Liminal Spaces: A Theory Concerning Our Existence - YouTube
I. Introduction (0:04 - 1:16) * A. Anecdotal Experience of a Liminal State (0:04 - 0:34) * 1. Physical Discomfort: Nausea, thirst, hunger, temperature * 2. Visual Perception: Washed out colors, empty sky * B. Conceptualizing the Liminal Experience (0:35 - 1:16) * 1. Suspension in a Transitional Moment * 2. Feeling of Otherworldly Strangeness and Purgatory * 3. Existential Inquiry Provoked by the Experience
II. Defining and Characterizing Liminal Spaces (1:17 - 3:36) * A. The Concept of Liminality (1:17 - 1:51) * 1. Origin in Anthropology: Rites of Passage * 2. Disorientation and Ambiguity in Transitional Phases * B. Liminal Spaces as Thresholds (1:52 - 2:27) * 1. Between Two Realities * 2. Lack of Inherent Value; Means to an End * 3. Example: Gas Station on a Highway * C. The Feeling of Liminality (2:28 - 3:01) * 1. Eerie and Uncomfortable * 2. Not Defined by a Term, but by an Evoked Emotion * D. Essential Conditions for a Liminal Space (3:02 - 3:36) * 1. No Discernible Exit * 2. Darkness or Nighttime Setting * 3. Unnatural Lighting (e.g., Fluorescent) * 4. Absence of People or Living Beings * 5. Honorable Mentions: Washed out colors, low image quality, nostalgia, modern architecture
III. Philosophical Interpretations of Liminality (3:37 - 23:05) * A. Phenomenological Perspective (3:37 - 7:32) * 1. Husserl's Concept of Intentionality (4:07 - 5:14) * a. Consciousness is Always Conscious of Something * b. Limitations of Immediate Perception * 2. Horizon of Intentionality (5:15 - 6:23) * a. Projecting Consciousness into Potential Spaces * b. Actuality and Potentiality of Experience * 3. Liminal Spaces and the Breakdown of Intentionality (6:24 - 7:32) * a. Inability to Project Beyond the Immediate * b. Confrontation with a Frozen, Unchanging Reality
* **B. Existential Implications of Darkness (7:33 - 12:05)**
* 1. Interior vs. Exterior Liminal Spaces (7:33 - 8:07)
* 2. Darkness as an Expanding Infinity (8:08 - 8:41)
* a. Frustrated Attempts to Fill the Void
* b. Loss of Orientation and Context
* 3. Heidegger's Concept of Space (8:42 - 10:24)
* a. Phenomenological Space vs. Physical Space
* b. Building as a Way to Define Habitable Space
* 4. Losing Ourselves in the Infinite (10:25 - 11:31)
* a. Daytime Liminality: Farmland, Deserts, Aerial Views
* b. Meaninglessness and the Dissolution of Context
* 5. Darkness and the Uncanny (11:32 - 12:05)
* a. Disrupting the Natural Order
* b. Evoking Primal Fear and Anxiety
* **C. The Uncanny and Modernity (12:06 - 19:06)**
* 1. The Uncanny as Intellectual Uncertainty (12:06 - 12:39)
* a. Ernst Jentsch's Definition
* b. Disorientation and the Unknown
* 2. The Uncanny as Strangely Familiar (12:40 - 13:09)
* a. Sigmund Freud's Interpretation
* b. Familiar Objects or Events in Unsettling Contexts
* 3. Heidegger's Concept of Dwelling (13:10 - 14:14)
* a. Feeling at Peace and Comfortable in the World
* b. Accepting the Natural Order
* 4. Disrupting the Natural Order (14:15 - 15:19)
* a. Going Against Natural Rhythms and Cycles
* b. The Unnaturalness of Nighttime Activity
* 5. The Coldness of Modern Architecture (15:20 - 15:53)
* a. Impersonal and Uninviting
* b. Evoking a Sense of Isolation
* 6. Unnatural Lighting (15:54 - 18:31)
* a. Heidegger's Essence of Technology
* b. Enframing and Distorting Natural Phenomena
* c. The Uncanny Juxtaposition of Light and Lifelessness
* 7. The Absence of People (18:32 - 19:06)
* a. Implying Transgression and Danger
* b. Heightening the Sense of Isolation
* **D. Existential Angst and the Nothing (19:07 - 23:05)**
* 1. The Dichotomy of Being and Non-Being (19:07 - 20:46)
* a. The Reality of Nothingness
* b. The Child's Question and the Limits of Conceptualization
* 2. Heidegger's Concept of Angst (20:47 - 21:17)
* a. Angst as Revealing the Nothing
* b. Boredom, Love, and Anxiety
* 3. Angst and the Superfluity of Beings (21:18 - 21:56)
* a. Encountering the Nothing Through Beings
* b. The Repulsion of Annihilation
* 4. The Strangeness of Being (21:57 - 23:05)
* a. The World Evades Us and Becomes Itself Again
* b. The Absurdity of Existence
IV. The Liminal as a Portal to Reality (23:06 - 24:16) * A. Recognizing the Strangeness of the Everyday (23:06 - 23:39) * 1. Seeing Familiar Spaces in a New Light * 2. The Uncanny Nature of Ordinary Environments * B. Unveiling the True Reality (23:40 - 24:16) * 1. Stepping Outside Habitual Perception * 2. Confronting the Absurdity and Uncertainty of Existence
V. Conclusion: Acquainted with the Night (24:17 - 26:10) * A. Embracing Uncertainty (24:17 - 25:03) * 1. The World Offers No Answers * 2. The Profoundness of Existential Questioning * B. Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night" (25:04 - 26:10) * 1. The Poem as an Allegory for the Liminal Experience * 2. The Privilege of Confronting the Unknown
