cursed images: let's get together and pin down the aesthetic!

https://twitter.com/cursedimages_2
https://www.instagram.com/cursed_images/

i: a lot of photo by flash (but not all)
ii: much reflective gleam of animalian cornea (but not all)
iii: it is often quite lynchian (but not always)
iv: it overlaps with creepypasta but is much broader (and imo more subtly imaginative)
v: double ditto "lurking clown" photos, which would obviously belong but actually don't often feature
vi: triple ditto blobismus!
vii: the shadowland liminality (liminalism?) of various psycho-affective border-territories: man-beast, "non-sentient" objects with vivid character, would you eat this, creepy visual puns via juxtaposition, sinister twee peril, suburban darkness, awareness/lack of awareness, daft rando performativity that scares the fkn bejesus out of you (cf coulrophobia and v)

this (and https://twitter.com/WorstBlobby) are the only things that comfort me any more: i am happy to accept this is a decadent pathology and an indication of despair

over to you

proposed name for the aesthetic:

oh yes, the curator ask that images be sent him/her/them/whatever, and selects from that according to i guess "cursedness" -- one stipulation is NO SHOPS

vii encompasses uncanny valley also obv

vii is key. a lot of mundane scenes made jarring by having some sort of jarring animalistic/death-drive presence. there's a lot of meat

jarring? jarring

yes i'm not sure if jarring is quite the right word, seems to suggest too abrupt a realisation, too step-change: what's unsettling is that this realisation (that you stepped across a border into a world you really don't want to be in) is simultaneously gradual AND quick, beginning slight ending up intense -- this was ordinary and funny and NOW THERE'S NO WAY BACK

(and partly it''s unsettling partly bcz "gradual AND quick" isn't a real-world category?)

there *is* a lot of meat (shd dig out adorno's stuff on animals and meat, feel it's surprisingly pertinent, esp. as you wouldn't tag TWA as a connoisseur of this kind of stuff)

also, bananas

the mapping of the immanent liminality of the banana is an epistemic breakthrough all on its own

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2lryuOUsAAbiEp.jpg

(not actually what i was looking for, but i can't resist the expressions)

https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_480w/WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/in-the-loop/Images/spicerbunny.jpg?uuid=VmUOcpe2EeK2j9xcS0flGQ

lmao

it's a cursed image world we just etc

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CsmxaFfVIAMExAO.jpg

this is closer to what i was after: people in a CI picture where you absolutely can't tell (bcz artful? bcz we are just intruders in their realm?) if this is a performance or verité

(the kid's performing but what about the woman pushing the trolley…)

I get Diane Arbus like vibes from some of them.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C6XUu05UoAArI1B.jpg

^ Actually dreamed this in a nightmare about four years ago

Loved the truck with the "flames" paint job, on fire.

feel this is outside the standard guidelines:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C69END7WYAA07ym.jpg

a crucified easter bunny made of toast, outside tooting station (stolen from @andrewbloch)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C9R4c7XXgAEmkkJ.jpg

not officially cursed: i can't decide if it fits the aesthetic (perhaps too well made)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DDXmc0dVwAA_WDg.jpg

it plays "Let It Go" when you open the lid

Mark, you need to follow the Facebook group called Theories of the deep understanding of things.

https://www.facebook.com/Theories.of/photos/a.336231093415.155746.300760038415/10155393945428416/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/Theories.of/photos/a.10155364989723416.1073741850.300760038415/10155387237713416/?type=3&theater

http://img.over-blog-kiwi.com/1/47/69/47/20150928/ob_12d4c5_0lbwsph.jpg

^is that it? that's it

so not gonna happen

omg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DGt74NfVoAADSRP.jpg

i liked this one https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DGgSkxxVYAANrnj.jpg

Imagine: you've called round on some errand and the entire family is dressed like this. No explanation offered.

http://i.imgur.com/MuRaz.jpg

It's the perfect contrast of the mundane and the inexplicable, the ordinary suburban backdrop combined with whatever the hell it is these people are doing.

Another weird detail I've just noticed is "Lisa" isn't holding a saxophone but a large pipe(?)

#nofilter

man every single one of those "real life Simpsons" photos/mock-ups creeps the hell out of me

lol @ all the comments that just say "Russia"

https://68.media.tumblr.com/66d6482455e5702d0bd84945b6031567/tumblr_otwkho8JzF1w22gauo1_1280.jpg_

https://68.media.tumblr.com/66d6482455e5702d0bd84945b6031567/tumblr_otwkho8JzF1w22gauo1_1280.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DBBv2keV0AAW2vN.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DJTZ2McUEAAgnc9.jpg

the gigeresque uh 'aperture' on the tree really adds to the effect

feel like the twitter acct deviates from the aesthetic a lot now for just Funny Images though the ones reposted here are mostly on point

