Aesthetics Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Sensitive Content Notice ⚠️
The following article contains and discusses content that may be distressing to some readers.
Reason for Warning: This page contains many themes and images surrounding dissociation/derealization/depersonalization. Reader discretion is advised.

Weirdcore is a surrealist aesthetic centered around amateur or low-quality photography and/or visual images that have been constructed or edited to convey feelings of confusion, disorientation, dread, alienation, and nostalgia or anemoia.

Visually, it is strongly influenced by the general look and feel of images shared on an older internet, roughly a period spanning from around the late 90's to mid 2000's. Amateur editing, primitive digital graphics, lo-fi photography and image compression are some of the most common elements found in Weirdcore images.

Thematically, Weirdcore often conveys a feeling of dread, brought forth by its low quality imagery and a lack of context in regards to the location or the message being shown. This does not mean that Weirdcore is deeply rooted in horror, however, as the feeling of fear left on the viewer is merely a side effect of placing them in an unfamiliar setting or context. This is purely subjective however, and depends on the viewer, their own experiences and the content of an edit; while some people might find a Weirdcore image scary or ominous, others might feel nostalgia or even a feeling of comfort.

Visual

Amateur, blurry or Lo-Fi photography is one of the most common elements in Weirdcore. These are often Liminal Spaces, an aesthetic that Weirdcore has a strong connection to and often relies on, but the use of them is not obligatory. The virtual part of an image often (but not always) manifests itself in the form of plain-looking text which conveys a message that is incomplete or out of context, thus leaving the viewer to ask questions and make their own interpretations in regards to the meaning of the statement presented to them (keep in mind that text is not a necessary part of Weirdcore).

It is important to know, however, that both of these "portions" of Weirdcore do not need to be present simultaneously to make a good image; for example, a Weirdcore image may be constructed exclusively out of virtual elements and could still be categorized as such. The same applies to amateur/lo-fi photography, but regardless of how the process of creating Weirdcore is approached, the images should still aim to put the viewer in an unfamiliar, confusing, and occasionally somewhat hostile context.

Origins

Currently, the exact origins of Weirdcore are unknown, but they may go as far back as the early 2010s. It has recently been determined that the earliest Weirdcore edit with a confirmed date of creation was made in 2016, but there could be earlier examples out there that remain unknown.

The genre started to pick up popularity when a YouTuber by the name of DavidCrypt uploaded a video explaining the Weirdcore aesthetic. Whilst there are popular Weirdcore creators, it is often hard to find the most popular or the origins of the content and creators, as most current Weirdcore content is uploaded to Tumblr, which doesn't show follower counts, as well as numerous reposts.

Music

Artists

  • pilotredsun
  • Aphex Twin
  • Cyriak
  • Boards of Canada
  • The Future Sound of London
  • VLIF

OSTs

  • Soup 0.9 OST
  • Yume Nikki OST
  • Earthbound OST
  • Half-Life and Portal series OSTs
  • Petscop OST
  • Answered Prayers OST
  • OFF OST
  • Boisvert OST
  • Blackspace OST (OMORI)
  • .flow OST
  • GARAGE: Bad Dream Adventure OST
  • Eastern Mind OST
  • Rain World OST
  • Space Funeral OST
  • Limbo OST
  • Yume 2kki OST
  • Cow Game OST
  • Childhood Memories OST
  • Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere OST
  • House OST

Games

  • Soup 0.9 (2007)
  • Yume Nikki (2004)
  • Yume 2kki (2007)
  • .flow (2009)
  • LSD Dream Emulator (1998)
  • Roly-Polys no Nanakorobi Yaoki (1997)
  • Eastern Mind (1994)
  • The Museum of Anything Goes (1995)
  • Cow Game (2022)
  • Childhood Memories (2022)

Resources

There are many places online to get in touch with the Weirdcore community:

Blogs

YouTube Channels

Gallery

(NOTE: Credits being added)

Advertisement