Liminal - Architecture and nostalgia in one place

“Liminality” stems from the Latin word limen, meaning boundary or threshold. Many think of it as an “in between” space. Concepts of boundaries exist in all aspects of humanity and have been the study of many ethnologists, folklorists and philosophers. In particular, Plato considered the boundary between a reality and a heightened reality or altered state of mind. A liminal space is a place that embodies the unsettling nature of the in-between, undefined and, therefore, unpredictable. Most of the time the perception of these spaces makes me feel uncomfortable. Searching through the internet I discovered that this is an idea that has been discussed by countless existential and phenomenological philosophers; it has been dubbed: Unheimlich (Sigmund Freud), Angst (Søren Kierkegaard), L’Absurde (Albert Camus) or Le Nausée ( Jean-Paul Sartre).

However, the focus shouldn’t be on

the definition in itself, rather more on the feeling after which philosophy has crafted its many names.

Look at the one of the photographs in the next pages, what would you answer if I asked you: what do you see?

Your answer might vary slightly, but it’s undeniable that it’s an objective question, thus the reply won’t differ much from one person to the other.

Instead what would you say if I asked you: what do you feel? The answer to this question will definitely be more personal and subjective. But, tapping into this topic I discovered that there are some factors that are usually common to most of us.

“A liminal space is the time between the ‘what was’ and the ‘next.’ It is a place of transition, waiting, and not knowing. Liminal space is where all transformation takes place, if we learn to wait and let it form us.”

the Backrooms In the boundless world of Internet we can often come across theories as interesting as obscure. Today we will discover what is meant by "Backrooms“ in the digital universe.

Human existence is made up of inexplicable events. We are certain that we hold the key to the reality that surrounds us, that we know it without too many uncertainties, that we can give a precise explanation to what happens around us and within us.

Nevertheless, sometimes something escapes our reasoning, plunging us into a universe of confusion and uncertainty. One of the perfect examples of this confusion of the mind is the concept of Backrooms. Probably some of you have already heard of it, others have come across it unconsciously. What is certain is that in one way or another the characteristics of this phenomenon are paradoxically familiar to each of us. But what exactly are the Backrooms?

The Backrooms theory was recently born in the ephemeral and intangible world of the Internet. On May 12, 2019, an anonymous 4chan user posted an image that was both disturbing and strangely familiar followed by this description:

„If you don‘t pay attention and wander away from reality into the wrong areas, you‘ll end up in the Backrooms, where there‘s nothing but the stench of an old, damp carpet, the madness of a monotonous yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum, and about six hundred million square miles of empty rooms randomly subdivided to trap you.

God save you if you hear something wandering nearby, because it surely has heard you.“

The original post uses the term „noclip“ which refers, in the world of first-person video games, to the ability to pass, due to a glitch or cheat code, through walls, game scenes, or characters. And it is mainly in the aesthetics of video games that this theory finds its origin. As in video games we are sometimes alone in places without human presence without knowing, often, how we got there, in the

same way we can find ourselves inside a backroom. There are, in fact, several video games that seem to represent perfectly the idea of Backrooms, such as The Stanley Parable, Portal or Superliminal. ▸

The Stanley Parable Backrooms are places, if not non-places given their common nature and lack of identity elements, that transcend the traditional concepts of time and space. Endless corridors, recurring identical rooms and the absence of windows immerse those who arrive in a condition of complete alienation, such as to lose awareness of the surrounding space and, above all, the classical logic of the passage of time.

According to the theory, there are different levels within the Backrooms.

Being an abstract concept and not perfectly defined, its supporters are not in agreement about the number of levels.

Some say that there are three levels, others a hundred, and others that the levels are infinite. The three-level theory, however, seems to be the most widely accepted. The first level, Level 0, corresponds to the image of the 4chan post: a maze of identical rooms, devoid of furniture, static and silent.

Through an elevator or a flight of stairs you can access Level 1, which is essentially the same as the previous level, except for some more disturbing details: cracks in the walls, mold, flickering lights alternating with seconds of total darkness. If before the noises were almost absent, now you can hear creaks, mechanical noises and even screams in the distance.

Suddenly, with no stairs or other exits, you find yourself at Level 2. In this level, the scenery changes drastically, immersing the viewer in a dark and disturbing atmosphere.

This level consists of a long tunnel, dimly lit and surrounded by countless air ducts and pipes. A growing sense of dread pervades those who enter, and the further you advance, the more unbearable the heat and noise of the machinery becomes. Something is hiding in the shadows, you can feel it, and your only instinct is to escape. From this level you can exit as suddenly as from the previous one. However, the next destination may be Level 3, and any subsequent levels, or you may find yourself back at Level 0, forced to start all over again, in an alienating endless cycle.

But what is the meaning of all this? Where are the Backrooms? Do they really exist or is it just fiction? The function of these places is mainly allegorical, therefore without any real foundation but linked to the metaphorical representation of certain phenomena of human existence.

The world of the dreams is that one in which we can all „access“ to the Backrooms, for this reason ▸

the ambientations of the Level 0 turn out familiar to more persons, which assert to have seen similar places in the own oniric explorations.

However, the Backrooms are representative of a specific phenomenon that can occur while we sleep: sleep paralysis. This consists in a divergence between the mind and the body, in which the first is awake and conscious while the second is asleep. This contrast tends to cause hallucinations often sinister, you feel the presence of someone in the room and the awareness of being mentally aware but physically immobilized throws in panic the subjects who suffer this trick of the mind.

