Strange but Familiar Places: A Critical Analysis of Liminal Spaces

[Music] foreign did I ruin your liminal space it's fine I'll just go home in all spaces everywhere in the internet in the last couple years and if you're a young person there's a pretty good chance you run into them in some way whether it was a strange but familiar places compilation on YouTube or Tick Tock the back rooms or one of the many liminal space communities on Reddit Tumblr or Instagram but what is a luminal space the definition of liminal according to Google is relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process so it would stand a reason that their transitional spaces like maybe an airport or a hotel right well sort of if we look at some of the most popular liminal space posts most of them don't actually follow this definition the most blatant example is being pictures of homes which really can be less limitable right so what really is a liminal space then let's dive a little deeper okay before we go any further I want to talk a little bit about memes and no not that kind of meme I mean the original definition of the word meme it was a term coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 to describe an idea or behavior that spreads from person to person within a culture I'm going to use the word meme a lot in this video and it's always going to be this meaning of the word I think luminal spaces are a perfect example of a meme they're an intangible idea that we understand subconsciously but it's hard to put into words what it actually is okay now for a bit of History the term liminal space has been used a few times before the luminal space meme was born I found article from 2003 that talks about the liminal spaces between text and illustrations in children's picture books this blog post from 2011 talks about the mineral spaces between your origin and destination on a train trip which I mean yeah that's pretty on point with the modern idea of a liminal space there's also this article from an academic Journal written in 2014 that I find pretty interesting it uses the term liminal spaces to describe transitory dwellings in the workplace such as elevators bathrooms stairwells Etc it describes these areas as a no man's land of sorts in the sense that they're not owned by any particular party and they're not easily defined in their use I know that last part doesn't sound entirely true but the article goes in depth about how these spaces often transform from their original intended use for example a stairwell or hallway that was originally only intended for traveling from one place to another might become a second break room for workers to hang out Alleyways can become smoke worms bathrooms could become a temporary private Refuge the article also talks about how because of secondary uses of these places are clearly defined there's a sense of uncertainty and possibly even lawlessness that goes along with them for example it's unlikely you would see a worker taking a swig of liquor in the break room but they might do it in the stairwell or the bathroom I think this is a really interesting interpretation of liminal spaces this focus on temporary areas that we don't often think about is really in line with the modern idea of a liminal space although the pictures in the article don't quite have the same sense of eeriness or emptiness as a modern day luminal space there are quite a few other posts and articles from the past that each have their own interpretations of liminal spaces but the modern idea of a liminal space evolved from a different meme cursed images cursed images are pictures that either look creepy or have some creepy meaning behind them they originate in late 2015 on Tumblr and then spread to many other Platforms in early 2016. on the Paranormal Board of 4chan in April 2018 there was a threat of cursed images that contained will become two of the most well-known liminal space images the back rooms and the dashcon ball pit then one year later in May 2019 a user would make a thread with the same bathroom's image asking for users to post disquieting images that just feel off and well I think this right here is when we can say the luminal space meme was truly born I think part of what makes a great meme is how quick it is to understand in liminal spaces appear to be instantly understood there's no cooking time it came fully formed right out of the gate a lot of the images in the thread would go on to become some of the iconic liminal space images that still get reposted To This Day on Reddit speaking of Reddit about one month later in August 2019 the liminal spaces subreddit was created with the description reading a liminal space is a time between the what was and the next it is a place of transition waiting and not knowing luminal space is where all transformation takes place if we learn to wait and let it form us well the luminal space me may have been created in 2019 it truly blew up in 2020 during the start of the pandemic I don't think it's too much of a coincidence either after all it was a year when everything was empty and the feature was uncertain I know personally this is when I got into Elemental spaces although I've always been inspired by similar motifs and I've taken quite a few crappy pictures over the years that follow a similar format to liminal spaces enough about me though let's try to pinpoint what exactly makes a space in the Manola the immediate thing that jumps out when you look at these