[dvt]

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 revival of the "old-money" aesthetic, especially motivated by fashion brands like Rowing Blazers, etc.

[esperent]

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. In that case, what it is is minimal or functional.

[analog31]

Indeed, I've been in airports where I had to go down a long and eerily empty hallway, and I assumed it was just a design work-around due to needing to get a tiny number of people from A to B without breaking the security and safety perimeter. Without that security need, e.g., in a regular city, that hallway would be replaced with walking a block or two outdoors.

[mistersquid]

> 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.

[esperent]

"Language as she is spoke" is very often at odds with literal dictionary definitions. So you're right that a liminal space is a transitional space, and that a metro is by definition that. But linimal aesthetic is different, especially as has recently become popular. It means a space that gives you that feeling of being between, of emptiness, introspection. A metro station absolutely does not have this aesthetic, except maybe at some mysterious hour where there's no one using it (and I've used them at both closing and opening times, they're never empty).

[mistersquid]

> But linimal aesthetic is different, especially as has recently become popular.

Your articulation of a liminal aesthetic hits upon the tension inherit in the word “liminal”.

By definition “liminal” signals “in between” which connotes an unsettledness or indeterminacy, or what in other realms is called the uncanny. This liminal aesthetic, at its core, is shot through with a sense of the uncanny, and empty devoid spaces where normally there is a lot of traffic convey this aesthetic clearly and succinctly.

Thank you for drawing this distinction.

My intent when referring to the denotation of “liminal” was to remind that even familiar places, such as bustling train stations and busy airport terminals, are also liminal spaces even if they don’t conform to current representations of the liminal _aesthetic_. By preserving the denotation of the word “liminal”, we can defamiliarize such spaces and recover (or emphasize) their liminality.

All of which is the message of art like Brian Eno’s “Music for Airports”. Who doesn’t appreciate the defamiliarization of our “mundane” traversals of the realms we inhabit?

[zem]

I think even the busiest airport terminal does retain a liminal feel, because the entire time you spend in it you are being palpably funneled along, with enough attendant unpleasantness to keep you in a state of constantly waiting to get a move on. in train terminals you are a lot more self motivated.

[idiotsecant]

Good luck preserving the meaning of words. Words have no meaning outside how people use them to express ideas. Words can and do change to mean different things, or even 'literally' the opposite of themselves.

[sidewndr46]

The very usage you bring up is a whimsical metaphorical one: "I was in the liminal space between past and present". We are all in this liminal space because we are all trapped between the past and the present.

Like many things throughout history, I strongly suspect it means whatever the author means.

[mr_toad]

Having metro stations as gateways between worlds or spaces is a common trope in fiction, for example in The Matrix or Harry Potter.

[Schlagbohrer]

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.

[no-name-here]

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?

[idiotsecant]

Yes, a lot of public spaces are dying or dead. If you don't have these spaces in your area you are certainly the only exception.

[no-name-here]

> a lot of public spaces are dying or dead

How are you quantifying that? Is there somewherei can go to read about it?

[Schlagbohrer]

I can just go walk around my hometown of Seattle and see all the dead or torn-down shopping malls.

[pegasus]

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...

[esperent]

I'm on a metro right now, it's full of conversation and there was even an accordion player in my previous train.

[krackers]

The same art world (or more specifically the "Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute") also named "Frutiger Aero" the defining aesthetic of 2000s, even though it was really only seen in a few places (Aqua aesthetic is very different from Aero). All of this should probably be taken with grains of salt.

[tobr]

Is CARI part of the ”art world”? Where have CARI said that Frutiger Aero was ”the defining” aesthetic of 2000s? They are working to identify many different aesthetic trends that existed in parallel, not one that defines each decade.

Their description of Frutiger Aero explicitly includes Aqua, both mentioned by name and included visually:

https://www.are.na/consumer-aesthetics-research-institute/fr...

[keiferski]

There is no “official opinion” of the art world. These are just different organizations with their own opinions.

[timr]

In fact, when you see someone in the art world claiming that X is a "defining" anything, it usually means that they have a big collection of X for sale.

In this case, I imagine it's submarine marketing for the movie that's out.

[picofarad]

Submarine? Astro-turf or native-advertising, maybe? Or perhaps I misunderstood.

[timr]

Basically the same. An “article” planted by a PR firm, where the promotional target just happens to pop up about halfway through.

[hax0ron3]

I'm not sure this magazine is nearly popular enough for that to be worth it.

[sph]

I never got why Frutiger Aero got so popular as a ‘nostalgic’ aesthetic, when it’s basically the Windows Vista, GNOME 3 (the awful rewrite of GNOME 2), KDE 4.0 (the buggy, emo black rewrite of KDE 3) look?

It was the lowest point of computer graphics. Who the hell is nostalgic for that? Probably just kids that had their formative years in those ~2-3 years. Not sure you can even call it a niche.

I’m a fan on the vaporwave/Windows 2000/XP aesthetic, the Vista era is when everything started going to shit.

[richardjdare]

Its fascinating to me. I grew up in the UK home computer scene of the mid 80s-early 90s. After this, the Frutiger Aero aesthetic seemed to me redolent of the total corporatization of what previously seemed a much more human and approachable computer world. Now everything was behind glass, impossibly polished by unfathomable, expensive machines. I found it totally alienating.

[Modified3019]

Same, I hated when everything transitioned to it and became harder to read as a result. Frutiger Aero was a sterile sort of cheerful in a way only a CEO could think was relatable. It basically marked the turning point where the UI stopped being something janky that felt human made, into a mass produced corporate template.

Looking at it felt like the visual equivalent of licking soap.

Every time I see it now, I can only think “good riddance”.

[satvikpendem]

Well yes, nostalgia is based on age. The people who are nostalgic for that grew up with those sorts of UI.

[fhars]

Yeah, even nostalgia is no longer what it used to be...

Welcome to old age :-).

[appplication]

I thought similarly, but the article actually was published prior to Backrooms movie release and popularity, though there is a nod they were aware the concept was being optioned to A24. Though I agree, “defining” might be a bit strong.

[Trasmatta]

Liminialism is way way more popular these days than cyberpunk or anything like that. Please go talk to a group of teenagers if you don't believe me.

[acidhousemcnab]

Anti-space, no space, nothingness - annihilation.

[gosub100]

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

[acidhousemcnab]

accepted and transduce'd transgression, creeping nihilisms, sink plug hole funnel

[lenerdenator]

All of the ones you list have one thing in common: They have at least some root in nostalgia.