Liminal Spaces: The Fear of the Inbetween

Imagine this: You wake up in a shopping mall, but something feels off.  It's quiet, too quiet.  You decide to call out, but you get no return except for the echo of your voice stretching through the empty mall.  You start to grasp the situation, that you are all alone, but that just makes you panic more.  Yet, you feel comfort.  That is how liminal spaces work.  I love liminal spaces.  Ever since I stumbled apon the niche fandom online I have been hooked.  In this blog post I would like to explain what makes something liminal and why I like them so much. 

Liminality explained 

The wordbook definition of liminal is "occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold" and "relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process".  So as you can see, liminal spaces are usually ones that are in a state of inbetween two points.  For example, a famous liminal space location is hallways.  That's because hallways are an inbetween state of state A, which is one room and state B, the room you want to go to.  Another example is roads, because state A is where you are driving from, state B is the location you are driving to and the road is the inbetween state.  But the inbetween state can also be empty spaces, like a room with just a bed in it or an empty shopping mall.  These spaces are always devoid of any life and always empty.  That is why they are so effective, because these images are so empty snd devoid of life, you can fit your own memories into these spaces, like seeing a hotel hallway.  You don't remember every hotel hallway you have ever been in but you remember the feeling attached to it.

Liminality also ties into the idea of the uncanny valley.  The uncanny valley is where you see something that looks very human, but something just feels slightly off.  It's like seeing one of those robots with the human faces.  People have speculated that the uncanny valley could be connected to liminal spaces, because the place feels familiar even though something feels off.  I personally like this theory for why we experience liminality.  

  This image underneath perfectly capsulates what I think liminal spaces are ment to be. 

I remember in primary school doing robotics in the 6th grade and after each session walking around the empty school and feeling a weird sense of comfort.  That's because it was liminal, because a school is a place that is usually filled with life and seeing it empty is strange.  Most of you reading this have experienced some sort of feeling of liminality before, so if you have any memories like that feel free to comment it down below.  Let's now move on to the reason most people know about liminal spaces today. 

The Backrooms

On May 12th 2019, someone made a post to the forum website 4chan's paranormal (/x/) board.  This was the post: If you're not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the Backrooms, where it's nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in. 

God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you.  This was the image attached.  

This concept of a place you can't escape that stretched for miles apon miles began to grab a lot of people's attention, but most people only learned about the backrooms from the analogue horror series on YouTube made by Kane Pixels.  Let me start by saying that Kane Pixels is extremely talented and I'm a huge fan of his work, but I feel like his series kind of destroyed the purpouse of the backrooms by adding the monsters.  The true terror for me is not knowing what you might find, or even worse, not finding anything.  But nevertheless, I really liked how Kane Pixels brought the backrooms alive.  His series basically created the backrooms fandom where people created lore and made their own levels.  

Liminality in Media 

Another way people could have found out about liminal spaces is through TikTok or Instagram.  For me, I found a video that was more dreamcore than liminal, but it still sparked my interest.  One of the best dream- and weirdcore creators is Ashur Gharavi.  His series Mr Plant and Argos is really good, and I highly recommend it.  He also makes other short horror videos that I adore.  

Channel Zero's second season has one of the best liminal representation in a show that I have seen thus far.  The series takes the creepypasta "No-end House" and creates an original story with it.  The neighborhood the series takes place in feels straight out of a dream.  Even the houses they go into feel empty and devoid of life.  

Another analogue horror series by Kane Pixels, "The Oldest View" takes place in an empty mall someone found underground with a big statue following him.  From the staircase leading to the mall, to the mall itself, the whole series is perfect.  Also on YouTube is AlfaOxtrot's video "How I became a liminal space photographer" that I highly recommend.  It is probably my favourite video on YouTube and it is made by one of my favourite creators.  

Some other recommendations includes these movies: Toys, Vivarium, Edward Scissorhands, Cube and The Shining.  My biggest recommendation is Edward Scissorhands and The Shining, because I have watched them before and can confirm they are amazing pieces of art.  

In conclusion...

I love liminal spaces and I think I will forever.  It makes me feel comfort and nostalgia for places I have never visited before.  Liminal spaces and dreamcore is two things I care deeply for, and I hope you understand why.  If this concept is interesting to you, please go read and research more about it, it is absolutely fascinating.  My next blog post will just be a continuation of this one where I will write about internet aesthetics.  If you enjoyed this blog post, feel free to follow my blog so that you can be notified when I post a new blog entry.  Until next time, bye!