Valentina Tanni's 'Estéticas liminales' Explores Internet's Dark Aesthetics

Valentina Tanni's 2023 book 'Estéticas liminales. Vaporwave, Backrooms, weirdcore o cómo la cultura de internet está enrareciendo la realidad' has been published in Spanish by Caja Negra (Buenos Aires, 2026), translated by Alejo Ponce de León. The book examines how internet culture has reshaped reality, focusing on aesthetic movements like vaporwave, Backrooms, and weirdcore. Tanni argues that the internet has 'taken revenge' on utopian hopes, absorbing reality into digital myths and fostering a sense of repetition and recycling. She explores how memory and sentiment have become refuges for dark artistic expressions, and how the net has compressed time and expanded space, creating a new principle of reality dominated by a perpetual sense of déjà vu. The book cites J.G. Ballard on the blurring of dream and reality in a media-saturated world. Tanni discusses the 'hyperstitional' concreteness of digital myths, the persistence of net-art, and the emotional impact of platforms. She highlights artists like Daniel Lopatin (vaporwave musician), Jared Pike (surreal pools), and Kane Parsons (Backrooms creator) as exemplars of this aesthetic. The book was reviewed by La Tempestad, which published an essay titled 'La venganza de Internet' by an unnamed author, praising Tanni's analysis of how internet aesthetics reflect a generational nostalgia and a sense of loss.