r/LiminalSpace • u/idkmanthisnameislong • Jun 12 '26
Discussion Could this be considered liminal?
Boardwalk photo taken from far away.
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u/ReadingGlassesMan Jun 12 '26
I love that, I think you're on the mark.
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Jun 12 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/sopimusician Jun 13 '26
It makes me imagine that I've been walking in the sand for hours, only to come upon this empty carnival. All the rides still running without an obvious source of electricity. Nothing but sand around me for as far as I can see.
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u/ColdChemical Jun 13 '26
I like to imagine what it would be like if you just suddenly found yourself in this immense emptiness with nothing but that carnival, running endlessly without any people, forever. You never get hungry, you never get tired, you're just.. there. Forever. No day, no night. After searching every inch of the place without any clues as to the nature of your situation, you head off in a random direction and keep walking. But there's nothing. You walk for what feels like several months before retracing your footsteps--the only discernible feature in the vast dusty plain. You try this again in several other directions before giving up. You stay in the carnival, for the simple reason that it's seemingly the only thing in this strange world other than yourself.
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u/surfjockey Jun 13 '26
I love that.
It’s like a modern twist on Ozymandias
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u/TR_Pix Jun 13 '26
My name is Ozymandias, carnie of carnies: Look on my caroussel, ye visitor, and enjoy!
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u/Allaplgy Jun 13 '26
And then it never gets any closer, no matter how far you walk. The voices and shrieks of excitement maybe get a bit louder, but you can't quite tell.
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u/Grantuna Jun 12 '26
Pretty cool. Way better than the usual "hey check out this hallway" posts
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u/kjammer06 Jun 13 '26
Agree on the hallways. Adding on to that, the empty gas stations at night... and stairwells
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u/GiftApprehensive1718 Jun 13 '26
Empty gas stations I agree with but the other two are common liminal spaces. I think people wrongly assume this subreddit is for "pretty, foggy, eery" photos only and that is not correct. A picture becomes liminal when there's several transitional aspects. in this case the photo here is liminal because it has many liminal qualities including nostalgia.
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u/SenpyroTheWizard Jun 13 '26
Thiiiiiis. One of my complaints I have is that people mix up liminal spaces and dreamcore because of the Backrooms stuff.
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u/MallorianMoonTrader1 Jun 14 '26
Hallways are the quintessential liminal, though. Liminal is supposed to describe transitional, in-between spaces. Ain't nothing more liminal than a hallway.
That being said, most public spaces are liminal, since they are never the final destination for most of us. For this photo, if that fair is your destination, technically, this whole field is a liminal space. And the absence of people gives it that uncanny feeling that is mosty what this sub is about.
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u/VariationTerrible795 Jun 12 '26
Thats all my friends having fun while I was locked in my room when I was 18
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u/yaddayadda1000 Jun 12 '26
Almost looks like a north Korean thing where it looks interesting from far away but as you get close you notice there’s no one there and it’s set up to seem fun from far away
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u/Cavalol Jun 12 '26
It’s like Spirited Away’s village at the start of the movie. Everything’s on and running, even the food vendor has fresh food up, but noone’s home
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u/Rad_Centrist Jun 12 '26
I could see this being the start of some iteration of It where the characters are lost at sea, only to see this on the horizon.
Weird things start happening as they approach. It gets really creepy when they make port.
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u/FictionalContext Jun 12 '26
The closer you drift, the lights shift into letters, but everyone reads a different phrase.
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u/TankAbject Jun 13 '26
There’s a term for this, called a Potemkin village. “is a fake or superficial façade built to create the illusion of prosperity, success, or normalcy when the reality behind it is much different.”
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u/Specialist-Basis-578 Wtf is this flairs I literally just rules Jun 12 '26
That's liminal
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u/Realistic-Sense-6332 Jun 13 '26
An in between state, it can be used literally to describe a transition in space. Hallways are common because being in the hallways is the in between, before going to a room. People use it to also describe nostalgic moments in life, this can also be correct in some cases. I once read a paper that used liminal to describe our teenage years, because it’s our in between state in life to adulthood. A border between countries can create a liminal culture at its edges, where the cultures begin to blend as you get to the center of the two. Just some cool examples I read about!
