How liminalism became the defining aesthetic • Hacker News Board

Re: How liminalism became the defining aesthetic

#61

Post by genewitch » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 1:40 PM UTC

kaycebasques wrote: post #6

> The image exemplifies the popular internet aesthetic of “liminality”: the exploration of spaces that appear “in between,” that are uncanny and uncomfortable despite being mundane or familiar. Liminal in the context of liminal dreaming has very different emotional connotations. Liminal dreaming is the state where you are beginning to fall asleep but are not quite there (hence liminal because you're on the border bet…

I've heard that about Dali, couple of decades ago, and had forgotten. I used to get complete songs in my head; if i was near my workstation i'd transcribe it as best i could. Usually, though, i was in the car. Lost probably hundreds of songs due to not being at home and not carrying a recording device. I fixed the recording device part in mid-2000s; prior to that i had some real crap for live audio recording.

As an example of both "full song in head" and "crap recording equipment" i present a 25 year old track and also ringtone of mine(1 "F" bomb in the track): https://soundcloud.com/djoutcold/showerbassline

https://soundcloud.com/djoutcold/showerringtone

if you scroll all the way down my track list, there's a track called "greenocide" which is written similarly, inspiration, transcription, then field audio recordings and telephone tap recordings, but much higher quality overall!

Re: How liminalism became the defining aesthetic

#62

Post by gosub100 » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

acidhousemcnab wrote: post #47

dvt wrote: post #2

Calling liminalism the "defining" aesthetic of our time is a bit much (though I get the article is trying to hitch its wagon to the Backrooms, aka the "current popular thing"). It's an aesthetic microniche, about as popular as vaporwave, or cyberpunk, grunge, or Y2K (think flip phones, bulky plastic cameras, etc.). There's a ton of these, and some are surprising: for example, there's even been a relatively recent rev…

Anti-space, no space, nothingness - annihilation.

bland-ness, anti-self-expression, fear of being 'called-out'

Re: How liminalism became the defining aesthetic

#63

Post by Mezzie » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 2:22 PM UTC

NoboruWataya wrote: post #40

I know the trend from the LiminalSpace subreddit. It's nice to scroll through, peaceful yet slightly unsettling. But I think a lot of that effect comes less from the physical "in-between-ness" of the spaces and more from the fact that they are places you would expect to have people, but which don't. The article notes this but only in passing. You never see a photo of a busy corridor, for example. They are always empt…

I'd agree that's it a component, but not a necessary one?

One of the strongest senses of liminality I've experienced has been being in a middle school at 9 PM when almost nobody else was in the building. I was a poll worker and we were wrapping up for the evening, so there were only 4 of us there. Doing things like walking to the bathroom through the empty school felt very strange, because I was surrounded by evidence of people using this space and yet there were none there.

A different place I felt that way was when I lived in Flint, MI. I'd walk to work early in the morning, and I'd pass the Flint Institute of Arts, which was at the time one of the few places in the city with any money, so they had a very well maintained and manicured outdoor space (evidence of people), but I never saw anyone.

On the other hand, airports and hotels are classic liminal and they're usually peopled.

Re: How liminalism became the defining aesthetic

#64

Post by no-name-here » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 2:29 PM UTC

Schlagbohrer wrote: post #48

esperent wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, for places metro stations/gyms it's more of a maintenance and hygiene thing rather than an aesthetic. I'm currently in Paris so I've seen a ton of metro stations recently and really, unless you arrived in the dead of night so that you could snap an empty photo like the one in the article, there's nothing much liminal about them. A space can't be liminal if it's packed with people, buskers, beggars, dogs, etc. I…

But the abandonment of a place which should be filled with life is a huge aspect of the liminal art movement. It speaks to the hollowing out of public life in north america and britain.

Is the abandonment of places that should be filled with life a defining aspect of today? Which places? Malls & COVID? I guess they exist but are they especially prevalent today?

Re: How liminalism became the defining aesthetic

#65

Post by SideburnsOfDoom » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

KaiserPro wrote: post #37

mystraline wrote: post #4

Ive always felt that the Art World seems to talk in its own tone. And that tone is arrogant, looking down on people, and haughtiness. Words dont mean with the Art World as they normally do. And definitions are scarce, since you are expected to innately know them, or be 'out'.

"high art" and the language of high art is ripe for satire. That I totally get. But, I would actually beg, to not let those who indulge in high art language colonise "art" as well. Art is for you and me, everyone. twats writing bollocks is for the "elite" Art history is a mixed bag, it is also for all of us, even if it tedious.