VI. Abstract Facts and Obscure Opinions * A. The subjective nature of experiencing liminal spaces. What one person finds unsettling, another might find comforting or even exhilarating. * B. The potential for liminal spaces to inspire creativity. Artists, writers, and musicians may find inspiration in the uncanny and disorienting nature of these spaces. * C. The connection between liminal spaces and the subconscious. Some theorists believe that these spaces tap into deep-seated fears and anxieties that reside within the human psyche.
VII. Opposing Opinion * A. The notion that liminal spaces are merely a product of overactive imaginations. Some argue that there is nothing inherently unsettling about these spaces, and that the feeling of unease is simply a result of suggestion or cultural conditioning. * B. The dismissal of liminal spaces as a meaningless internet trend. Critics might view the fascination with these spaces as a frivolous and ultimately inconsequential phenomenon.
Summarized Essay:
The concept of liminal spaces, drawn from anthropology's rites of passage, has taken on new meaning in the digital age. These spaces, characterized by their transitional nature and lack of inherent purpose, evoke a sense of unease and disorientation. Philosophers like Husserl and Heidegger offer frameworks for understanding
Liminal Spaces: A Theory Concerning Our Existence - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9wPjuuXgDk
Transcript:
(00:04) nausea that feeling you get when you watch the only dvd you had in the car for the 14th time and have now made you a wretched attempt at falling asleep in the car while your parents drive you home from a long trip you hear them turn on their charge signal and open your eyes briefly to notice from out the car window that you've turned onto a familiar street you're just slightly too hot your foot is falling asleep and you haven't eaten anything with protein for ages not to mention you're dying of thirst
(00:35) the colors outside all look washed out there isn't a cloud discernible in the entire bloody sky do you merely feel disgusted or does this reality demand that you be imagine now that you were to hang suspended in this moment for an eternity that the world never changed its presentation and that you were cemented in this transitional space never ending being itself wreaks the fumes of purgatory and an otherworldly strangeness forced to confront a scene like this and thereby feeling philosophically sick one begins to inquire into what it means
(01:17) that anything exists at all if this is existence what does it mean this is an idea that has been discussed by countless existential and phenomenological philosophers it's been dubbed angst and most fittingly have a look at this picture this is an example of what is called a liminal space the term liminal is not at all novel or new however it's an anthropological term used to articulate the ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage and though this term is mainly used to
(01:52) describe liminal periods of time in your life it's been slightly adapted to apply to places such as these when you're interacting with a liminal space you're quite literally standing on the threshold between two realities for example a gas station by the highway is designed to be a rest stop between your place of departure and your destination the space itself is not the destination and holds no conventional utility or value other than as a medium for an end at least for liminal space is proper as observed on the subreddit the term is
(02:28) used liberally to cover a whole series of disturbing images what all these images have in common is not the definition of a term but a feeling after which philosophy has crafted its many names after looking at over 6 000 images of liminal spaces over the course of a week i discovered that there were four essential conditions though there are more still less important factors that would instill in us that eerie and uncomfortable feeling won if i couldn't locate and exit and i couldn't help but feel a little
(03:02) uncomfortable right off the bat 2. the image is dark and or it's night 3. they are fluorescent lights or some other form of unnatural lighting 4. this is the most important crucial necessary one there cannot be any people under any circumstances at all in these photos adding even the silhouette or shadow of an individual or animal would instill in us a different feeling than the existential anxiety that i wish to discuss some of the other features that would assist in producing anxiety that do deserve honorable mentions in my book
(03:36) include washed out vibrant colors low image quality a sense of familiarity and nostalgia and these scenes involvement with modern architecture but i am not so concerned with why we feel perturbed by these images as i am with what it means that we are perturbed many think that to explore the whys of a phenomenon such as this is to debunk it or to explain to the world why we should not be afraid as a philosopher i disagree with his approach and thus the video will take a different one what can these supposedly altered
