liminal spaces

Recently this topic has been getting a lot of attention online. Liminal is defined as being the "quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the rite is complete"... the more simplified definition is that it's a place you pass through that is not your final destination, but you need to pass through to get there. It's a pretty broad term that can be applied to a lot of scenarios and is a bit hard to explain. It's more of an "you know it when you see it" type of thing. Liminal spaces often fall in the uncanny valley, and their creepiness is part of the appeal. Some of the characteristics of these pictures are: >There are no people, or any sings of life >They have a "trippy" and "dream like" feel to them >They often give a sense of nostalgia, even if you've never been there before

not sure if drawings/anime qualifies, but I get the same vibe from lain. relevant pic.

Oh, I had no idea there was a name for this kind of thing, I'm a big fan. The films of Michelangelo Antonioni feature a lot of these.

>>7654 Yeah, art can qualify as liminal. There's a lot of video games that, whether intentionally or not, make use of liminal spaces. >>7655 It's been getting a lot of attention ever since last year when the backrooms meme became popular

This topic reminds me of that Kriegsmaschine song Lost in Liminal.

>>7652 The first picture has the effect on a liminal space on me, even though the lighting seems a bit off. The idea of a lone man walking towards his fate unknown. I find a lot of them on my night walks, and they are quite literally a place of transient movement. I don't like taking pictures since I feel like it is an intimate and very personal experience. I do have a few other pictures of bridge tunnels and megalithic highways with dreamlike lighting. I also love the feel of unmanned industrial areas. Not abandoned ones, but ones where the workers aren't there. Just empty.

>>7656 God, Doom's just-abstract-enough geometry will always get me. I also miss the almost childish perspective and proportions, especially E1/E2--something about having giant computer screens hanging from the ceiling, circuit boards for walls, all on top of blue carpet and terracotta tile--I loved the look of it.

So basically it includes, but isn't limited to, that subtle feeling you get when you commute to work and change trains in a station? I love philosophical aspects behind small things like that. To add to it, have you ever noticed how little you know about some spaces you pass through? Especially in subways, you might take the same route every work day, completely oblivious to what's above that station where you just change lines real quick.

Dead Mall Series anyone? https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNz4Un92pGNxQ9vNgmnCx7dwchPJGJ3IQ

I've been reading about angelology and this word liminal keeps coming up and it made me remember this thread. I'm not a believer but I find the concepts fascinating, like how they are both material and immaterial (or is that neither?) and usually inhabit a space between us and the creator which is teeming with their traffic and noise all the time. There is something frightening about their rare appearances. It's not a terrifying presence but a terrifying absence because you realize there is a vast part of their being unobservable to human eyes (and no they aren't supposed to have wings and all that). I had no pic related so I stood precisely where I was sitting and took this. I like to think angels really are passing through places like it.

I think people confuse liminality with general creepiness, melancholy, unfamiliarity, or desolation. Those can be features of a liminal space, but they're not what defines it. A liminal space is characterized by transition. Hallways, train stations, airports, parking lots, highways, are very literal examples. Other examples, like hotels, are more abstract. You could also argue that things like abandoned buildings are in a state of liminality because they have their semantic "purpose" has eroded. Here's a little mental exercise I like using to describe liminal spaces. Picture yourself at a bar. What is the imaginary "you" doing? Drinking, talking, something like that? Not liminal, of course. Picture yourself at work. What are you doing? Coding, serving food, stacking shelves? Also not liminal. In both of these spaces, there is a strong association with a specific "reason to be there". Now picture yourself in a parking lot. What are you doing? Going somewhere nonspecific, waiting, nothing in particular? Liminal.

>>7689 >have you ever noticed how little you know about some spaces you pass through? This is the appeal to me. I love to narrow my focus to the little details of the objects around me until I feel the crushing weight of history in every chip of paint. Who built this pedestrian bridge to cross the highway? What did people do before it existed? When was the last time the bulbs lighting the walkway were replaced? Where are the replacement bulbs stored? Who has the key to access them? How did he come to be responsible for it? After a while I'll begin to feel like an ant sensing pheromone trails spreading into the past and forking around me in every direction.

>>7712 To add to this, something I like about this experience is how uniquely modern it is. In a city, pretty much everything you encounter was put there deliberately by a human being. Their cumulative intentions form a thick and palpable fog.

>>7711 >A liminal space is characterized by transition. Hallways, train stations, airports, parking lot... This got me thinking if some spaces are "situationally liminal". Or perhaps liminal to some, but not others. For example, most people might consider parking lots as liminal to them, but to myself and a friend, parking lots are often destinations for skateboarding or car meetups.

>>7711 >>7715 Considering the dimension of time then, including situationally liminal places or places in transition, quite a lot of places meet the requirements. I'd rather hear someone explain why their selection counts before hearing other voices immediately try to discount it.

This place used to be a daycare. The apartment building next door is still a crack den.

>>7712 This reminded me of a scene in the movie Wings of desire where the two angels are discussing immortality while wandering near the Berlin wall. The one angel reminisces about how just a mere millennia ago something happened, and then how only a few hundred years ago another thing happened. The entire movie focuses on the transitory nature of man, and the outside observation of angels among them. >>7713 >Their cumulative intentions form a thick and palpable fog. When I take night walks, or go to work at 3 or 4 in the morning, walking through town I would describe the feeling as an "oppressive calm" >>7716 This is a very valid point. Most would not consider subway or bus to be a liminal space when they are packed with people, but the isolation of an empty bus or street car definitely creates a sense of transition >>7731 I don't know why, but I find this picture very unnerving. Too sterile, almost staged it seems. imo there is a natural formation in liminal spaces, like the atmosphere surrounding it in the environment is what makes it liminal, which is why it is difficult to intentionally design one.

>>7734 The cribs suggest a child's room, but there are no decorations or toys. There is only a chair is pointing to face them. The yellow is supposed to look friendly but the bareness makes it look old and sterile, almost like dirt. The ceiling is less like a regular home celing, bare and with one lamp, and more like a corporate office roof. It looks like a home but a lot of things look wrong. You don't pass through a dead end room.

>>7734 >this isn't staged or intended to creep anyone. I found it on an actual realtor site. This is one of the rooms of what once was a daycare.

Whoops accidental greentext

>>7731 maybe two cribs and a rocking chair put in a spare room tells a story. The children grew up and no longer need the crib. Maybe they did not have kids of their own to warrant keeping the cribs. Maybe a grandparent used to sit in the rocking chair and watch the children in the crib. But the grandparent has passed on and the chair is no longer useful.

>>7715 >some spaces are "situationally liminal" absolutely. i would even say they all are, by definition. put another way, a liminal space is "a space where you experience liminality". it has everything to do with what you project upon it, rather than any intrinsic property of the location itself. it's just that some spaces are more likely to be experienced "liminally" because most people do not see them as a "destination". to give you another counter-example: the area beneath a highway bridge would probably come across as a liminal space to most, but probably not to a homeless person who spent many nights sleeping there.

>>7744 i love these pics with the light of the sunset

>>8166 I've been there before in my dream. I mean the photo in the middle. Let me post my Panoramio findings.

Another term related to liminal spaces is non-place "coined by the French anthropologist Marc Augé to refer to anthropological spaces of transience where human beings remain anonymous, and that do not hold enough significance to be regarded as 'places' in their anthropological definition." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-place I mention this since someone may appreciate it. In the worst case scenario, you could use the term when liminal space becomes more bastardised.

Almost retains the feel if not for the visible outside with green grass and disrepaired sidewalk.