pictures and it's something I think that every luminal space has in common is that they're almost always devoid of life there are no people or animals to speak of and even plant life is sparser just not there at all grass in the middle spaces often appears to resemble AstroTurf or maybe even carbon I think this is probably the only mandatory component of a liminal space like if I were to take this liminal space here and then add a cat and some kids playing to it well it's just a front yard now keep the sterility aspect of mine because I'm going to return to it a little later in the video another factor in liminal spaces of notice is the quality of the picture itself it's quite common for luminal space pictures to have the look of heavily compressed pictures uploaded on the internet in the 2000s either taken with flip phones or cheap digital cameras at the same time period I find that a lot of these little space pictures might not even be considered a liminal if it wasn't for the poor quality of the picture Okay so we're on location at a potential luminal space and I want to do an experiment so I'm going to take a picture with my iPhone and well it's okay but I think it can be a little better so now we're going to take the same picture except this time we're going to use this 20 year old digital camera just gotta turn it on give it a second okay so let's see what this looks like and yeah I think it's a lot better so now I'm going to go home we're going to post both photos on Reddit and we're gonna see which one gets more karma okay so both pictures have been already for a little while but before we talk about how much Karma each of them got I just want to go on a little tangent about the pictures themselves I'm just kind of like blown away at the Stark difference between them I mean obviously a modern cell phone is going to have a new sensor that's much much Brighter Than This Old digital camera and cell phones do things like computational photography to make the picture brighter but I mean to see these two pictures line up side by side I mean the difference is literally night and day okay so back to Reddit uh the iPhone picture got about four of votes which isn't very much but I also wasn't really expecting it to get very many of votes the digital camera photo on the other hand got about 21 of votes which also isn't a lot but it's quite a bit more so yeah I mean Successful experiment I guess I'm sort of torn on why exactly the quality of the picture such a big factor on one hand you can say that a picture being worse quality makes it more vague and uncanny but then again if this was the only reason we would probably see many more liminal space posts with much older pictures but it still seems to be centered around digital camera photos very rarely has it ever film I think this is due to another big factor in liminal spaces nostalgia and it goes well beyond just the quality of the photo [Music] Nostalgia is one of the biggest factors in liminal spaces these pictures don't just have the quality of a photo from the 2000s they also depict scenes typical of the same time period And I don't think it's a coincidence that a very gen Z phenomenon such as liminal spaces focuses so heavily in the 2000s for a lot of us this is when we had our early or even earliest memories liminal space pictures aren't only fixated on scenes typical of times when we were young children they're also often focused on kid stuff whether it's indoor play areas outdoor play areas birthday parties School the list goes on so it's not just Nostalgia it's childhood I think childhood is not only a time of endless transition it's also a time when we don't really understand everything that's going on around us you have to rely on adults to guide you through almost every aspect of life and I think this theme of non-understanding or vagueness is a significant factor in the liminal spaces video games are also a very common site in a liminal space communities and I think it makes sense for a few reasons any 3D computer-generated environment is going to have some of the common qualities of liminal spaces to varying degrees they try to depict the real world as best they can but it's obvious it's not real depending on the age of the game some of these 3D environments can be really sparse and devoid of life Mario 64 is probably one of the most commonly posted liminal Space video games and for good reason it depicts a strange world with strange architecture and it all just feels very empty Source engine games are also a common sign in with mineral space communities whether it's screenshots from Half-Life 2 portal Gary's Mod or empty Counter-Strike Maps I think Gmod is one of the best luminal space games because playing for the first time is always such a weird experience start off in an empty map by yourself with nothing to do you hear the far-off sounds of a city but everything always seems to be at least a couple blocks away no matter where you are once you start spawning stuff in the feeling goes away but those first few minutes are always strange and along with Mario 64 the nostalgic factor is also at play here since all of these games were released more than 10 years ago at this point so context can be really important in liminal spaces to the point where Exposition might not only enhance illuminal space it might actually make or break it so yeah I mean this is an alright aluminum space it's a hotel I guess my swimsuit is still dripping water okay yeah that's