I agree, and as the article makes clear, this current liminalism really does not come from the world of "High Art":

>As an internet phenomenon, the most recent iteration of liminal aesthetics can be primarily traced to a 2019 Creepypasta collaborative short story entitled "The Backrooms"

This is ground-up, the opposite of high art. It's even kind of "outsider art".

Re: How liminalism became the defining aesthetic

#66

Post by bikeshaving » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 2:41 PM UTC

My favorite example of liminalism is Everything Empty Always Alone, a man on YouTube in his 40s who claims to be a time traveler and films himself walking and driving around empty metropolitan areas. He claims he’s recording from some sort of alternate universe, but it’s likely he’s just at these locations at odd hours. In any case, it’s fun outsider art. Or maybe it’s all true you never know.

https://www.youtube.com/@EverythingEmptyAlwaysAlone/videos

Re: How liminalism became the defining aesthetic

#67

Post by exvi » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 2:44 PM UTC

to me it seems exactly the same as urban exploration photography, except limited only to corporate spaces. or Portal and The Stanley Parable combined with creepypasta. personally, i don't find the aesthetic nostalgic because i went to school in a former office building... but whatever, if it makes people happy, i can't judge them.

Re: How liminalism became the defining aesthetic

#68

Post by pegasus » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 3:16 PM UTC

esperent wrote: post #42

dvt wrote: post #2

Calling liminalism the "defining" aesthetic of our time is a bit much (though I get the article is trying to hitch its wagon to the Backrooms, aka the "current popular thing"). It's an aesthetic microniche, about as popular as vaporwave, or cyberpunk, grunge, or Y2K (think flip phones, bulky plastic cameras, etc.). There's a ton of these, and some are surprising: for example, there's even been a relatively recent rev…

Also, for places metro stations/gyms it's more of a maintenance and hygiene thing rather than an aesthetic. I'm currently in Paris so I've seen a ton of metro stations recently and really, unless you arrived in the dead of night so that you could snap an empty photo like the one in the article, there's nothing much liminal about them. A space can't be liminal if it's packed with people, buskers, beggars, dogs, etc. I…

Unless all those people are transfixed into their own isolated, smartphone-mediated experience, as they are likely to be these days, then it's arguably "liminal" again. I.e. a lonely, deserted and uncanny place.

A Nina Simone song comes to mind: everyone's gone... to the moon...

Re: How liminalism became the defining aesthetic

#69

Post by mistersquid » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 3:27 PM UTC

esperent wrote: post #42

dvt wrote: post #2

Calling liminalism the "defining" aesthetic of our time is a bit much (though I get the article is trying to hitch its wagon to the Backrooms, aka the "current popular thing"). It's an aesthetic microniche, about as popular as vaporwave, or cyberpunk, grunge, or Y2K (think flip phones, bulky plastic cameras, etc.). There's a ton of these, and some are surprising: for example, there's even been a relatively recent rev…

Also, for places metro stations/gyms it's more of a maintenance and hygiene thing rather than an aesthetic. I'm currently in Paris so I've seen a ton of metro stations recently and really, unless you arrived in the dead of night so that you could snap an empty photo like the one in the article, there's nothing much liminal about them. A space can't be liminal if it's packed with people, buskers, beggars, dogs, etc. I…

> I'm currently in Paris so I've seen a ton of metro stations recently and really, unless you arrived in the dead of night so that you could snap an empty photo like the one in the article, there's nothing much liminal about them.

Liminal does not mean minimal. It means in-between, neither here nor there but in the interstices, transitional.

Dictionary.app in macOS Sequoia defines (with example usage) "liminal" as

  > 1 occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold: I was in the liminal space between past and present | the paintings in this exhibition are the result of recent investigation into liminal states.

  > 2 relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process: that liminal period when a child is old enough to begin following basic rules but is still too young to do so consistently.

By definition, metro stations are liminal spaces, as are airports, airlocks, highways, and most every transit station.

Re: How liminalism became the defining aesthetic

#70

Post by cyber_kinetist » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 3:40 PM UTC

Jordan-117 wrote: post #24

There's an interesting connection to draw between liminal spaces (especially the Backrooms variety) and the "latent space" concept from AI, both mechanically and sociologically. Basically, generative AI is an industrial-scale blend of almost every image and concept in human history, and within the labyrinthine, uninterpretable neural networks that power it, you can "find" every conceivable combination of objects, sty…

I feel that generative AI is the culmination of Baudrillard and Mark Fisher's thesis.

The world we live in is already dead, and we are wandering with its ghosts. After capitalism strips everything off its materiality and leaves only with its symbols, only the nostalgia for a non-existent past remains.