Internet’s Dark Forests: Subcultural Memories and Vernaculars of a Layered Imaginary

Marta Ceccarelli

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Price: 10€
Language: English


Online is not a place we go: it is a place we cannot leave. In an increasingly hegemonic internet ecosystem, where do we find temporary spaces for refuge? The answer to this growing need to escape the Clearnet might be Dark Forests. These sheltered digital spaces structurally and discursively foster community formation, allow for experimentations in self-presentation, and propose alternative imaginaries to the mainstream internet of platforms. Casting long shadows over a handful of fertile corners of the web, Dark Forests make themselves visible only to some. The Dark Forest system seems silent or incomprehensible from afar. But once you’re in, there is nothing but noise.

Marta Ceccarelli is a writer, blogger and independent researcher. blogreform is the Substack where her interests manifest through cultural analysis, experimental autofiction and more.

EN | 10.5 x 16.7 cm | 88 pp | COLOUR | soft cover | 2025
ISBN 978-961-7173-60-4


Colophon

Marta Ceccarelli
Internet’s Dark Forests: Subcultural Memories and Vernaculars of a Layered Imaginary

PostScriptUM #53
Series edited by Janez Fakin Janša

Publisher: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana
Represented by: Marcela Okretič

Proofreading: Miha Šuštar
Design: Federico Antonini
Layout: Oskar Kandare

Cover image: Anton Eichinger, Till Eulenspiegel, c. 1903 
Public Domain

© Aksioma | All text and image rights reserved by their respective authors
Ljubljana, March 2025

Published in the frame of the project .expub funded by the European Union.

Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Additionally supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of Public Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana.

Originally published by the Institute of Network Cultures in April 2024.

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