that's like a hit in memory or something right there uh this one's fine too uh it's like another hotel or maybe a Convention Center or something an Ikea that's been cleared of furniture oh okay yeah I know I I love that that's great okay so this one's just an old picture I wouldn't say it's that liminal uh it actually looks like it was taken with a disposable camera this room was locked in an empty house and had remained untouched since 2003. I don't believe that I mean this was definitely taken with a disposable camera and I mean if I found a room that hadn't been open in 20 years my first instinct would be to grab my disposable camera so yeah I'm calling BS on that one but hey it's a good story okay this one looks like a doctor's office or something I would say this one's probably the most liminal of the bunch just on first glance from an office space close since 1991. every room has one of those flip clocks and they're all synced each minute you hear them all cycle over telling time to know them for 31 years all right yeah I mean very nice okay let's try another experiment I'm just gonna get out of the shot here all right would you say you're looking at a liminal space right now no well how about this is this a liminal space or this or how about these this one is one of my favorite luminal space posts simply titled out of business but this and other examples we just looked at present an interesting issue with luminal spaces when it comes to context playing a factor Elemental spaces it goes beyond familiarity with certain subjects overall cultural context is really important most luminal spaces on the internet are overtly Western in nature and they rely on the viewer having familiarity with Western and sometimes even exclusively American experiences YouTuber version yakovsky uploaded a great video of luminal spaces from Poland and other post-communist countries if we look at the common section there are many people not just from post-communist countries who find these liminal spaces more relatable than the standard American ones that are the most prevalent now I'm a Canadian but I did live in Poland for a few years and I can see how these spaces are pretty liminal at the same time I only ever lived in Europe as an adult in the nostalgia-based lamental spaces here don't really work for me now this cultural context thing isn't really a rule you do see quite a lot of popular liminal spaces in many countries that aren't the USA but it does affect what we individually consider to be liminal if we take away Nostalgia cultural context picture quality familiarity with the subject what are we left with is there such a thing as an unbiased Universal liminal space that everyone can experience well I think there is all of these things out of the equation we're left with liminal spaces like these nature at dusker dawn it comes from a very Primitive Place but it makes sense doesn't it Dawn and dusk are times when it's not so dark that we can't see anything but there's still not enough light to completely make out everything that's around us other creatures are either waking up or going to sleep most of them function in this level of life better than we do we don't quite know what to expect we hear sounds but we can't officially confirm what's making them we may or may not be completely safe okay we're getting pretty deep into this so let's back it up a little bit something we missed Aesthetics have you ever noticed the many luminal spaces have very pleasing Aesthetics they often have interesting colors lighting subjects orientation and a sense of symmetry more is a lot of liminal spaces are just straight up art pieces and they make up a good portion of the most popular luminal spaces as well I feel like this is where we lose sight a little bit of what luminal spaces are are we experiencing that Eerie feeling that liminal spaces give us or are we just enjoying a piece of art I know when I visit an art gallery sometimes I'll just stare at a certain painting for a few minutes taking it in I often do the same thing with a good liminal space but for different reasons I wonder if at some point we're confusing the idea of experiencing good art with experiencing a good liminal space but as a Counterpoint if I were to post a Garden of Earthly Delights on the luminal space subreddit it probably wouldn't get upvoted because it's not a liminal space can we consider liminal spaces to be a genre of Art I think to some degree yeah but every definition of art seems to involve creativity in some ways so obviously we can't consider some unintentional liminal spaces to be art but then again some unintentional liminal spaces are literally paintings pakshinsky might not have ever heard of liminal spaces but he certainly painted some pretty liminal scenes if we consider luminal spaces to be a genre of art it definitely falls under the umbrella of surrealism Andre Breton an early proponent of the surrealism movements in 1924 that surrealism was a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious Realms of experience so completely that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational World in an absolute reality a sir reality doesn't this sum up liminal spaces to a T luminal space is often depict familiar scenes in an unfamiliar way not unlike something you might see in a dream strange but familiar places surrealism in the early 20th century started with a movement called dadaism which itself was a revolt against irrationalism