During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, liminal spaces quickly gained traction as they grasped the attention of the isolation-ridden internet. These strange, unsettlingly nostalgic spaces give audiences a strange sense of both dread and familiarity. Liminal spaces took the internet by storm, and with their odd, dreamlike snapshots, it can be difficult to pinpoint what exactly causes viewers to feel so unsettled while looking at these strange images, but trying to understand what makes those surreal rolling hills and abandoned hallways so discomforting can give some insight towards some strange psychological behaviors.

According to Dictonary.Com, the term “liminal space” has evolved to be defined as an aesthetic for an area that gives off an uncanny feeling that is difficult to describe. Liminal spaces also have a more literal definition, as actual and/or chronological place of transition, often representing a state of “in between”. These can include a vast amount of expanses, like yellow office buildings, soulless ‘90s playplaces, infinite white-tiled labyrinths, and any other place that gives a sense of nostalgia or isolation. They often put emphasis on mundane rooms with a complete lack of life, giving observers a feeling of solitude which is central to the unsettling atmosphere of these images.

Liminal spaces often feel wrong; their weird lighting, uncertainty, and lack of life makes them feel foreign, but simultaneously so familiar. Often in hallways and stairwells, these rooms, if not for waiting or traveling, have no purpose. Taking a second to consider this can be extremely eerie and discomforting, especially as they’re so desolate. 

So many people use the internet to visit these empty places online for their comfortingly uncomfortable nostalgia. Liminal spaces on their own are oxymorons, scary yet calming and beautiful. They trigger our morbid curiosity, Medium says, our brains find the emptiness of normally active places scary because there is no predictably within liminality. This leads us to feel this unease, but mixed with nostalgia and solitude many can find comfort within these spaces.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a time of uncertainty and transition, so it’s no wonder these transitional snapshots of time grasped the attention of millions. Liminal Spaces have an innate ability to evoke very uncommon and subconsciously wrong feelings. In many ways, this mirrors the “Uncanny Valley” which, according to Simply Psychology, is a psychological phenomenon where something appears almost humanoid, but is slightly off. This is seen in realistic robots and horror media, because the human brain freaks out when something is almost (but not) right. Liminal spaces capture the same feeling: areas that are so close to seeming normal, but aren’t.

The internet never fails to create something new, liminal spaces are a byproduct of a time where no one was sure what was next. Because of our collective fascination with oddity, we’re left behind with thousands of hauntingly hollow shells of rooms with an untold story.