CoreCore must be understood from the outset to be a repeal of '-Core', from which it makes its dialectical leap. The term 'Core' predates the internet by a wide margin, via its initial use in the 1970's 'HardCore'. Terms like 'Normcore' were used as early as 2008 to refer to deliberately bland, corporate unisex aesthetics (Kosalan Kathiramalanthan, 2014). However, the true explosion of 'Cores' arguably occurred circa 2014 in the peak of Tumbir's MoodBoard era - it is worth remembering, to this point, that the first known use of the term 'CoreCore' originated on Tumblr in 2020, a year before the term's first use on TikTok. 'Core' can be defined as a suffix which designates its object as an aesthetic category - or, perhaps we could say after Hegel, a determination of the understanding. Thus, for example, 'cottagecore' elevates cottage to the status of a category serving to parse or structure experience. The various objects which coalesce under cottagecore -candles, rain on windowpanes, etc.- are authenticated in reference to the identity of the 'Core' in question. Candles, wood panelling -whatever- are lent identity, authenticity, essence by virtue of the Core in which they find proximity, they are the phenomenal appearance of the noumenal, essential Core. Crucially, however, the 'cottage' which is originally assigned the status of a Core exists as a member of its own set as well as the set perse, such that it assumes a double-meaning. The 'cottage' in cottagecore retains a positive identity by virtue of its inclusion in the set, but the cottagecore is elevated to the position of a "Zero Signifier' which refers to the meaning-bearing property of the Core without assuming any particular meaning itself. That everything can be a Core produces an interesting trajectory. As each 'object' of Core (e.g. a candle qua CottageCore) becomes its own Core (i.e. CandleCore), the possible candidate members of Core are cannibalized exponentially into 'Core' such that the field increasingly becomes nothing but a void of Cores - to invoke Marcel Mauss, a field of mana without hosts. This is the natural expression of Core's proliferation, despite the fact that it negates its own function of validating particular identities. In attempting to multiply and validate identities infinitely, Core inevitably produces a field with nothing but the means of validation, nothing but a void as ground. CoreCore, meanwhile, is defined precisely by a rejection of the logic of the external element which characterizes Core. Rather than identifying and expressing a category of the understanding through the elevation of a 'Core, CoreCore pushes into the very Form of this understanding. This marks a departure from the logic of Essence-Core and Appearance-Object and presents bated ave arance as aparate ando tage preserving the divids its own self-equality, CoreCore pursues a line of speculative cognition that proposes the digletheic position of asserting the primacy of the contradiction as constitutive rather than derivative of a relation between identities. The gap between cottage and cottagecore, which qua Core is taken as a sort of epistemic limitation to be asymptotically pursued through the multiplication of subsequent Cores, is directly confronted as the ontological condition of Core through its own self-reflection - CoreCore. We might properly call this "dialectical' in the precise sense that "Core' amounts to the moment of understanding, the first moment of Hegel's dialectical movement - in which the determinations and identities of 'Cores' are preserved through relations of opposition -External Reflection- with their objects. CoreCore is not purely a rejection or repeal of 'Core' but is properly its sublation - its simultaneous preservation and overconing. 'Core, on the other hand, is in fact the destruction of Core - as its diremptive method of self-preservation amounts to an infinite multiplication of Cores productive ultimately of a field that lacks the objects necessary for the oppositional relation constitutive of 'Core. *(Diremption -after Alireza Taher's reading of Hegel- refers to a mechanism of misrecognition designed to preserve the relation of External Reflection and prevent the procedure of negative reason). The apprehension of this space as not a purely negative void, but rather as a generative field, is precisely the speculative moment - the positively rational moment - which arrives at Core in of itself for the first time. This speculative moment is earned through the second dialectical moment -Aufheben, the negatively rational moment, the sublation per se. Aufheben involves a moment in which the determinations of the first moment encounter their own lack of self-identity and undergo a 'self sublation' in which what appears as their external opposite assumes the position of their constitutive condition. CoreCore is thus not so much a rejection of Core per se, as much as an arrival at Core as such; through a rejection of Core as a determination sustained by its position as an external element. The Aufheben of Core occurs, in a properly Hegelian process, through the short-circuiting of its own attempted self-preservation. Because in 'Core' the position of Core is hidden behind an epistemic limit, its role as the authentication of its objects cannot but iteratively fail. Put another way, the function of 'Core' is not reconcilable