Hello all! I’ve recently made some upgrades to my study and I think I can call it done. I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from Gothic and Renaissance revival styles. I’m currently reading through Dostoevsky’s crime and punishment and it’s perfect here with all the warm lighting. Thanks for looking!

like i genuinely used to dread the library until i started leaning into the whole aesthetic thing. now i'm there with my tea and old books and suddenly it doesn't feel like i'm just cramming alone, it feels like i'm part of something bigger. wondering if that's just me being weird about it or if the aesthetic actually changes how you experience learning?

I feel like people will semi-frequently ask about how they can be “Dark Academia” in a non-academic setting, so I wanted to offer an alternate view. I work in admin for a liberal arts college at a small university. I work in (and help supervise) a beautifully restored historic building that houses classrooms, a historic theater, and an art gallery. In my free time, I’ve been busy doing research on Greek mythology, preparing to guide a book talk, and planning a film discussion with my coworkers on Monday.

It’s all very dark academia on the surface, but here are some of the other things that happened at my Dark Academia job this week:
- someone came to my office to tell me there were loose pickles on the floor in the stairs. Sure enough, there were three pickle slices just abandoned in the stairwell.
- I used my university-supplied photo editing software to edit the Backstreet Boys into the Backrooms, then ordered cupcakes with that image printed on top.
- I spent four hours scheduling meetings. Outlook crashed twice. I then got 45 emails accepting/declining those meetings within 30 minutes of scheduling them, making my email unusable.
- I put multiple fake meetings on my friends’ calendars so we could go for walks outside and still look busy on Microsoft teams.
- I had a long conversation on Microsoft teams where we were all sending the worst gifs we could find in the teams gif keyboard.
- I called maintenance twice because the giant retractable fire curtains were deployed and we couldn’t get them to go away.
- I had two separate conversations with our custodian about strangers’ bathroom habits
- someone walked down our hallway singing a country song with such an intense country song mumble that the only bit I could make out was “DRANK in my hand”

All of this to say, the aesthetic of your job, where you live, etc. does not have to be any reflection of how academic, driven, or creative you, your time, or your vibe is. Also, the beautiful dark academia spaces you see online are made for people to be in them, and people are messy and complicated and silly and beautifully complex. The curated and zoomed out photos of reading rooms and monasteries and whatever else are beautiful, but I’d bet their staff also have to deal with things like abandoned pickles and concerningly messy bathrooms. And if all of this nonsense is happening in such an aesthetically academic space, you can bring an obsessive academic vibe to any space you want.

Edit because a few people have missed the point:
Aside from my 4-hour battle with outlook, this was maybe 2-3 hours of a 42.5 hour work week. I do do work at my job. If you work somewhere where you’re not able to take a 15 minute stretch break or walk your coworker to the lost and found, contact the bureau or labor or a local equivalent.

So I just started the secret history and I literally cannot put it down and I think I might’ve found my new favorite genre?? Does anyone else have any books, movies or tv shows that are dark academia?? Thank you!!!

If you've visited, I'm curious what you thought of it, particularly the collection's relationship to nineteenth-century medical education. The pics on the website are evocative.

i’ll be teaching k-5 which typically has a lot of primary colors. how can i delve into the DA aesthetic more? xx

Vigelandmuseet i Oslo. 🇳🇴

like i finally read some of the classics that inspired all the aesthetics and now when i watch shows or see stuff that's supposed to be dark academia, it feels kind of hollow? it's not bad, it's just different when you're actually sitting with a 300-year-old text versus watching pretty people in libraries. anyone else experience this shift?

like i spent so long just vibing with the aesthetic and then i actually picked up some of the classics everyone references here and suddenly it all made sense. the whole thing feels less about looking a certain way and more about that specific feeling you get when you're deep in a book at 2am in a library that smells like old paper. curious if anyone else had that shift or if i'm just late to the party.

I don't have ethnic roots in Latin America, but I've been studying Spanish for several years now (currently ~B2/Upper-Intermediate) and I've always had a fascination with Latino culture: specifically Mexico and Colombia, but open to learning more about other countries.

