Your own visual reports of non-places

exotika

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Not sure if anyone's interested in my morning coffee verbosity, but it's rainy today and reflective mood came over me.

One of the most popular depictions of liminal spaces is, paradoxically, Eno's album titled Music For Airports – nature of liminality seems to be very abstract and therefore makes a good pair with music. Among countless of other examples Koyaanisqatsi was the one that spoke deeply to my imagination: aerial photographs of American suburbs juxtaposed with microscopic images of integrated circuits showed that machine-like iteration isn't specific to obviously transitional places only; sometimes we wake up in planned, systemic liminality.

There's a term coined by anthropologist Marc Augé to denote such places as malls, airports and hallways – non-lieu, which translates to non-place. Defining characteristic of Augé's non-places is their inability to evoke emotions or any other kind of personal attachment. Contradictory, there were American mall rats, for whom non-lieu's became places of choice. Among vaporwave community non-lieus seem to be areas loaded with meaning, a space for fruitful exploration.

There's something I'm wondering about – liminal spaces can radiate with negativity, sometimes described as an eerie or unsettling aura, but also they can be a source of nostalgia and comfort. The negative side remind me of urban legends. Their lifespan is connected with negative emotional response. Some environmental characteristics are seen as potentially dangerous, so it's possible that uncanny feelings are just an evolution-old phenomena mixing into newer experience of liminality. But what constitutes the soothing effect then? Is it just a sentiment? Or pleasure of being detached from overflowing information highway? Can I say it's a vision of empty and anonymous space that gives us a sense of security and control we lack in realm of data foraging social media? Last but not least, maybe vaporish lens is an attempt to regain power over these ubiquitous no-one's lands with our own personal touch?

I honestly prefer positive, vibrant side of aesthetics. I'm fond of that slightly naïve idealization vaporwavers like to use, but since we're all about the media, I'm just going to post what I have found today in my archives. It's definitely on the grim side and it's far from capitalist realism we would supposedly prefer to discuss here; I took these pictures shortly before closing and demolition of big post-soviet mall. So yeah, it is a communist decayism.



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I also found this to be a really interesting to read. And additionally am also quite fascinated by the whole liminal space phenomenon, I find it's appeal almost ineffable. Every time I try to put words to describe it, I feel like it comes short. In anycase, you expressed it quite well. And those are some nice pictures you attached too
 
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joypistols974@aol.com

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I also found this to be a really interesting to read. And additionally am also quite fascinated by the whole liminal space phenomenon, I find it's appeal almost ineffable. Every time I try to put words to describe it, I feel like it comes short. In anycase, you expressed it quite well. And those are some nice pictures you attached too
Human-made non places are fascinating indeed. Like, why do human beings bother to build spaces that serve no purpose at all? And why do we feel weird about them? Why does the absence of emotion in a place precisely create an emotion? Do people who are not aware of that phenomenon also feel something about it but just dismiss it or does the fact that we get interested in liminal space create such feelings? So many questions, man
 
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exotika

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why do human beings bother to build spaces that serve no purpose at all?
Well, they serve as an infrastructure, hubs and wires of modern city. For me liminality seems to be a byproduct of fast growth, at least to some extent.
Why does the absence of emotion in a place precisely create an emotion?
Maybe if you spend enough time in liminal spaces then emptiness became noticeable? We're not indifferent to the feeling deprivation.
Do people who are not aware of that phenomenon also feel something about it but just dismiss it or does the fact that we get interested in liminal space create such feelings?
That's a great question about causality. Many things can guide our attention, that's for sure.
 
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A lot of the mood created by liminal spaces has to do with taking a snapshot of scenery that is meant to be dynamic. Liminal spaces are areas of transition that are frozen in time, where the transition never actually happens. For instance, I'm going to to upload two photos (one edited, the other not) from my own apartment. The perspective is shot from my room, and looking through the hallway to get to the bathroom. For me, this is such mundane scenery that my mind hardly even processes it. Simply, "this is the way to the bathroom". But yesterday when I left my hallway lights off but the bathroom light on, I paused for a second and realized that as a snapshot it's kind of creepy. Despite the fact that as a lived space and a regular part of my daily life, there is nothing remotely creepy about it. Anyway, here are the pictures. The first one is edited, the second one isn't:
 