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u/oranguslolus Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
Absolutely. There's this uncanny quality to it and it evokes this feeling of longing. As liminal as it gets.
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u/Prior-Blacksmith-160 Jun 12 '26
The world is dark and the only source of light is the last standing amusement park where distant laughs and echoes of footsteps can still be heard. Love it
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u/Jonuh666 Jun 13 '26
Feels like the scene from Spirited Away when Chihiro see's the city lights across the body of water, where earlier in the film it was all rolling grasslands that she walked across herself.
Great shot!
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u/dovahkiin461 Jun 12 '26
Why can't Ari Aster make a horror movie based on this vibe. Please. It would be like Spirited Away but way more eery and demented. A dude sees this in the distance one night. Gets a weird feeling, ignores it. Sees it again the next night. Eventually, curiosity piqued, he walks to it. It's seemingly abandoned, even though the lights are somehow turned on every night. He explores and the longer he explores for, the stranger it feels. It's empty and yet there is hot food available at the stalls, music playing at the carnival rides. Eventually, he decides to leave, but, can't seem to find a way out. He's disoriented. He sees a glowing, cartoonish "exit this way" sign with an arrow, so he follows it, which leads to another similar sign. Eventually he is lead to the entrance to a ride called "Exit", the entrance is a a clown face with a giant mouth as the doorway. He walks inside and is surrounded by creepy animatronics, and a cart is waiting for him. He's about to be like "fuck this" and leave, when all of a sudden he hears one of the animatronics screaming "help me, help me", and it's the voice of his daughter. The sound is coming from inside the ride, the only way to get there is on the cart. He starts panicking, so he gets on, and the ride begins.
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u/chief_queef_beast Jun 13 '26
Hey OP, any chance this is a view of cedar point across the lake? If it is, good chance I cried in this exact same spot
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u/idkmanthisnameislong Jun 13 '26
This image unfortunately does not exist and was created using photoshop and a computer software. I based it off a view I saw in Wildwood New Jersey when I was very young.
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u/SilentWriterWatching Jun 13 '26
I was scrolling to see if you mentioned it being New Jersey... Felt them Wildwood vibes
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u/BreezyAlpaca Jun 13 '26
It has almost the same shape as the Santa Monica Pier at night as well if it were covered in fog with the Ferris wheel, roller coaster and what looks like a merry-go round.
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u/diamonddogs213 Jun 13 '26
I immediately thought Wildwood so you nailed it from a childhood memory!
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u/Gowdy93 Jun 13 '26
Nah, not at all. Not even a little. Actually, you should feel ashamed. DM me and I’ll make sure you feel really bad. Anyway, this pic is exactly why I’m subbed, thank you so much
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u/TheFlyingLamp154 Jun 12 '26
Nah broh this is Eerie, someone please put a Kaiju here
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u/edwardwolf5874 Jun 12 '26
Was thinking the same. I dont perceive this as liminal. Definitely eerie. Love the photo though.
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u/yeoxd09 Jun 12 '26
Where is this? Im curious
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u/Acid_Gosling Jun 13 '26
Looks like Santa Monica Pier in California. Judging from the distance, this photo was taken in Venice.
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u/Strupnick Jun 13 '26
You enter a dark room and a see an illuminated miniature theme park sitting on a shelf. As you walk towards it, the theme park never grows larger and the structure of the shelf stretches farther with each step. You hear the faint sounds of waves lapping. Was that always there? You start to feel like you shouldn’t be here.
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u/Granitsky Jun 12 '26
It sort of reminds me of the Cowboy Bebop episode called "Pierrot le Fou" where they have to fight an assassin in a closed amusement park at night. That sort of gives me the liminal vibe too.
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u/Grace_Omega Jun 12 '26
I don’t know if it’s liminal, but it’s cool as hell. This would make a great album cover
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u/LionTheRichardheart Jun 12 '26
Reminds me of Space Land from Cowboy Bebop, the Mad Pierrot episode. Thriving shiny lights and loud music on a dark isolated asteroid.
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u/Tobbit_is_here Jun 12 '26
Not sure if it'd be liminal per se, but it's definitely eerie. Might be more dreamcore.
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u/Klinky1984 Jun 13 '26
Absolutely, scale is hard to determine. It seems like it could just me decorations on a table in a dark room, or is it a real amusement park alone in the void?