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNexeoFU8AA8R8l.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNZxj0vV4AAlJHy.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNffpu0WsAI8YCT.jpg

gahhhhh

http://78.media.tumblr.com/d96b5221996b8802b15a84e1494cff96/tumblr_ozlormlKdN1vdgpnbo1_500.jpg

DAIRY CULTURE HAS GONE TOO FAR pic.twitter.com/ZI60j0pWoU

— rahel aima (@cnqmdi) December 15, 2017

or click through: http://batheinmymilk.com/

I'm upset to find out at the bottom of that page that is not real ;_;

(well, the photos are real, but it's by some dude)

https://www.facebook.com/kfcnz/photos/a.10150159153207139.337298.165461127138/10151097965637139/?type=3&theater

:o

idgi

long fingers

https://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m231sn5cxQ1ql8xx7o1_500.png

Only just realised the teletubbies pic is in a hospital ward, not some kid's bedroom. I guess that kind-of explains it? Maybe?

https://scontent.fslc3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/359783694_10100860829408114_4236326370448309505_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5cd70e&_nc_ohc=Jtp4VU6bqOoAX-UBUFV&_nc_ht=scontent.fslc3-1.fna&oh=00_AfBa4Y_xcFIQDJWYN2D_vQjZcz2lCiVuDWAXVeNv1ON1mw&oe=64B509BB

imagine the smell

This guy has a whole series of extremely cursed video collages

pic.twitter.com/Ohtl3SuBma

— Frank Manzano (@loved_orleer) August 3, 2023

Bad Moodles!

Every generation needs it's own Land of Confusion, I guess.

Is that the kind of video where I’m going to die after having watched it?

During it.

It's AI but then AI videos are really getting very good at seizing upon that lovely feeling of 'where nightmares go to die' that we itt so adore (maybe we need a thread for that?). I highly recommend the videos of my new favorite children's entertainers, the Poppy Place Players:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQDKyvxXBiw

Oh my god

I didn't think googly eyes could get any freakier, but I was wrong.

https://i.imgur.com/LZMgs4T.jpg

????

https://64.media.tumblr.com/55509a863a89ce8782f344f3a55d524d/8dbad4f38f514ed0-6b/s640x960/5302a60b3df7fb49868d4164475eab59d747dd25.jpg

https://64.media.tumblr.com/c3a6fb82de35581b8650ce69e81525c9/988697f9a6565748-04/s1280x1920/30b3d77199973d74fa276298702a844145fe0979.jpg

"Concealed carry"

is that what I think it is?

yeah that’s a cb radio handset

lmao

big fan of the mr. bunny head image over here

Bunnydict Cumberbatch

oh geez

my pinterest feed is 75% these things now

https://i.imgur.com/0SwJWdf.mp4

i have never been more blessed

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cx0C0eIB-RC/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

https://media.tenor.com/ZsvPfuhBBGMAAAAC/jello-jiggle.gif

I find that cute, not cursed. Don’t shame me.

that one makes me feel funny

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/617sxyDEAfL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg

her body does look transformed tbf

https://64.media.tumblr.com/c27cb056e913ed361ed9e860bf1c6b13/70f76c4c6aae9dc5-13/s1280x1920/37639e8b32bafe3d9b1cb8b0071c83dc8c8a1fef.jpg

okay yeah that might actually be the most cursed image yet, haunting

i know my brain was able to parse out what was happening there, but good lord that first glimpse was unsettling

ooky spooky

okay yes cursed1000, extremely terrible work and i can feel the evil leaching into my soul 👍

That image is a thing of dark beauty.

I can't work it out

it's the left back side of someone's head, we see part of their ear. They're listening to music with black in-ear headphones and they've turned their zip up hoodie around to be in the dark.

horrible

ikr <3

I showed it to my wife and she said "what?" and I said "what is it?" and she said "it's someone sleeping with their hoodie back to front ".

The house of a thousand teddies. pic.twitter.com/Sd2bxhLRe3

— The Museum of Curiosities (@CuriosMuseum) October 17, 2023

And each of those teddies likely houses at least a thousand tiny lifeforms!

This is kind of like posting a giant sign in your front yard that says 'NO, I DON'T HAVE MULTIPLE FREEZER CHESTS FULL OF HUMAN BODY PARTS IN MY BASEMENT, WHY DO YOU ASK?'

https://64.media.tumblr.com/041f299dfca9ee58d294bb82993e3b0e/7d4b0dc08c14d48b-51/s1280x1920/96a6fb1e94123428f383e2fc1f632dd9bdae71ca.pnj

oh no

i can almost taste it

Mmmmm, bathtub chicken! I'll bring the Pinot Grigio.

the lightning mcqueen crocs really take this one from grotesque firmly into cursed

lightning seems a little bummed, i would be too buddy

^ lol

Cursed--or just shabby?

https://i.imgur.com/ysVtkci.jpg

i missed bizarro's post upthread, that's an excellent one

also what's up bizarro! feels like it's been a while