with its position. Its function is to lend identity, authenticity, and essence to the object of Core - i.e. to the subject of the predicate. The position of Core as a predicate, however, is a purely negative epistemic position, since it has been elevated to the status of a positive noumenal identity/essence. We might say that since identity is diremptive of the movement of thought and contradiction, the authentication of identity requires the phantasy of a dimension external to thought and contradiction through which to transpose this authentication. This status of Core as an epistemic negativity thus leads to the pursuit of novel Cores, to the indefinite extent that every possible object of Core assumes the position of Core - every subject becomes a predicate. This deprives Core of its external opposite. We can see Cores as a misguided attempt to supersede these limitations of Identity through its multiplication - but only in the precise sense of 'Bad Infinity'. The difference between good and bad infinity lies in a subtle distinction between two ways to 'overcome' Identity. 'Bad Infinity' indefinitely delays confrontation with the terminus of a finite determination through a process of repetition such as the process of remaining in number by 'counting to infinity'; or trying to break out of gender binarism by considering nonbinarism as its own gender identity. 'Good Infinity' involves the process of breaking out of the self-identity of the finite determination itself - ie. the uncountably infinite; or nonbinarism as the axiomatic contradiction, as opposed to commonplace opposition, of binarism(1). That Core stands by itself without its externally reflected counterpart marks the confrontation with its own lack of self-identity. The apotheosis of the proliferation of 'Cores' is the death of the object for which Core may serve as a suffix. But this very movement is the 'passing into opposite' which constitutes the negatively rational moment and allows for the realisation of the speculative moment, in which CoreCore -which is nothing other than Core itself, for the first time- may be apprehended. There is a subtle insight here: namely that the overcoming of 'essence' is earned through the lack of self-identity of appearance: we arrive at Core in of itself-CoreCore- through the death of the object of Core. I To the consciousness caught up in this movement, this is why CoreCore seems to be 'missing a topic' or that it 'excludes having an essence'. This is because CoreCore, in presenting appearance-as appearance, does not operate as a logic of appearance-essence as -Core would. CoreCore has no absent element in an external sense but rather attempts to demonstrate how the 'gap' between the elements of -Core and their 'missing essence' (the cottage-as-void) is inscribed into the very means of expression itself. CorCore is 'without theme' for the very same reason it 'resists interpretation'- it does not hide anything, and in so doing, its surface contains the stopgap which lies 'between' the cottage itself' (cottagecore) and the elements of said Core. The two 'Cores' in Core-Core, can thus be read as the 'speculative moment' in which essence and appearance find dialectical coincidence. Crucially, however, this coincidence is not an identity but again an inclusion of the radical gap between essence-and-appearance into being itself (2).
'Cores' arguably occurred circa 2014 in the peak of Tumbir's MoodBoard era - it is worth remembering, to this point, that the first known use of the term
'CoreCore' originated on Tumblr in 2020, a year before the term's first use on TikTok. 'Core' can be defined as a suffix which designates its object as an aesthetic category - or, perhaps we could say after Hegel, a determination of the understanding. Thus, for example, 'cottagecore' elevates cottage to the status of a category serving to parse or structure experience. The various objects which coalesce under cottagecore -candles, rain on windowpanes, etc.- are authenticated in reference to the identity of the 'Core' in question.
Candles, wood panelling -whatever- are lent identity, authenticity, essence by virtue of the Core in which they find proximity, they are the phenomenal appearance of the noumenal, essential Core. Crucially, however, the 'cottage' which is originally assigned the status of a Core exists as a member of its own set as well as the set perse, such that it assumes a double-meaning. The
'cottage' in cottagecore retains a positive identity by virtue of its inclusion in the set, but the cottagecore is elevated to the position of a "Zero Signifier' which refers to the meaning-bearing property of the Core without assuming any particular meaning itself. That everything can be a Core produces an interesting trajectory. As each 'object' of Core (e.g. a candle qua CottageCore) becomes its own Core (i.e. CandleCore), the possible candidate members of Core are cannibalized exponentially into 'Core' such that the field increasingly becomes nothing but a void of Cores - to invoke Marcel Mauss, a field of mana without hosts. This is the natural expression of Core's proliferation, despite the fact that it negates its own function of validating particular identities. In attempting to multiply and validate identities infinitely, Core inevitably produces a field with nothing but the means of validation, nothing but a void as ground.
