User:Alessia/liminal

I am using Liminal Landscapes Travel, Experience and Spaces in-between as a starting point for my own notes about liminal spaces. Almost everything here will be in a way a summary of that book, poisoned by my own thoughts and some random stuff I found around

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Space vs Place

Each culture defines the concepts of space and place in a unique way. They take on almost fluid forms, taking the shape of the context in which they are applied like water in a container.
Space is multidimensional. It’s typically understood in terms of direction, volume, and distance, sp with a strong mathematical character, an abstract form.
Instead Place is much more relative, connected to a more personal perception and subjective experience of the world. A place holds significance, identity. Places are where people live and interact, making them rich with cultural and social meanings.
When thinking about space in a much more conceptual aspect, George Simmel is the first one popping up. Simmel worked on conceptualising space from a sociological point of view, being focused on its materiality and spatiality rather than treating it as a non material concept.
He explored how space shapes social relations and individual experiences around cities, markets, and how they function as hubs for social interactions connected to the negotiation of power between individuals.
A key point of Simmel’s theory is spatial differentiation. He argued that different social groups and individuals perceive and use space in different ways, always reflecting their own social status, cultural backgrounds, and personal identities. This differentiation can lead to spatial hierarchies and segregation.
Simmel emphasised that space is not static but constantly shaped by human activities.

Following these studies, Doreen Massey rethought the concept of space while calling attention to how spatial relations between people, cities, and actions are the main point of focus to understand power structures. She describes space as "unfixed, contested, and multiple," showing that places are dynamic, in a constant evolutionary state. Massey's perspective can be aligned with the ecological idea of the earth as a single breathing organism, which can be maybe understood as fractal in a sense, because of its interconnectedness.

Keith Basso introduces an interesting concept, interanimation, a process where people and places engage in an ecological relationship, creating a unique web of meaning. This dynamic that builds space make places seem alive even in the wildest stillness.

_ E un'immagine che descrive il processo di interanimation durante il quale il paesaggio geografico si sovrappone a quello mentale nel momento in cui un luogo viene sentito (sensed) in maniera attiva (107). "Un'oscura sete". Natura nella Milano di Milo De Angelis _

Transformation, Non-places, Deterritorialisation

Spaces become places when people use them and create a culture around that use, like a school or a bank. In modern societies the anthropologist Marc Augé called them "non-places", urban leftovers that sit between places. And so we all constantly transition from place to place, slipping through unseen non-places. Train stations, airports, and waiting rooms are great examples of non-places, places that are stripped of culture and interpersonal interactions.

J. Nicholas Entrikin, geographer, divides place into objective and subjective, fundamental aspects to be taken into account to understand liminality of spaces. He calls the betweenness of places the meeting point of subjective and objective space.

Henri Lefebvre, the marxist sociologist, challenged the classical binary interpretation of space, proposing the concept of "thirdspace," which connects spaces of living and spaces of leisure. To him a place is a physical and social landscape filled with meaning through everyday social practices, working across different spatial and temporal planes, it’s neither home nor workspace, nor space of sociality. That space we transit in, an hybrid, then what is the difference between a thirdspace and a non-place?

Deterritorialisation by Deleuze and Guattari.
When referring to culture, anthropologists use the term deterritorialized to refer to a weakening of ties between culture and place. This means the removal of cultural subjects and objects from a certain location in space and time.[9] It implies that certain cultural aspects tend to transcend specific territorial boundaries in a world that consists of things fundamentally in motion.

How to encounter a place, ecosystem

Massey describes places as constellations of trajectories, highlighting their porous, sponge nature. She argues against establishing severe boundaries or identities to places, as this can lead to nationalistic or attitudes. Instead, places should be seen for her as dynamic networks of events, constantly being reshaped.

To truly encounter a place, we must recognise that we are part of it. Throwntogetherness, actively participating and leaving traces that contribute to its ongoing form, narrative. Emmanuel Levinas' writings and the holistic, ecological, approach of deep ecology on humankind as an interlocking web of changing relations, offer a framework for the ethical engagement approach that some sociologists and geographers took inspiration from. This involves developing self reflection, awareness, getting almost to anthropomorphizing a place, to observing its behaviour thoughtfully, empathetically.

So, while being a complicated and unfixed set of networks, a place might also have the capacity to remember, to hold traces of past activities, in the loosest sense. While it remembers, it does not necessarily do this in a human way. The memory of place may then be thought of as fluid, transitory, and open-ended, activated only by those who pass through.

Place-specific art

Lucy Lippard, american writer and art critic, defines place-specific art as art governed by a place ethic, accentuating its location rather than just occupying, using it.
Examples of contemporary works that are place specific in Lippard’s sense:

• John Newling’s 2010 Root Zone and Local History. https://www.john-newling.com/street-works
• Lucy Harrison, how we experience place, memory, location, Remains project
• Roger Hiorns Seizure installation, he filled a council flat in elephant and castle with copper sulphate solution and then rained it
• Wrights and Sites’ Wonders of Weston 2010 Everything you need to build a town in here, 41 signs scattered across a variety of locations https://www.situations.org.uk/projects/wonders-of-weston/

http://www.mis-guide.com/
http://www.mis-guide.com/ws/people.html#phil
The metal plaques appear without explanation and offer instructions, observations or comments, which are designed to encourage the reader to somehow engage with their immediate vicinity by way of real or imagined actions. At the Old Town Quarry, which the artists describe as the keystore site for the series, there is a map and description of the project in its entirety. Not only does the work lead the visitor (tourist and resident alike) to unexpected places, but it also highlights the layering of historical and contemporary stories and associations that surround us everywhere

Counter-Tourism and site writing

Counter-tourism and site writing are great alternative perspectives on living with/in/against places, disrupting traditional tourist routes and attractions, encouraging deeper exploration of the experiential character of a location. Smith’s tours aim to reveal hidden layers of a place, inviting participants to engage with the urban landscape in unexpected ways.

