Poolcore is an aesthetic characterized by images of pools that evoke an eerie or peaceful atmosphere. These images can be photographs of real pools or digital art and 3D renders, often resembling liminal spaces, creating a sense of familiarity. Poolcore encompasses various moods, ranging from clean and minimalist to nostalgic and unsettling, but it is consistently defined by the presence of tiles, water, a blue color palette, and the distinctive patterns of light refraction in water.
Philosophy[]
Poolcore can suggest feelings of eeriness and serenity or peacefulness. The way that Poolcore makes you feel is a slight mix of two very separate things, seeing as the feelings of liminality insinuate creepy or eerie feelings of being to place before, or seeing the pools in a dream. It can be relayed to Dreamcore, as dreams are often a thing which incorporate water, so as such, a lot of people will find that they've seen similar (or exact) places like the pools in their own dreams. The peaceful feeling is driven by the clean tiles or the blue and white colors which are a part of the images along with the clear water which can strike one as being serene, hence the feelings of serenity. The nostalgic feeling often associated with Poolcore is one based in logic, as many people went to pools as children, or have been to many in their life. Pools often look fairly similar, so the liminality and nostalgia make sense as the pools one has been to all feel like they cross over as a whole in Poolcore images.
Visuals[]
Poolcore visuals are generally very blue in appearance, although not always the case, and often have tiles which are commonly white and square-shaped. Other times the tiles in Poolcore are darker shade, such as navy or lighter blue colors. In 3d renders, the tiles are most often up the sides of the walls as well as under the water, but since actual pools don't generally look like that, real pool photographs will almost never have their tiles all the way around, and just have them inside of the pool.
The pool water or light going through the water is a big part of Poolcore, and the way that the light hits the water is often a prominent visual feature. Along with this, the pattern of the water is sometimes the main feature of an image, and some Poolcore photos will just show the water's light reflections on the bottom of the pool, or the top of the water. Since these types of Poolcore images will mostly be close-ups, the tiles are often a large part of the whole image.
Some Poolcore images tie in very closely with Nostalgiacore or Kidcore, and as such will have more colorful aspects along with the other basic elements of Poolcore. These pools originally aimed more at children will often have water slides, or water playgrounds in the pool, and will often give off a different type of nostalgia than the less colorful pools.
Poolcore images can have other main colors, although blue is always the most prominent amongst all images based in Poolcore. Some Poolcore images will have a vaporwave-like color pallet with peachy-pinks or purples amongst the regular blue, although often such images would fall entirely under the vaporwave aesthetic, seeing as pools can be a big aspect of some vaporwave.
Media[]
Jared Pike is an artist who creates 3d renders of aesthetic pools which include white tiles, and water in pool rooms.
Games[]
- Anemoiapolis (2023)
- Pools (2024)
Music[]
Spotify Playlists[]
- POOLROOMS AMBIENCE FOR SLEEP
- midsummer pool day - lyly
- POOLCORE - erebus
- poolrooms vibes - emily<333
- You got lost in the poolrooms - Sandristas_009
- The Poolrooms - Akailien
Gallery[]