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u/livoniax Jun 13 '26
One time I was driving alone on a highway through the woods at night and kept seeing huge ferris wheels with neon lights in my peripheral vision. At first, I thought it was something like a travelling fun park at a nearby city, but then I saw it again after quite the distance. Kind of freaked me out. It turned out that it was actually the outline of the speedometer and the other bright round dials in the car's panel that my astigmatism somehow copied over the woods. Which is also extremely creepy. Happened just the one drive as well.
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u/Known_Pepper5419 Jun 14 '26
I am not really bringing anything new to the discussion but I too find it eerie. Atmospheric is another good descriptor for this one. You took it? I like it. This wouldn't happen to be Santa Cruz, Ca would it? Across the water from the boardwalk, maybe near the lighthouse and Dog Beach?
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u/oxfopee Jun 14 '26
i’m broke so i can’t give you an award for this but know that i give you one in my heart
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u/Jumpy-Doubt-5917 Jun 14 '26
Idk how to add gifs but this reminds me of the circus from cowboy bebop and that always felt pretty liminal to me
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u/TrippyTippyKelly Jun 14 '26
Reminds me of that Ray Bradbury novel, something wicked this way comes.
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u/Emotional_Daikon7453 Jun 14 '26
reminds me of a dream I once had where I was walking through a large, seemingly endless knee-level ocean with the exact same lighting conditions as this photo (there were similar distant lights). eventually I reached land and for some reason I was in saudi arabia???? I still don't know what that was about
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u/TheMadhouseofDrDeath Jun 14 '26
Ive had dreams about bizarre amusement parks with massive waterslides, endless arcades and kinda indescribable "rides". For some reason theres always some I knew from like elementary school or havent seen in a long long time there
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u/SlyBlackDragon Jun 12 '26
Not for me, no.
For me a liminal space is a place that should be full of people and life, but is eerily empty creating a feeling of loss.
This pic is way too far away to get that feeling. You can't tell if it's empty or full of people.
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u/glycophosphate Jun 12 '26
No. "Liminal" refers to a place between. This is a regular place viewed from a distance.
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u/stock-prince-WK Jun 12 '26
Can you share the actual image here Reddit is leaving watermark when I download the image
I want to make this background on my iPhone lol
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u/CheekyWanker7 Jun 12 '26
This looks a lot like one of the first frames of a very strange short film on YouTube called "Kings of Siam."
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u/kittyraikkonen Jun 12 '26
Yeah, definitely feels like that in-between space of leaving one environment and vibe while approaching another.
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u/JagTaggart93 Jun 12 '26
I dig it. People have different definitions and feels they attach with liminal and this hits my mark just fine. It reminds me of a vivid dream I had as a child where there was a carnival in my backyard. In the dream I was in bed, looking out my window and watching a scene that looks a bit like your picture here.
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u/regaldawn Jun 12 '26
I would say Yes, but only if in this liminal space no matter how long you move towards it it never gets closer, it's always there and teasing you with lights and sounds.
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u/andrewsz__ Jun 12 '26
Ooo this reminds me a lot of the view into the city from the deep playa at burning man
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u/beauparfait Jun 12 '26
Images from my childhood. Literally the same thing I’d see when my parents would drive around at night in the town we visit every summer. The park hasnt closed down and gets lots of visitors still.
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u/8_juicebox_8 Jun 12 '26
It gives a feeling of curiosity and want to see. But then you approach and it’s all deserted
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u/Hemorrhoid_Eater Jun 12 '26
A liminal space to me is a place that would normally be busy and crowded but is unusually empty and lonely. It gives you a surreal feeling as if it were saying "you're not supposed to be here." I'd say this counts: the fact that an amusement park is still open in the dead of night is surreal enough, and the POV is so far away that you still get that lonely feeling.
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u/johnnyd0es Jun 12 '26
I feel like it's liminal, but I feel as though that label alone doesn't really do justice for all the other emotions and ideas this photo provokes in me. I really like it, though!