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0ur0b0r0s

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Good post. I liked the bit about Augé's idea of non-lieu as well.
As input (though it likely could be more informed), I would say that the potential for liminal spaces able to be either unsettling or nostalgic/comforting is probably largely due to our subconscious (evolutionary, as you mentioned). But I think an interesting riff off this idea that relates to your topic, is that maybe there exists some sort of analogy between this and the Uncanny Valley (pic attached).
This analogy is not 100% parallel, as the uncanny valley usually just involves the creepiness, but if we extrapolate the idea: maybe the nostalgic/comforting spaces are non-places just bordering on being places we would feel safe or excited in (well-lit, open, etc.); non-places bordering on being places where a threat exists would build that creepy feeling (abandoned, many doors, some space hidden, etc.).
Alternatively (and actually more probable now that I write it out, though it is less descriptive of the mechanism at play) maybe ominous non-places fall in the "Uncanny Valley of Liminal Spaces" while comforting ones exceed the valley, making them more familiar to us (causing unexplainable nostalgia, "I remember this place but I have never been").
There are a lot of ways you might go with this, but I think the concept of the uncanny valley is my real contribution here.
Vsauce has a really good video that talks about why things are creepy (good video; link) that's related.
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cryptfrog

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I think that maybe part of the reason people have this response to liminal images, is that generally in life we wake up in our house with family or at least with all our usual distractions, and we travel to somewhere else where we will have teachers or coworkers engaging us socially and mentally. It is only in the transition between the places we are going that our minds can wander and we can more easily enter a dreamlike state without even thinking about it.
To me what I identify as liminality cannot be seperated from a feeling of solitude. Times in my life that have seemed liminal are like taking the train home after working until 3am, going to the supermarket at night just before lockdowns started and leaving my gf and her family to walk around the empty shelves aimlessly, and wandering around a mansion turned student accomodation trying to figure out where the washing machines were.
I think this could explain why some stuff that people say is liminal has nothing to do with the meaning of the word.
 
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cybercola

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I always liked the 'lack of people' explanation. Easiest example is a school building after school ends, because most people have probably been in that situation but it was long enough ago that it's a vague memory. You know what it's like when it's bustling with people, and so the lack of people is creepy and eerie. You expect there to be people here, so it's weird when there isn't any.

Airports are my favourite kind though. One time I was at Schipol airport when my flight got delayed until 2am. Was big into ambient music at the time. Sitting there with headphones on as the terminal slowly got darker, watching mice crawl around empty waiting rooms, I've never felt anything quite like it.
 
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vaporwavemaster1

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私の最も深い恐怖を表しているように見える私の近所に路地があります。私がそれを通り過ぎて中を見るたびに、それは永遠に続くようです。ゴミや廃屋がいっぱいで、時々変な音がします。
 
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exotika

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Your comments are very interesting. Although there's always personal element to them, I'm under impression that some common qualities float to the surface. Apparently liminal spaces glitch our habits and preconceptions with some form of absence. That seems to be a common denominator.

Liminal spaces are areas of transition that are frozen in time, where the transition never actually happens.

In these pictures perspective cuts thru several spaces but doesn't reveal much about them – it just leaves us with more unknowns. I had a very similar sight at place I used to live in for some time, a pre-war apartment with original furnishing. All doors in a hallway were heavily warped. It looked quite surreal at night, like cabinet of Dr Caligari. There was even a bullet hole in the bedhead. Transition suspended.


But I think an interesting riff off this idea that relates to your topic, is that maybe there exists some sort of analogy between this and the Uncanny Valley (pic attached).

That's an intriguing trope. If I remember correctly, uncanny valley apply to a very specific level of mimicking human traits, just below threshold of believability? There may be some similarities between liminal spaces and uncanny valley indeed – very specific proportions of familiarity and human absence. This idea emphasizes some weird nonlinearities in our sensing of danger.

maybe the nostalgic/comforting spaces are non-places just bordering on being places we would feel safe or excited in (well-lit, open, etc.); non-places bordering on being places where a threat exists would build that creepy feeling (abandoned, many doors, some space hidden, etc.).

You're really close to the viewpoint of environmental psychology. "Well-lit, open" reminds me of prospect-refuge theory (Appleton), "some space hidden" is similar to "mystery" criterium in cognitive oriented viewpoint (Kaplans). You also mentioned excitement which is central for oldschool psychoaesthetics discussing optimal level of arousal (Berlyne). These theories often come together, although I'm not sure if empirical validation for this academic amalgam is consistent. Nevertheless, i thought you might find it interesting.

mystery.jpg


maybe ominous non-places fall in the "Uncanny Valley of Liminal Spaces" while comforting ones exceed the valley, making them more familiar to us (causing unexplainable nostalgia, "I remember this place but I have never been")

Non-places are universal and alike. Maybe that's what triggers déjà vu and feeling of collective experience?


