Imaginarium

Imaginarium is an aesthetic that attempts to capture and illustrate the look and feel of pure, unclouded imagination, inspiration and total creative freedom.

Despite being nearly limitless in its potential expression due to the nature of human imagination, Imaginarium tends to lean towards a somewhat abstract, highly colorful theme. The aesthetic combines many different elements, making it more visually interesting and especially appealing to younger demographics.

Though not inherently childish or aimed at children, Imaginarium does take on many childlike qualities, such as the use of playroom-type environments, vibrant colors and well-known fantastical motifs. Often illustrated as a dream-like world that exists parallel to our own or simply as a creative addition to everyday life, this aesthetic is mainly based on alternative interpretation and recombination of existing themes in a playful, lighthearted way, similar to that of a pleasant surreal dream. Imaginarium has no ties to any particular medium, setting or form of expression while still being largely reliant on familiar, recognizable concepts, separating it from similar aesthetics such as Craftcore, Kidcore or Psychedelica.

Imaginarium is versatile, and thus allows for exploration of somewhat darker and creepier themes within its realm while still maintaining an intriguing, creative atmosphere. Examples of this can be seen with one of (PSVita) Little Big Planet's in-game locations called the "Spooky Mansion".

Note that while this aesthetic can be used in interpretation of psychedelic experiences, it is primarily meant to represent the creative wanderings of a sober mind.

Visuals[]

Imaginarium's visual contents can be nearly limitless in the right context, making the creation of a definitive list practically impossible. However, some of the most common/generally recognized visuals include:

Stickers & sticker collages
Toys & random trinkets
Space, clouds & planets
Diverse textures, patterns & materials
Messy artwork and creative clutter
Rough idea layouts, blueprints, mind maps
Basic symbols and icons (gears, arrows, stars, hearts, smiley faces, etc.)
Cute cartoony faces/facial features
Candy & food items
Moodboards/concept boards
Multicolored flowers
Rainbows & colored lighting

Themes[]

Themes, in this case, represent a general set of core ideas, the "mechanism" through which Imaginarium manifests itself in media. These mainly include:

Items or elements appearing significantly out of place in a given environment, often in a way that would not make any sense in real life (e.g. fish swimming in the sky, squid tentacles coming out of a book)
Objects or devices functioning in unusual, often normally impossible ways (e.g. A common household item coming alive, a phone screen acting as a physical portal to elsewhere)
One or several main characteristics of an object or setting being significantly creatively altered beyond the norm (e.g. Grass being bright blue instead of green, food items being abnormally giant)

Activities[]

Dreaming
Daydreaming or fantasizing
Brainstorming
Stargazing
Exploring
Traveling
Dressing up in costumes
Playing pretend or role-playing
Cosplaying
Visiting theme parks
Using VR or AR
Doing escape rooms
Solving riddles or puzzles
Engaging in sensory play
Building with LEGOs or other construction toys
Reading fantasy books
Reading comics
Collecting small trinkets
Designing
Learning new skills
Playing video games with respective visuals and themes
Making any and all kinds of art/crafts with the use of respective visuals and themes

Fashion[]

As with visuals, Imaginarium's fashion relies mainly on way of presentation rather than a strict set of items. Anything can fall under this definition, given use of the correct themes and imagery. However, some general examples include:

Tie-dye
Patchwork
Colorful badges
Printed fabric
Hand-painted fabric
Layered clothing
Transparent plastic clothing
Kandi bracelets
Bright wristbands
Vibrant nail art
Face stickers or face paint
Vivid or unconventional makeup
Children's hair clips & beads
Polymer clay accessories
Acrylic accessories
Enamel accessories
Neon accessories
Glow-in-the-dark accessories

Music[]

Imaginarium music tends to mostly rely on melody rather than words to convey the right atmosphere, thus a lot of songs of this aesthetic lack lyrical content. Good examples of this are: