Create Your First Project
Start adding your projects to your portfolio. Click on "Manage Projects" to get started
(Dis)comfort and Liminal Spaces
Project type
Video Essay
Date
2023
Location
Brighton
Liminal space is frequently used in horror films such as The Shining as a motif or ghost-like character. However, this motif has developed into an aesthetic genre, with online communities collaborating to make creepypastas and online content to encourage a sense of nostalgic (dis)comfort for the viewer.
The internet aesthetic known as a ‘Liminal Space’ is usually a low-quality analogue photograph of a location. Typically, these are abandoned and void of people. Within communities engaging with these images, people report a slightly unsettling feeling, haunted by the past but comfortingly familiar (Pitre, 2022). People engaging with the content often report being part of minority groups, such as neurodivergent and disabled communities.
Fan Studies scholars such as Jenkins (2006) have focused on understanding fan behaviours in groups with a set purpose and an individual text, such as Star-Trek. This video essay will push further by focusing on platforms like TikTok and Tumblr and content that attract younger users who consume online content daily, often without specific intentions. Although they engage in fannish behaviour towards Liminal Space aesthetic, they do not necessarily consider themselves part of a fandom.
There has been an increase in the number of young people looking for comfort, be that comfort and escaping online from an uncertain world in tandem with the rapid growth of the internet and Web 2.0. Analogue imaginaries of Liminal Space aesthetics are a popular area they are escaping to.
"The Backrooms" will be used as a case study to explore 'liminal spaces' popularity and reach. It will also be used to analyse the aesthetic's connection to the history of analogue horror as a genre. “The Backrooms” was originally a photo posted on 4Chan’s /x/ board in May 2019. It has since become the most well-known liminal space where online users have created storylines, games, films, and rules. A24 is currently producing a feature-length movie using The Backrooms as the film's focus (Grobar, 2023).