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.

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

Design: Federico Antonini

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

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