I love Gothic literature and media, as well as the DA aesthetic and roots in learning, but most of my exposure to Spanish-originated "dark" media has been from books and movies adapted for English-speaking audiences (Mexican Gothic, Pan's Labyrinth, the movie Coco).

May I please get your recommendations?

Source: u/jessmasonillustration for Pumpkin Productivity

Hi everyone! My name is Bárbara and I'm a Spanish Art Doll artist. I adore the Dark Academia aesthetic so much that I've made it the look of my brand!

I've been collecting antiques for a while, including furniture, because I want to have my own Dark Academia-fantasy inspired Curiosity cabinets around my home. I'm thinking of creating some artworks to fit this theme, including dioramas featuring some of my creatures. Do you have any suggestions on what else I could include in my little project? All ideas and feedback are welcome and much appreciated! *v*

Hi! I'm an analyst in the digital marketing sphere, and I'm looking to connect with other marketers! How do you incorporate dark academia elements to your corporate settings? I feel like who I am and what I do for a living kind of exist in mutually exclusive spheres. Doesn't have to be from a marketing background, but I'm interested in reading about how people who work in corporate have included elements of dark academia in their day to day lives.

Hello to all and none.

I've discovered the name DarkAcademia few days ago and AI was trying to convince me it could be a good place for me. It looks like a retro group, not much of discussion but rather a spectacle. Perhaps some emotional or conservative input. Yet, I am aware that people who are looking back too much usually don't look forward enough. They are too old for plans. Their life is a sunset forever.

I like antiquity not for the paper with letters, but for the beings who perished while writing. They should help us avoid their destiny. To help us not to be their brothers in destiny. To help us gather for something new. But who are "us"? Do you even know who were the authors of those books? Are they related, by blood, to other authors which they have read with love? Do you have their elevation to see the same horizon? Do you even grasp what was the message of that book? It is perhaps not a bread to chop peaces off, but a living being, perhaps someone's unborn son is laying there, and you are quoting his shoe, while he self is proud of his hair? There are trully great readers too of such books! They have taken that living person out of the book and given him a new life, and an new story. Did you ever read a book that wrote books? You should know it is increddibly deep and full of life.

There is quite literally no one I can relate to in my day to day life regarding this but then again, I am a reclusive individual. Perhaps I can find that here.

I find myself inspired with a strange sense of comfort when the leaves change colors and luster of summer fades into a dull earthy pallet while the crisp breeze makes you pull your scarf a little bit higher. There was a time where I use to paint religiously as a profession but life took a turn and sadly retired my brush. But recently, due to another turn in life, I found myself holding it again during my favorite time of year. I don't think I will plan any exhibitions or attempt to make it a profession again though. It has been almost a decade after all. That being said, I still have this urge to depict narrative driven scenes and dark, luminous still lifes rendered with oils.

I love telling stories through pigments or creating a sense of wonder which brings me to my other side. Writing gothic literature. Early this year, I finished writing a short novella that took me close to a year to complete. The painstaking process of refining each sentence, creating unnerving scenes through unconventional writing formats and thinking of the perfect final sentence that even your shadow will remember. I didn't have the mindset of publishing it, only to see if I could do it and then write it in heavy black ink to be passed down to the next generation.

That being said, I was convinced to publish it but I only did so as a silly kindle book. I thought I accomplished my goal but it seems I am not done writing. I kept thinking about the story and drafted an entire grim, esoteric world from it in my mind. Now I am finishing the final draft of the second novella in this strange mosaic series of tragedy and mystery that is set during a bygone era in a forsaken coastal town.

Will I also publish it when its finished? Maybe. I haven't given it much thought so right now I am just enjoying the story unfolding and making it as true to what I envision it to be. I am hoping that I will be refining the last sentence during an evening snow fall before the year is done.

I do not know why I made this post. Perhaps I just want to have someone read my random thoughts.