Dreamcore is an aesthetic style that attempts to visualize the logic of dreams, particularly emphasizing the ‘familiar strangeness’ and cognitive dissonance created by juxtaposing ordinary scenes with eerie elements.
Key Visual Features
• Scene: Everyday environments (bedroom, school, shopping mall) but with abnormal lighting, disproportionate dimensions, and distorted physical rules.
• Visual Elements:
• Low-poly modeling and rough 3D rendering
• Unusual object placement (e.g., floating furniture, a TV attached to the wall)
• Low-fidelity image quality and VHS-style distortion
• Meaningless text (e.g., randomly appearing dialog boxes, illogical signs)
• Humanoid but not human-like entities (blurred humanoid figures, faceless entities)
• Atmosphere: An eeriness beneath a calm surface, unease within warmth, and a logically consistent absurdity.
Poolcore
Poolcore is an internet aesthetic centered on abandoned or empty swimming pools, emphasizing the unique atmosphere of “abandoned leisure spaces”—a complex emotion somewhere between tranquility, loneliness, nostalgia, and a slight unease.
Key Visual Features
• Location: 80s-90s style public/community swimming pools, typically abandoned, drained, or unused.
• Visual Elements:
• Broken blue/green mosaic tiles
• Still, clean water
• Strong sunlight and sharmp shadows
• Vast, empty spaces