Phil Smith, a member of the artistic collective Wrights & Sites, is an important figure in the world of counter-tourism and mythogeography (probably the main intellectual writing about these concepts).
His works, including "Counter-Tourism: The Handbook" and "Mythogeography," bibles for unconventional wandering into urban spaces.

Jane Rendell’s concept of "site writing" emphasises even more the role of narrative and personal engagement in encountering places. Her researches focus on everything concerning situatedness and site-specificity, exploring how writing can intersect with the experiential aspects of a space.

Liminality

Nostalgic creepiness

Between-ness is the core concept of liminality.
Liminality, "limen”, threshold, the concept of being in-between, partially belonging to two worlds while not wholly fitting into either. A transitional metaphor.
Liminal spaces are related to the uses and practices of space in constructions of identity, particularly in the context of contemporary approaches to the study of space, place and mobility. Experiential landscapes associated with mobilities, such as border zones and transitional spaces, serve as fertile ground for exploring the ritual, performative, and embodied geographies that shape individual and communities’ identities. The emotional response to such spaces is where liminality truly manifests. It feels both otherworldly and familiar simultaneously. They possess an unsettling familiarity, feeling both open yet enclosed, safe yet unsettling, and artificial yet natural.
It is not one or the other but both at the same time and can be hard to describe because we want to describe it as only one of those things because the other contradicts it.

Liminal spaces are usually associated with a sense of discomfort. They feel frozen in time, mere husks that spell whispers of their own past. They are impersonal, surreal, part of an altered reality, ambiguous, they are perceived as deviations from the norm.

Humanity leaves behind places that are no longer relevant.
Places get their energy just by life being in them, they get alive by you being there. A space that is empty will collapse into a frozen condition and begin to deteriorate.

Liminal spaces evoke nostalgia because they lack specific details, allowing people to connect with them personally. You don't remember the specifics of every place you've been, but when you encounter an image of such a space, you try to associate it with your own experiences. This lack of detail is a key characteristic of liminal spaces, making them universally relatable and familiar in our hyperconnected world.
Liminal spaces, such as supermarkets, have similar structures across different countries, reinforcing this sense of universal familiarity.
Liminal spaces' features often include hyper-artificial elements, like plastic, old carpets, and the buzz of neon lights. These spaces can trigger repressed memories, often bringing childhood to mind. Searching for liminal spaces online frequently reveals images of places from childhood, blending nostalgia for the past with the realization that these moments will never be reclaimed.

In rethinking ideas of the liminal, even in an anthropological and sociological sense, it’s possible to uncover contemporary issues surrounding technology, surveillance and power structures, as well as postcolonialism overlooked dynamics.

'if these wall could talk they would say nothing'


One of the concept that most of the time is associated with liminality is the "uncanny valley"
it's a fascinating concept often discussed in relation to human interaction with humanoid robots or computer generated characters, it concern the emotional response that this interaction evokes. Usually this emotional response appears as of an unsettling effect.
Masahiro Mori, a japanese roboticist proposed this concept in the '70. He proposed that as robots become more human like, there's a point where they appear almost, but not quite, human, which causes a negative emotional reaction in humans. This is because the slight imperfections or deviations from human appearance and behavior become more noticeable and unsettling as the resemblance increases.
The phenomenon has important implications for robotics, animation, and virtual reality, where artists and designers that want to create human like experiences must navigate through a delicate balance to avoid triggering discomfort in users.

When something is too different from what we're accustomed to, it can be easily dismissed as unrealistic or fantastical. However, when something comes very close to reality but has slight imperfections or deviations, it disrupts our expectations and can evoke a strong negative reaction. This is because our brains are constantly comparing incoming sensory information with stored patterns of what we consider normal or familiar.

• A parrot in an uncanney valley situation
• Cats, the live action💥, wasn't really appreciated
• The Sonic Movie, less "terrifying" CGI Hedgehog after internet meltdown

The concept of "uncanny valley" can easily be applied to spaces as well. One of the most common example of uncanney valley liminal spaces are abandoned buildings, places with a sense of mystery that can definitely evoke feelings of dread and creepiness. This happens because of various factors, like an increased informational entropy (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361850311_Structural_deviations_drive_an_uncanny_valley_of_physical_places, elaborate!) or lack of enviromental information?
When we enter an unfamiliar or abandoned space, our brains may struggle to make sense of the surroundings because they lack the contextual information we typically rely on to assess safety and predict outcomes.
Our perception of creepiness in environments is a complex web of sensory inputs, cognitive processing, and emotional responses. It's fascinating how our minds react to environmental cues in ways that shape our experiences of space and place.

The pillars of liminal space:

• Disgust
• Ambiguity
• Lighting and occlusion
• Social presence or absence

Places that seem to be designed without purpose or function are often referred to as liminal. My stance is that this interpretation of liminal spaces is connected with the productivity mania instilled by capitalism. We are conditioned to be concerned with the usefulness of spaces, and when a place is not used in the "right way," it appears "messy" and its unclear purpose becomes problematic. We then start perceiving it as something to be eradicated or as a creepy space we don't want to be associated with. Additionally, we may believe that such spaces are affiliated with unproductive individuals, reinforcing the (un)conscious discomfort.