Liminal space usually are space/area/location that people are not meant to stationary/habitats/dwell/linger around.
Example: on a elevator, escalator, airport, library, underground subway, ferry port, a bus stop, a mall, a pool, a stretch of road, a maze, Etc
As you can infer from the examples above, all these locations all share one thing in common: they are places you're meant traverse/travel by and not stay there.
A library is a place. It is a destination you travel to and interact with. All places you eventually leave until the place where you die.
What you described in your other comment are non-places: areas that is meant to be moved through and not interacted with.
I disagree that liminal spaces are all transitory non-places, although many of them are. I think that liminal spaces are dreamlike and the name comes from the concept of liminal perception, and the way that we sometimes become aware of spaces in our dream and how they are strange and off balance somehow. In that way also many non-places are subliminal when we move through them, especially if they are filled with other people. When they are empty and the subject of a photo it brings them above the threshold to where we notice them, and long hallways disappearing around corners and seemingly going on forever is very dreamlike and disorienting, same when the place seems abandoned but the lights are on, and the lights are old flickering fluorescents when everything is LED now.
When I watched OPs video it also gave me liminal space vibes and I can’t quite identify why. It’s unusual to see a space populated with people and feel like it’s liminal. I definitely think the bare windowless walls are part of it, and maybe the colors. Perhaps it is similar in some way to spaces I experienced as a young child but don’t specifically remember. Someone else commented that it looks a lot like a sports arena, but is just different enough to be uncanny, and I think that must be part it too, especially the wall up against the court where normally bleachers would be.
Anyway, I think both places and non-places can be liminal spaces, even if mostly they are non-places.
I was going to say they were unrelated but according to google they do share a root. I’m also not a linguist guru. From what I’ve gathered- Something liminal is just at the “threshold”, like that one thing is the whole point and its only value is to get you to the next point. It’s supposed to take you somewhere or something is coming to you. B is liminal if you’re trying to go from A to C. B is that long stretch along Montana when you’re traveling to Seattle. Nothing to do but drive until you get to where you’re actually going. For whatever reason people tend to find this eerie, even something innocuous like a long flat stretch of road. For me it’s the shower, I could be just getting in, I could be just getting out, but the whole time the only thing to do is shower things until I’m ready to leave. I hate showers, they make me anxious and I lose track of time in there in a bad way.
Subliminal is just under that threshold. It’s still important to the moment but it’s not supposed to be the main focus. You don’t even notice it, but it’s still present to the moment.
So going by cultural zeitgeist standards they’re not related, but their inception comes from a common root concept. It’s basically how we perceive our environment.
A lot of what people consider “liminal spaces” are spaces that typically have a lot of other people and distractions and focuses going on, or at least are places that you would normally pass through while thinking about your destination or something else.
When all of that distraction is removed and you become aware of the space itself, when it goes from subliminal to supraliminal, it can be unsettling.
I think that some people find this horrifying or uncomfortable because suddenly becoming aware of your surroundings is something that happens when your subconscious registers that something is wrong and you become conscious of it, but haven’t identified the threat or cause yet. It makes me wonder if people with poor situational awareness find images of liminal spaces to be creepier or more unsettling than people who are generally more aware of their surroundings.
I also think it is related to dream spaces and the way that images of liminal spaces can remind us of dream spaces that we don’t have strong memories of or of reminding us of dreams where we became aware of our surroundings. Images of liminal spaces often have dreamlike qualities.
Anyway, I think so much of what gives people “liminal vibes” from these spaces has to do with crossing the threshold between subliminal and supraliminal.
Once worked in a factory with enormous corridors. 7km in total iirc. They once painted the walls in anti-loitering paint. Disgusting colours. It's difficult to describe.
It backfired though as top management hated it so much it was repainted in something more acceptable.
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u/sinwarrior 17h ago
Liminal space usually are space/area/location that people are not meant to stationary/habitats/dwell/linger around.
Example: on a elevator, escalator, airport, library, underground subway, ferry port, a bus stop, a mall, a pool, a stretch of road, a maze, Etc
As you can infer from the examples above, all these locations all share one thing in common: they are places you're meant traverse/travel by and not stay there.