(04:07) realities teach us about the very nature of reality itself besides the fact that we take for granted the mind-boggling idea that by simply perceiving these spaces we can feel uncomfortable we also take for granted the fact that we exist and god only knows whatever that means perhaps these two axioms have something in common husserl has long been considered the principal founder of phenomenology thus making him one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century in his book introduction to transcendental phenomenology he proposes
(04:42) the idea that consciousness intends the world while this statement might be confusing at first due to husserl's unconventional use of the word intend what this actually means is that consciousness is always consciousness of something consciousness is never not conscious of something however the truth of our visual perception is that we can only experience the immediate facts i can only see what is immediately in front of me and looking at a nearby object i can only see the side that is angled towards me yet we consciously understand that there
(05:15) is a back to every front and a set of inner layers to every outer shell not only that but we can project ourselves and our imaginations to a position in which we could observe the currently unobservable facts or consciousness placing ourselves in spaces that we do not currently occupy hustle calls this the horizon of our intentionality just as essential as the actuality of life is its potentiality and this not as an empty possibility and every thought we find horizons and this in various ways perception occurs as a progression it
(05:50) sketches out in the horizon of expectation and horizon of intentionality indicating in advance what's coming and this as perceived in other words indicating future series of perception thus we are able to insert ourselves into these pictures as if the camera were our eyes we completely disregard that there had to have been someone who took these pictures to your conscious mind this is irrelevant however these images of dark hallways and corners when we place ourselves into them fail to offer us an out that we could project ourselves to
(06:24) walking down a hallway we are able to imagine ourselves at the end of it and if we can see a door we can imagine ourselves walking through it but there is no such relief here our minds struggle in their panic to imagine the horizon of what lies behind us or beyond us in the dark and we are unable to we can only insert ourselves into this exact place frozen in time we are forced to confront this reality and conditions altered from the norm this idea of there being no exit is surely a terrifying one inducing a form
(07:00) of existential dread if pushed to the limit i think that's why some video game spaces such as the end in minecraft feel liminal there simply is no exit it's an infinity that will always continue on with you in transit and that concept is truly understood there isn't any way that we can't feel a little uneasy it isn't the way we like to think of our existence or the spaces we occupy because we can't imagine ourselves beyond what is immediately presented in these images we can only imagine that
(07:32) the beyond is more of the same or at least something similar allow me to remind you of the second essential element i mentioned previously that these images of liminal spaces are to some degree dark this means that an interior liminal space can be poorly lit it's night or something similar i'll separate interior and exterior liminal spaces into their own categories and handle the philosophical thought that applies most especially to each when i first started to sort through what would later total 6 000 or more
(08:08) images of liminal spaces i was very surprised to discover that the interiors of modern architectural spaces were not the only angst-inducing manifestations of liminal spaces taking images like these as an example i noticed that there was still that pervasive and palpable sense of uneasiness why was that once again i turned towards husserl's horizon of intentionality take a scene like this and peer out into the darkness let your consciousness try and insert itself into the scene what could be out there understanding this is a bridge we reason
(08:42) that surely it is a bridge over something perhaps a river lake bay or ravine our minds make the attempt to filter in some hills trees or water yet there is nothing here in the end the darkness becomes an ever-expanding infinity this bridge the solitary point we can reliably trust to orient ourselves no exit no escape there's a shocking similarity between that picture and images such as these martin heidegger in his essay building dwelling thinking expounds the phenomenological truth of space coincidentally he also uses a bridge
(09:19) here as an example the bridge swings over the stream it does not just connect banks that are already there the banks emerge as banks only as the bridge crosses the stream this is because there is a difference between phenomenological spaces such as the way we use the term to identify liminal spaces and space as the three-dimensional plane of physics the latter term is indeed infinite and ever-expanding that's the reality of what space is but humanity can't function on the conditions of infinity it's simply too