It is only in the transition between the places we are going that our minds can wander and we can more easily enter a dreamlike state without even thinking about it. To me what I identify as liminality cannot be seperated from a feeling of solitude.
You know what it's like when it's bustling with people, and so the lack of people is creepy and eerie. You expect there to be people here, so it's weird when there isn't any.

So it's like we're alerted by departure from typical social setting and devoid of sensations at the same time. A certain type of mindfulness; patterns can be seen with eyes closed because our brains amplify the noise.

私の最も深い恐怖を表しているように見える私の近所に路地があります。私がそれを通り過ぎて中を見るたびに、それは永遠に続くようです。ゴミや廃屋がいっぱいで、時々変な音がします。

The doors of subconscious. Have you entered yet?
 
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Kaputski

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That's the kind of shit i'm living for. Please keep talking (writing).
I might post some pics later to share my take on liminal spaces and non-lieux, since i'm not good with words.
 
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ilyria

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I find this interesting because you are speaking of two very different things: Liminality and Non-Lieu. Liminality which comes from the world threshold, and is commonly thought of as a womb, a place of transition and is a place of potentia, then you speak of non-lieu, non-space. This is interesting because liminal is very much a space, and a space in which something very specific happens, anything, it is a space of absolute potential. The space of non-lieu is where nothing happens, and it is void of even notice.

Erik Satie also explored this idea in his music with what he called "furniture music." Music that should be considered nothing more than furniture in the background, something to sit on and not even be listened to or thought of, nothing more than just a piece of furniture. Brian Eno expands on this concept with Music for Airports. With both artists, but creating something to be ignored, they created something that people noticed and in turn did not successfully complete their intended task.

So what you're actually talking about are two opposing ideas, but they are both represented in the the photos that you have chosen to display, depending on how you choose to look at them could either see different sides of opposing worlds or the collision of worlds in a single photo and this is an interesting idea:
For each and every unending space of limitless unnoticeable void hides a threshold where anything can happen.

Or, it's just where I keep my stuff.
 
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amn

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I literally live in a liminal space. The human owner rarely comes and only stays a few couple days with his friends and family, so most of the time I have this summer house in the middle of nowhere all for me.

It is a place with it's purpose. You see, every once in a while humans are rewarded for their efforts at job with non-working days at some arbitrary mark on that calendar thing, and they all gather here to enjoy the prize. While normal human houses are designed to be simple and accomodate well the slave without making it go insane (they have paintings of trees on the walls lmao), this vacation place which I made mine is designed to partying. I think you would find it very liminal seeing it empty. It's many rooms with no one inside. That big table at center without any food on it, the waters on the pools dead quiet, grass without any children playing on it. Yes, quite a vision.

For me, however, it's a normal place, since I am a liminal being myself. And I have never been to other human-built places so I don't really have references.
 
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octoroon garden

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Old-man-yells-at-cloud moment I know but I'm in awe of how youngins collectively developed a phobia for empty hallways and hotel carpetterie. Worse it's probably ifunny.co's algorithm to blame.
I'm all up for psychogeography and metaphysical quackery but the way z00ms engage with these concepts is just sad. Empty commercial spaces are not spooky. That tingling sense of dread is called alienation and it should fuel a passion for arson, not shiver your timbers or make you shit your pants.

Now to not be a complete caca-head here's a neat little weird space within Liminal Spaces the MMO.
 
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Chao Tse-Tung

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This is a fantastic discussion on liminality, and I'd like to contribute a couple old images of mine that I feel invoke both the concepts of liminal space and non-space.

Limin2.jpeg

So this is an image of a school secondary-lobby at night from a staircase. The nature of the space is exactly that, a non-space, essentially a gap that people move through, and therein comes the liminal part, there are no people, and even the screen is empty and error-ed. The framing of the shot, as well as the lack of information on the screen, lend a mystery to the shot, and yet the familiar machine and trophies lend a certain sense of nostalgia that hits close to home.

Limin.jpeg

This is a shot of a bus-stop in Philly from a hotel room. The non-lieu nature of the brutalist wall and vacant/barren straight sidewalks and empty spaces juxtapose with the light of the advertisement, bringing in that idea of a transitional moment caught in time-- there must sometimes be life here, right?
 
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