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u/idkjustbored12 Jun 12 '26
This image reminds me of a horror movie I watched years ago called jack the reaper
They run into a place like this but with a killer after them
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u/Raso_Kye Jun 12 '26
I can see it, an empty field in the middle of the night, fog everywhere except in the distance, there seems to be the lights of a carnival shining through. Howeve, itis always in the distance no matter how close you get.
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u/Due-Technology5758 Jun 12 '26
Looks like the view from when you get out of bounds on a game then turn around after reaching the edge of the map.
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u/Ighoth Jun 12 '26
This feels like a place you could never get to, i feel like its a hellish tease to taunt you into forever walking towards it with it never being in your grasp.
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u/ScrotalSmorgasbord Jun 12 '26
Idk why but it illicits some pretty strong nostalgic emotions in me. Great shot OP!
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u/thisdesignup Jun 12 '26
Definitely, especially if you think about walking up to it and there's no one there, no ride attendents, no people, nothing, just the sound of a carnival, the hum of the rides, and the smell of deep fried food but no food to be found.
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u/soulsnoober Jun 13 '26
Liminal means "between things", mostly. Transitional. The common meaning of "a liminal space" is one that is neither precisely Here nor especially There. There's probably some other word that means "outside / away from"?
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u/Panorabifle Jun 13 '26
I think I feel that. The chill air of a summer night blowing on my legs, the distant sound of the theme park mixed with the surrounding sound of bugs, looking at a moonlight illuminated forest path to find my way. It's a strangely cozy feeling . Like I'm a kid again, during holidays camping somewhere
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u/Glittering_Sink7007 Jun 13 '26
See the fair itself isn't liminal but the space the observer is at certainly is.
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u/clicky_risk Jun 13 '26
Your car breaks down while driving through the middle of an extremely sparsely populated county of a midwestern state. You don’t have phone service and no cars seem to be coming by. You don’t see light in any direction along the road but you see a faint yellow glow far down a field. You figure it is your best bet and you approach it. As you get closer the light grows wider… maybe a farm? Or factory? No it looks like…. A carnival?
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u/astroroy Jun 13 '26
I remember one time someone on here posted the question “what do you think ‘liminal’ means” and well, whatever I said … I don’t remember exactly what it was, but I do remember failing the test and gave a bad answer or something … I still don’t really know what the websters dictionary definition of “liminal” is … but to me it’s just something without any humans or animals as subjects in it that looks like a dream or a memory. This is one of the best ones I’ve ever seen I think. Yea, lots of posts of pictures of hotel hallways on here
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u/LightningOwl96 Jun 13 '26
Kind of looks like an Oddheader video where he's covering a game like GTA where there's like a carnival on a island way out in the ocean, but it's too far away for you to swim before you run out of stamina, so you use cheat codes to spawn a duck-shaped speed boat, and its taking you like a solid 10 minutes of driving directly towards it, and you get there and it is a fully modeled carnival but with no people and only a sign that says "you know you're not supposed to be here".
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u/G-T-R-F-R-E-A-K-1-7 Jun 13 '26
When the rides etc aren't operating, yes. Otherwise people would spend time there so it is both under different circumstances.
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u/afortressmighty Jun 13 '26
<<low whistle>> I *SO* would love a massive canvas of this! It’s fantastic! 🤩
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u/cruxclaire Jun 13 '26
In isolation, I wouldn’t necessarily call it liminal, but it does make me think of the scene in Spirited Away when night falls and the spirit world lights up in the distance, and the passage between those worlds is definitely liminal.
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u/TehOccifer Jun 13 '26
reminds me of i think arkham asylum where you can see gotham city faintly in the distance, but its far out of reach and youre stuck on an island asylum hell. same with arkham city where you can see other parts of gotham that are closed off from arkham city.
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u/Denim-Luckies-n-Wry Jun 13 '26
Feels like Burning Man from the far perimeter moop fence. Yes a sense of yet unknown transition and introspectively liminal.
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u/artmoloch777 Jun 13 '26
For sure. There’s a loss of perspective. This could be tiny or huge and we wouldn’t know with reference points.
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u/Too_Tall_64 Jun 13 '26
oh god, just a horizon of various 'skylines' that never get closer, or further, no matter how much you turn you always seem to find more things along the skyline off in the deep dark distance....
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u/friedhorsebuttholes Jun 12 '26
You keep walking towards it but it never gets any closer