(09:49) broad a context we need something smaller and more approachable as context determines significance which in its own turn determines behavior thus heidegger explains we use buildings to create spaces with the intent to divide up the infinite space that we inhabit although in space there are no true points or spaces we are able to create them naturally on a phenomenological level we build roads bridges homes and stores thus cutting up the chaotic and infinite into what is habitable however there are times when we lose ourselves in the
(10:25) infinite moments when our phenomenological and spatial context grow to cover a perimeter and area simply too great or when anything at all just seems meaningless for the sake of it being ever so expansive this is why we can observe the phenomenon during the day as well albeit in more restrictive conditions one can experience this while driving through farmland or flat desert landscapes in the united states where it seems as though the insignificant scene spans off forever even more specific while preparing to land on a flight one might turn out and
(10:59) see the funny little squares of farmland in the tiny houses all of it looks so insignificant when you see it from this high as if mankind chose to settle one plot of land over another but it would all be the same in the end and to be frank it probably would be it is in these moments that we feel much like this man the first to float freely in space with no control over what happened to him except a solitary jetpack it's a terrifying image a terrifying idea and a terrifying feeling having destroyed the context of
(11:32) our existence life itself thus becomes meaningless similar in effect is this illustration from the lorax it's wastelands like these that drain one's will to live i can only imagine that one would ever push on in these landscapes with the hope that there lies something meaningful and important out there when we cannot find it because that meaning does not exist all that's left for us is to submit ourselves to non-being and die a meaningless death but this is not the only way that darkness can influence or produce a
(12:06) liminal space in fact in my opinion that these interior liminal spaces are dark is of the utmost importance as far as producing existential angst because context is so important to our conscious perceptions seeing spaces that we would otherwise only occupy during the day adversely at night or in the dark feels strange this is an atmospheric emotion that was dubbed the uncanny by early psychologists it was first explored in this way in a 1906 essay on the psychology of the uncanny written by german psychologist ernst yench
(12:40) yench describes the uncanny as being a byproduct of intellectual uncertainty so that the uncanny would always as it were be something one does not know one's way about it the better oriented in his environment a person is the less readily he will get the impression of something uncanny in regard to the objects and events in it thirteen years later sigmund freud would become interested in this phenomenon as well adding that the uncanny is the psychological experience of something as strangely familiar rather than simply
(13:10) mysterious it may describe incidents where a familiar thing or event is encountered in an unsettling eerie or taboo context while you may be seeing the obvious connection here what this means goes way deeper than one might assume at first glance turning again to heidegger's building dwelling thinking heidegger outlines the natural way we experience the world which he classifies as dwelling mortals dwell and that they save the earth to save properly means to set something free in its own essence saving the earth does not master the
(13:43) earth and does not subjugate it what it means to dwell essentially is to be placed at peace and to feel comfortable in our environment even more important to my point however is the following paragraph mortals dwell in that they receive the sky as sky they leave to the sun and moon their journey they do not turn night into day nor day into a harassed unrest heidegger felt that a very large amount of feeling comfortable in the world took place in the way we interacted with the world the world has a natural order and to go
(14:15) against it is to define nature an act that pits us against the unnatural and the artificial what yench and freud would call the uncanny biologically our bodies are formatted in a way that instinctually tells us to sleep at night heating our body's call to sleep when it is dark and likewise rising with the sun has been shown to provide numerous benefits to one's physiological and mental health darkness has always been a source of terror for humanity especially for those that are young vulnerable and small
