Liminal Spaces are something surreal; throughout the last 5 or so years, people have been posting, finding and creating Liminal Spaces. To define something like this, a Liminal Space is a location that is in transition in some way. From populated to abandoned, functioning to broken, or even a space that takes you between two different locations, like a skyway on a building or an empty airport tram.
Beauty within the broken
There is a large amount of beauty in human created spaces, such as cities, factories, etc… These spaces are meant to be used, populated and built for the humans that reside in it. Just like in the images above, the Great Western Sugar Mill is supposed to be a place of work and population; but as time goes on and people move to new things, the old doesn’t get replaced but left behind, creating these beautiful yet broken spaces that give the human mind a very relaxing yet uncanny feeling.
Liminal Spaces Within the Virtual Plane
Liminal spaces are seen in a lot of modern videogames, this is where most of my inspiration comes from. Games like Metro; a game where you’re sent to the ruins of Moscow to help aid the survivors living in the Metro system. Or virtual reality games like Phasmophobia; a ghost hunting game where you track down demons and spirits in abandoned buildings and homes.
Within the images below, I displayed some instances of Liminal Spaces; spaces that should be populated, but are not. These spaces give off the same energy as real spaces, as it shows within the first four images on the page. Just like how London and its urbanization is beautiful, so are these abandoned, liminal spaces. They seem to create a feeling of being watched, by something, something terrifying. But that terror is within yourself.
Getting Liminal in Social Spaces
I’ve spent a good amount of my early twenties within my VR headset exploring the creations that other minds have made. Using things like Mozilla Hubs in the past, I am very versed in what it is like to spend time in spaces that are meant to be populated with people online. If you’ve ever spent any time in the game VRChat, Mozilla Hubs, or even AltSpace; you’ll know how vital a space is for socializing with others.
Below this text block, I went to go capture some spaces within the VR social game VRChat that are built to be full of people. Each image will have a version that is populated and a version that is empty, quiet, liminal. When you sit and look for a moment, you’ll begin to receive that feeling of discomfort. These spaces feel positive when used as they’re meant to be used, but when devoid of life, it gives another feeling.
My Own Liminal Creation
Below this block are a few images of my own space that I made in Blender for the project. I decided to take inspiration from two places that mean something to me: being near the ocean and being surrounded by mountains. This space is liminal for many reasons, the world feels like multiple places at once, and one of the definitions of Liminal is a space that is in transition; this space is a middle-ground for two places, so technically this space is in transition. If you would like to go to this world, I left a link to access it through the game VRChat.
Mr. Maxwell Miller 