and reason that ruled not just Western Aesthetics but also the capitalist machine that was and is industrial society World War one had just ended with 10 million people dead and with it arose a belief that the system might not be working so artists throughout the rule book and started making art that didn't make any sense surrealism took this idea of nonsense but made it more organized and approachable focusing Less on straight up nonsense and more on dreamlike imagery [Music] if surrealism arose out of frustration with a broken system can we say the same thing about liminal spaces after all luminal spaces exploded during the pandemic which was a time when the system was working particularly poorly to say the least with that being said I don't think liminal spaces were a protest against tradition in the same with surrealism was rather they were parroting what we're all seeing at the time which were places that normally have people but suddenly didn't a world turned upside down strange but familiar places I think there's too much more I can say about what makes the space liminal so let's take a few minutes to talk about people's reactions to liminal spaces from what I've seen people generally have one of two reactions on one hand you have people who say liminal spaces make them feel uncomfortable and they find them creepy and unsettling but on the other hand you have people who say liminal spaces are in fighting and make them feel safe hi I find this really fascinating obviously an uncomfortable reaction a liminal spaces is expected and can be easily explained by The Uncanny Valley Theory but to have the other common reaction be so far in the other side of the spectrum is really strange so why is it like this well I have a theory one popular Motif in liminal spaces is outdoor spaces replicated indoors one of the best examples of these kind of liminal spaces is this post right here and is also the fifth most popular post of all time in the liminal space suburb at the time of making this video depicts a cold war bunker on a residential property meant to emulate not only a house but also a yard all Underground you'll find countless comments on this post with people saying they would like to live here so here's my theory I think this post and a lot of others show us a sterile safe and most importantly a completely controlled version of what would otherwise be a somewhat unpredictable environment the outdoors is an expansive place that is practically endless from our human perspective and is filled with little threats like bugs animals dirt bacteria rain snow other humans almost all of it is Outsider control but something like this bunker is limited and safe there aren't any mystery dangers that may or may not pop out we know exactly what to expect well I think the outdoors indoors liminal spaces are the best example of liminal spaces making people feel safe I don't think they're the only ones I think any liminal space that looks sterile enough can have the same effect in the comments I see on these posts prove that let's talk a bit about the other reaction people seem to have and that's fear and anxiety I mentioned The Uncanny Valley earlier and I think luminal spaces fit nicely into the bottom of this chart along with such things as corpses humanoid robots and animations that are a little too realistic for example the movie Shrek had to be changed because in test screenings children had feelings of anxiety whenever Princess Fiona came on screen they had to make her character look less realistic another example comes from the 2019 film adaptation of the musical Cats while the 1998 adaptation used actors in costumes the 2019 version instead gave their actors cat-like features and even cat-like movements using CGI I don't really need to get into why people hated this movie but viewers had a general feeling of disgust towards it I don't really blame them so what does this have to do with liminal spaces well a lot of luminal spaces depict places that seem familiar but have something off about them while some liminal spaces depict safe versions of environments that are normally unpredictable a lot of them do the opposite and depict an unpredictable version of an environment that's normally safe like a classroom at night a bright neighborhood with a black Sky a main street at night devoid of people an underground pathway with a disturbing message a roller coaster enveloped in an obscuring fog so at this point we've talked about liminal spaces pretty extensively but I want to challenge something I said at the beginning of this video I said that this and this are liminal but not this is that really true sure you might be in an airport for a few hours a hotel a few nights but what about a school for a few months a job or a house for a few years aren't these all technically transitional after all you weren't there forever are the things we remember from the past that are now different or no longer here at all liminal I don't know but what I do know is that I really appreciate you watching my video and I hope you have a fantastic day thank you [Music]

Channel: Farrell McGuire

Views: 111,149

Keywords: Liminal Spaces, weirdcore, Liminal space analysis, what are liminal spaces?, is the backrooms a liminal space?, why are liminal spaces creepy?, Strangely familiar places, strange but familiar places that are oddly familiar

Id: 0H-8zkqmI0I

Length: 23min 6sec (1386 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 13 2023