(14:47) facing the unknown a thing full of potential we are instantly drawn to conjure up ideas of the worst rearing its ugly head some evolutionary theorists might argue that this is something that we inherited to keep us safe from potential predators but i find such reasoning to be superfluous the fundamental truth is that it's something that's kept us alive phobias and fears of the dark are not merely mental constructs filled by irrational thoughts our bodies react on a physiological level when faced with such environments so that it feels very
(15:20) ominous to wander spaces at night that are typically reserved for the occupants of the day in order to fill most at ease in the world we are as heidegger says to receive the sky as sky and to leave to the sun and moon their own journey but our deeply ingrained biological instincts are not the only factors that ultimately produce the uncanny either for both interior and exterior liminal spaces alike modern architecture reigns supreme throughout there is something deeply ugly and unsettling about modern architecture
(15:54) something that causes despair in those well acquainted with the country or with the beautiful details of european cathedrals and castles it is incredibly cold and impersonal uninviting is an even better description if these walls could talk they would say nothing their silence is their judgment and their indifference their condemnation but there's one thing in particular that stands out in the images on the liminal spaces subreddit something that when added to these images exemplifies that uncanny trait most of these images are unnaturally lit
(16:28) often by an led or fluorescent light there is much to be said for this in another one of heidegger's essays this one named the questioning concerning technology he describes the platonic essence of technology a thing altogether different than the things that are considered technological as you and i might consider them as heidegger himself states technology is not equivalent to the essence of technology when we are seeking the essence of tree we have to become aware that what pervades every tree as tree is not a
(16:58) tree that can be encountered among all the other trees likewise the essence of technology is by no means something that is technological so then what is the essence of technology as previously discussed dwelling the way that we can feel most at ease in the world in the natural mode of being for human beings means to set something at home in its own essence to accept things as they are roughly speaking the essence of technology is that it does the opposite locking a thing and an appearance and essence altogether not natural to the
(17:29) thing in question heidegger cites the example of a mountain being turned into an ore mine the mountain thus ceases to be everything it could be and ever was and is forced to be only one thing in particular a quarry he dubs this hallmark activity of technology's essence in framing a term in his native german derived from the word for skeleton this sort of thing has infected the essence of humankind at the detriment of its ability to dwell as long as we allow ourselves to enframe the world via this technological essence
(18:00) we will find ourselves growing more and more uncomfortable and lost within it it's no wonder then that we find ourselves especially perturbed by these hallways noisily occupied with the buzz of fluorescent lights these lights are a thing which enframed the night forcing it to be day we understand light to be an indication of life when things are lit we expect people to be up and working to be moving freely about we understand that it is natural for people to sleep when it is dark during that period of time that we
(18:32) call the night but when we see light we think that this will indicate some moving conscious party in the area all life on earth is made possible by the sun and our biology understands this it's particularly odd and yes uncanny to find these spaces liminal or otherwise lit by something that isn't natural most especially when there is no life present it's a contradiction as to what things are supposed to imply and it's something that really does get to us on a similar note so does the fact that there aren't any people in these scenes
(19:07) this is something that's true across the board while some might say that isolation and solitude are enough to terrify them alone it's the hallmark of a good liminal space why aren't there people here we unconsciously ask ourselves and come to some awkward conclusions the chief among them being that it must be wrong for people to be here for the reasons already discussed we all understand that people are not meant to be shopping at malls or at school roaming the hall at 3 am the shops are closed or abandoned and
