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Contrapoints does extra videos for her patreon that are less structured and sort of rambly on various topics voted on by the community. I don't know if I'll have time to watch the whole thing, but this month she is talking about liminal images and she traces the popularization of the aesthetic trend/term to tumblr before hitting reddit or 4chan. I really appreciate this because as much as I love videos like SuperEyepatchWolf's one on the topic, a lot of people covering what's going on don't seem to get that like this has been an intentional aesthetic for a long time. I learned about the concept back in school. We covered the idea in my English classes and the teacher used liminal images to illustrate his point. That was before tumblr even existed. I was attempting to do liminal photos back in the 00s. I don't know if I ever nailed it (and now I'll never know because I am missing that era of my photography) and people were confused as to WTF I was doing, but I knew what I was going for and I knew the word for it.
SuperEyepatchWolf does acknowledge that liminal images existed in the past, but in a very 'this is odd' way as opposed to part of an ongoing thing. He still frames 'which came first: liminal or backrooms' as a legit question when it's not. The subreddits started at about the same time, but that's just an artifact of reddit not typically being into aesthetic trends.
Like Natalie, I feel very hipster about the whole thing.
I'm sure that had no effect on me at all. Actually, growing up a New Englander a lot of art I saw was 'empty path on bleak coastline' or 'abandoned lighthouse'. This prevailing idea that the liminal art trend is new makes me very confused as someone from Connecticut whose first formal job was in a brutalist cement building. (It's a famous building but google is failing me. It's in the background of some scenes in The Stepford Wives)
We didn't have the original obviously, but one of those very high quality prints that can get mistaken for an original unless your nose is practically touching it. It's not a well-known Wyeth piece like Christina's World (link to MOMA page). A lot of ink has been spilled on every detail of the composition choices made there.
Anyway, yeah, liminal is not new, people just tend to mythologize 4chan as the 'start' of things, especially channers. Liminal did blow up in 2020 like never before, same time Backrooms took off. Tumblr also isn't the source, but Natalie doesn't present it as the source, more as this is what brought the academic term to a bunch of people saying 'places where reality feels altered'.
SuperEyepatchWolf does acknowledge that liminal images existed in the past, but in a very 'this is odd' way as opposed to part of an ongoing thing. He still frames 'which came first: liminal or backrooms' as a legit question when it's not. The subreddits started at about the same time, but that's just an artifact of reddit not typically being into aesthetic trends.
Like Natalie, I feel very hipster about the whole thing.
Also, growing up my family ate dinner sitting under this image
I'm sure that had no effect on me at all. Actually, growing up a New Englander a lot of art I saw was 'empty path on bleak coastline' or 'abandoned lighthouse'. This prevailing idea that the liminal art trend is new makes me very confused as someone from Connecticut whose first formal job was in a brutalist cement building. (It's a famous building but google is failing me. It's in the background of some scenes in The Stepford Wives)
We didn't have the original obviously, but one of those very high quality prints that can get mistaken for an original unless your nose is practically touching it. It's not a well-known Wyeth piece like Christina's World (link to MOMA page). A lot of ink has been spilled on every detail of the composition choices made there.
Anyway, yeah, liminal is not new, people just tend to mythologize 4chan as the 'start' of things, especially channers. Liminal did blow up in 2020 like never before, same time Backrooms took off. Tumblr also isn't the source, but Natalie doesn't present it as the source, more as this is what brought the academic term to a bunch of people saying 'places where reality feels altered'.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-19 04:19 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-06-19 08:56 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-06-21 06:35 am (UTC)From:So it has absolutely chafed on me when people act like this is brand new.
That's a neat painting, and I can definitely see how it would have an aesthetic impact!
My grandmother had a print of this one on her stairs: The Broken Pitcher, and for some reason small-child me decided there was something Very Terrible hiding in the broken pitcher, and that it was going to escape at some point. I think I told someone at one point I thought there was a black widow living in there, but in my head I knew it was something much worse.
Less of a traceable aesthetic, I'm afraid: just weird kid brain.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-21 08:18 am (UTC)From:That is a vaguely threatening image! Her gaze is unsettling.
Yeah, for me it has a lot to do with where I grew up. New England is in love with bleak stuff and that has overlap with liminal.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-22 05:50 am (UTC)From:I'm glad you agree, lol. Everyone else I've mentioned it to seems to think I'm weird for thinking it was threatening! (There were prints of it in both my grandmother's house and my parents' house! I couldn't escape her and whatever evil thing was in the broken jug!)
Oh yes, the whole "bleak landscape" thing, and the "unrelenting weather" would definitely contribute to that sort of vibe!