CoreCore, meanwhile, is defined precisely by a rejection of the logic of the external element which characterizes Core. Rather than identifying and expressing a category of the understanding through the elevation of a 'Core, CoreCore pushes into the very Form of this understanding. This marks a departure from the logic of Essence-Core and Appearance-Object and presents bated ave arance as aparate ando tage preserving the divids
its own self-equality, CoreCore pursues a line of speculative cognition that proposes the digletheic position of asserting the primacy of the contradiction as constitutive rather than derivative of a relation between identities. The gap between cottage and cottagecore, which qua Core is taken as a sort of epistemic limitation to be asymptotically pursued through the multiplication of subsequent Cores, is directly confronted as the ontological condition of Core through its own self-reflection - CoreCore. We might properly call this
"dialectical' in the precise sense that "Core' amounts to the moment of understanding, the first moment of Hegel's dialectical movement - in which the determinations and identities of 'Cores' are preserved through relations of opposition -External Reflection- with their objects. CoreCore is not purely a rejection or repeal of 'Core' but is properly its sublation - its simultaneous preservation and overconing. 'Core, on the other hand, is in fact the destruction of Core - as its diremptive method of self-preservation amounts to an infinite multiplication of Cores productive ultimately of a field that lacks the objects necessary for the oppositional relation constitutive of 'Core.
*(Diremption -after Alireza Taher's reading of Hegel- refers to a mechanism of misrecognition designed to preserve the relation of External Reflection and prevent the procedure of negative reason).
The apprehension of this space as not a purely negative void, but rather as a generative field, is precisely the speculative moment - the positively rational moment - which arrives at Core in of itself for the first time. This speculative moment is earned through the second dialectical moment -Aufheben, the negatively rational moment, the sublation per se. Aufheben involves a moment in which the determinations of the first moment encounter their own lack of self-identity and undergo a 'self sublation' in which what appears as their external opposite assumes the position of their constitutive condition.
CoreCore is thus not so much a rejection of Core per se, as much as an arrival at Core as such; through a rejection of Core as a determination sustained by its position as an external element. The Aufheben of Core occurs, in a properly Hegelian process, through the short-circuiting of its own attempted self-preservation. Because in 'Core' the position of Core is hidden behind an epistemic limit, its role as the authentication of its objects cannot but iteratively fail. Put another way, the function of 'Core' is not reconcilable with its position. Its function is to lend identity, authenticity, and essence to the object of Core - i.e. to the subject of the predicate. The position of Core as a predicate, however, is a purely negative epistemic position, since it has been elevated to the status of a positive noumenal identity/essence. We might say that since identity is diremptive of the movement of thought and contradiction, the authentication of identity requires the phantasy of a dimension external to thought and contradiction through which to transpose this authentication. This status of Core as an epistemic negativity thus leads to the pursuit of novel Cores, to the indefinite extent that every possible object of Core assumes the position of Core - every subject becomes a predicate. This deprives Core of its external opposite. We can see Cores as a misguided attempt to supersede these limitations of Identity through its multiplication - but only in the precise sense of 'Bad Infinity'. The difference between good and bad infinity lies in a subtle distinction between two ways to 'overcome' Identity. 'Bad Infinity' indefinitely delays confrontation with the terminus of a finite determination through a process of repetition such as the process of remaining in number by 'counting to infinity'; or trying to break out of gender binarism by considering nonbinarism as its own gender identity. 'Good Infinity' involves the process of breaking out of the self-identity of the finite determination itself - ie. the uncountably infinite; or nonbinarism as the axiomatic contradiction, as opposed to commonplace opposition, of binarism(1). That Core stands by itself without its externally reflected counterpart marks the confrontation with its own lack of self-identity. The apotheosis of the proliferation of 'Cores' is the death of the object for which Core may serve as a suffix. But this very movement is the 'passing into opposite' which constitutes the negatively rational moment and allows for the realisation of the speculative moment, in which CoreCore -which is nothing other than Core itself, for the first time- may be apprehended. There is a subtle insight here: namely that the overcoming of 'essence' is earned through the lack of self-identity of appearance: we arrive at Core in of itself-CoreCore- through the death of the object of Core. I
To the consciousness caught up in this movement, this is why CoreCore seems to be 'missing a topic' or that it 'excludes having an essence'. This is because CoreCore, in presenting appearance-as appearance, does not operate as a logic of appearance-essence as -Core would. CoreCore has no absent element in an external sense but rather attempts to demonstrate how the 'gap' between the elements of -Core and their 'missing essence' (the cottage-as-void) is inscribed into the very means of expression itself. CorCore is 'without theme' for the very same reason it 'resists interpretation'- it does not hide anything, and in so doing, its surface contains the stopgap which lies 'between' the cottage itself' (cottagecore) and the elements of said Core. The two 'Cores' in Core-Core, can thus be read as the 'speculative moment' in which essence and appearance find dialectical coincidence. Crucially, however, this coincidence is not an identity but again an inclusion of the radical gap between essence-and-appearance into being itself (2).