make the idea of glitch more consistent, and also to have a varied range of framing of visuals, I brought in this finishing to it.
The fourth illustration brings the focus back to the barber and their techniques. In most of the videos and behind-the-scenes productions, you can see that the importance is more on creating content for consumption, so the need to amplify every sonic detail is of utmost significance. I usually love juxtaposing elements to create visuals that can speak to you without trying hard to interpret between the lines.
In a long read online, with a single column of content, you have to come up with ways of breaking the linearity, or the monotony. Also, it's not helpful to have illustrations that are trying to represent each and every section of the text, so I chose to drive the next illustration higher on the abstraction axis. I wanted this to also double up as a visual break, and recreate the illuminating sense of ASMR tingling.
I am not sure if you have noticed, but more and more companies are dialling up the use of ASMR in their advertisements. Whether it's the extra fizz of Coke, crunchiness of KFC, wrapper noises of chocolates, or the close shaving sound of a razor. I wanted this one to be an interactive piece where scrolling down the page triggers the movement of the razor and plays the scratchy noise of shaving. What I had in mind was a little demanding execution-wise, but I have a small video of it to give you a sense of it.
After the heavy-weight illustrations, it's always good to pop a small spot illustration that tries to be more clever than descriptive, so an ode to the expensive equipment that helps rake the YouTube views. Santosh Ojha who runs an ASMR channel on YouTube has equipment in his studio that highlights how certain tools are unique in the way they help make the lather or give the closest shave.
The second last illustration in this piece is to highlight how barbers over the years have played a bigger role than giving massages and haircuts. They have donned the role of advisor and confidant too. I have always been fascinated with the way the infinite reflections show up in barber shops, so I decided to use it as a portal to show a barber's different role.
The last illustration has been a key topic for me throughout the article. The disparity of pay a YouTuber makes vs the actual barbers who are giving the massage has been a point of conflict. It was important to not paint the content creators with a dark shade because putting the blame on somebody else is the easiest thing to do rather than understanding the entire system and cycle of such systems. Santosh Ojha makes sure that his barbers have other individual revenue streams too, and takes care of his staff. Unfortunately, Baba Sen's life still holds the mirror of how it is for a large set of content contributors. Baba Sen was a pivot who turned the spotlight on ASMR through his cosmic massage, but he passed away with financial debt in his name. The finishing illustration shows YouTube as a currency that gets trimmed and shredded leaving only scraps to collect at the end for the people who help make the videos.
Thank you for reading through this piece. It has been a while since I have spoken in depth about my thoughts and the process that goes behind framing visuals for a story.
Please read the entire story here, and pass it around. :)
#story #editorial #illustration #digitalillustration #asmr #barber #indianbarber #asmrbarber #factordaily #journalism