The Backrooms would also be, according to some hypothesis, a metaphor for the gradual disintegration of the mind caused

by Alzheimer‘s disease. As in the Backrooms reality becomes less and less clear and recognizable with the succession of levels, in the same way the mind affected by this terrible condition undergoes the same degenerative process, until it completely decomposes reality, memories and self-perception.

In this regard, I find worthy of mention one of the most interesting and disturbing musical projects of recent years: Everywhere at the End of Time (2016-2019) by Leyland James Kirby, aka The Caretaker. The album of this British artist is a colossal work that tries to reconstruct, through music, the feelings caused by Alzheimer‘s or other forms of dementia. The melodies gradually degenerate, passing from the quiet of melancholic tones to an increasingly disturbing and disconnected ambient, almost cacophonous. The goal is to put the listener in the position to understand, in first person, the disorientation caused by this neuro-cognitive disorder.

Among the samples used by The Caretaker there are some ball-room songs present in The Shining (1977), the famous film by Stanley Kubrick. The choice is not random, especially in the context of Backrooms. The community of this phenomenon has in fact found in the film sets some examples of Backrooms, such as

the iconic corridors of the Overlook Hotel that seem to repeat themselves endlessly within a suspended time. Places with the function of impassable limbo are a recurring topos in narration, especially in cinema. In addition to The Shining, there are several films that include similar settings in their narratives, such as the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks (1990), the endless baroque halls of Last Year at Marienbad (1961) or the alienating and surreal places of the recent I‘m Thinking of Ending Things (2020).

The Black Lodge in Twin Peaks Although the phenomenon of the Backrooms is recent and particularly disturbing, it is evident how much its characteristics are rooted in fiction and in the common imagination. The idea of a place with the function of limbo, a sort of bubble excluded from the laws of space and time, plays a significant role in representing the metaphysics of human existence. Each of us in the course of our lives can feel lost in situations or moments of stagnation, as if we found ourselves in an undefined waiting room. Only by continuing our journey or waiting for time to take its course can we know whether, beyond doors, walls and levels, the hope of an escape awaits us or, on the contrary, yet another empty room, in an eternal cycle of expiation of sins or degeneration of perception.

Fluorescent Biologically our bodies feel the instinct to sleep at night. Hiding from the darkness and rising in the morning, likely with the sun, has been proven to provide benefits to neurological and mental health. That’s also why we associate the concept of life with the sun, and therefore light. On the other hand, darkness has always been a source of terror especially for those who are young, vulnerable and small. Facing the unknown we are instantly drawn to gather ideas of the worst. The result of intellectual uncertainty is perceived as uncanny and that’s why context is important to our conscious perception.

Uncanniness can be defined as a psychological experience of something strangely familiar encountered in an unsettling, eerie or taboo context. This causes it to be ominous to wander at night, in spaces that are typically reserved for the occupancy of the day. ▸

gloom

Furthermore, light as well plays an important role in the perception that we have of liminal spaces. As we already stated, it is natural for people to be asleep when it is dark, but when we see light, we assume this indicates some moving conscious beings in the area, light is, therefore, an indication of life. Thus when we see a space that’s supposed to be seen in daylight, during night-time, unnaturally lit or surrounded by darkness, we often perceive an unsettling feeling. Fluorescent lights, neon bulbs or lampposts are only trying to enframe the night forcing it to be day. This is a contradiction to what things are supposed to imply and it’s something that really gets to us.

What draws us to abandoned places, and why do we find them creepy?

Not everyone thinks vacant buildings are scary, I personally find being alone in them to be relaxing and interesting. But I might not represent the majority.

Abandoned buildings are creepy because there is a fear of uncertainty. There is no immediate present threat inside an abandoned place, but your brain is constantly telling you that there could be.

I decided to also include abandoned places in this book about liminality because, to me, they are the perfect symbol of the “in between” of existence. They are physically present but at the same time forgiven by everybody. Their original function it’s not evident anymore and that’s also why they provoke fear, the fear of the unknown.

Nothing ‘good’ happens in abandoned places.

We know this from movies, news stories, and cartoons. It’s something that has been taught to us through entertainment and society since we were young. When you go to an abandoned place, your mind subconsciously thinks back to all of those warnings and experiences you associate with abandoned places. Your mind, wanting to protect you begins to get creeped out. That’s your brain’s way of telling you to leave in the name of self preservation.

We fear what we don’t know, or fully understand. When it’s dark and we’re uncertain of what could be inside, our minds usually go to the worst places. Noises that could be explained by wind blowing through an open window, but our imaginations turn into something more sinister.

All the photos that you’ve seen to this point had one thing in common: the absence of people. This was done on purpose; everything else is normal, except there are no people, and no life. The simple absence of human activity seems to alter the perception of some locations, those that are commonly crowded, into an unfamiliar context causing an ominous feeling, and I have taken advantage of this in making unsettling images.

Most of the photos in this chapter, instead, show some kind of building with one or more lit windows; this suggests that someone, perhaps a solitary individual, a couple or a family, is inside the house. The viewer is not allowed in the world shown in the photograph, it’s impossible to see what’s happening inside. The only thing left to do is to wonder about the life on the other side of the window.

To me, this causes two feelings at the same time, the first one being extreme curiosity for something that seems so fragile and exposed, surrounded by darkness, yet shining in the night, offering to the eye an intimate place to rest. The second thought that comes to my mind is the concept of isolation and loneliness, the fear of true solitude that may occur from time to time.

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