(19:39) people do not go to closed or abandoned stores so then why are you here you are surely transgressing some sort of code that the others understand and this is to some degree alarming if it is wrong for people to be here and you are here that means that you must atone for that error by paying the price whatever that might entail it's even worse when these abandoned spaces are lit by fluorescent lights which speak to her desire for life but having addressed what i consider the four most essential elements to a high
(20:16) quality liminal space photo i returned to my initial question what can these seemingly altered realities teach us about our own reality about existence itself things exist this is a statement that you might consider so obvious you're wondering why i'm bringing it up but if things exist then there must adversely be a dichotomy partly consisting of the opposite we've all asked ourselves what nothing means as a child we have riddled ourselves with this question often telling ourselves that the moment we have
(20:47) conceptually thought of nothing we have made it into something this is true but that does not mean that true nothingness true non-being is not real or that it does not haunt us so what does this have to do with liminal spaces according to martin heidegger there are emotions which reveal to us the nothing these include boredom and love but most especially anxiety or angst while boredom is just as much an equal contender for the realization that heidegger goes on to describe anxiety is the emotion that is most prevalent
(21:18) amongst these liminal space photos heidegger states that anxiety is most concerned with beings and doesn't face the nothing head-on it does not as we did as children take things and then subtract them to get nothings this is ultimately unproductive zero is still a thing however because the nothing concerns itself most thoroughly with beings as does anxiety this is the preferable route to understand non-being in anxiety heidegger says beings as a whole become superfluous this is the case because in anxiety there occurs a shrinking back before
(21:57) because we encounter the nothing in beings to abstractly engross ourselves in them is to simultaneously encounter the nothing this repels us because it's the real deal nothing itself annihilates and how could we not find such a thing disturbing but what is the consequence of such an awful encounter heidegger explains it in a way that seems confusing at first but is actually quite simple when understood as a repelling gesture towards the retreating hole of beings annihilation discloses these beings in their full but
(22:27) heretofore concealed strangeness in the clear night of the nothing of anxiety the original openness of beings as such arises that there are beings and not nothing just as the nothing is found in the existence of beings the thing we find ourselves engrossed in when anxious we similarly find the existence of beings in our encounter with the nothing we ask ourselves what does it mean that there are things and not nothing what does it even mean that anything exists at all explained to this strange and disturbing awakening as such
(23:06) the world evades us because it becomes itself again that stage scenery masked by habit becomes again what it is it withdraws at a distance from us just one thing that denseness and that strangeness of the world is he absurd while looking at many of these images of liminal spaces i began to notice how the walls in my apartment looked awfully similar to those of some of these photos i noticed the way my room looked at 4 am and the way the street lamps in the street outside my window shined their terrible yellow hues
(23:40) i took walks around the neighborhood i grew up in at midnight in december and felt despair shake me to my utmost depths liminal spaces are indeed a kind of threshold or portal the valuable one of that these spaces taken out of their usual contacts to be presented to us in this uncanny manner show us how strange the spaces we see every day can be once we've seen this and pondered on it we reduce not only these places but the world to what it is stepping outside the way we usually encounter the world to investigate what
(24:17) is supposedly an altered reality we discover what is in fact the true reality we are asked to question what it means if this is existence that anything exists at all and the world offers no answers the only thing we are left with looking at these spaces or asking such deep and pensive questions is uncertainty it is as robert frost so aptly described i have been one acquainted with the night i have walked out in rain and back in rain i have out walked the furthest city light i have looked down the saddest city lane
(25:04) i have passed by the watchman on his beat and dropped my eyes unwilling to explain i have stood still and stomped the sound of feet when far away an interrupted cry came over houses from another street but not to call me back or say goodbye and further still at an unearthly height one luminary clock against the sky proclaim the time was neither wrong nor right i have been one acquainted with the night and what a privilege it is to be acquainted with the night [Music] [Music]
(26:10) you
