Talk:Liminal space

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by SL93 (talk) 19:13, 11 January 2023 (UTC)

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A photograph depicting a liminal space

• ... that research suggests liminal spaces (example pictured) appear unsettling by falling in the uncanny valley of physical places? Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494422000895?via%3Dihub
  • Reviewed:

Created by GenericWikiUser1 (talk). Self-nominated at 11:32, 3 January 2023 (UTC).

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

Image: Image is freely licensed, used in the article, and clear at 100px.
Freely licensed: Used in article: Clear at 100px:

QPQ: None required.

Overall: QPQ not done. @GenericWikiUser1: If you have less than five DYK nominations so it's not required, please tell me. Thanks. BorgQueen (talk) 18:36, 3 January 2023 (UTC)

• @BorgQueen: I believe I’ve made less than five nominations. GenericWikiUser1 (talk) 06:06, 4 January 2023 (UTC)
  • Ok then, good to go. BorgQueen (talk) 06:26, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

Older than the meme

The term "liminal space" has been used in art and architecture theory for years — longer than the internet meme discussed here. Can anyone suggest sources to give this concept a longer history? Jno.skinner (talk) 22:06, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

As well to add onto this, I don't think the backrooms is "the" thing the kickstarted the trend of liminal space imagery on the internet.

The text of this page suggests that the spread of liminal space imagery on the internet started after The Backrooms got popular on 4chan, but I don't think that is completely accurate as I very clearly remember seeing posts of liminal spaces and posts talking about the concept on Tumblr as far back as 2017 (have checked my old blog). The Backrooms did definitely contribute to the popularity and spread of the concept, but I think it is more likely that the concept of liminal spaces experienced a buildup in popularity before that on other places on the internet before exploding in popularity. 65.94.113.226 (talk) 00:50, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

Liminal Spaces aesthetic and cursed pictures are both way older than the Backrooms. In fact, these aesthetic inspired the Backrooms to come to life. The original thread on 4chan was about Images having an eerie or cursed feeling, the famous Oshkosh one popped up and someone else wrote the creepypasta that would inspire the Backrooms. Liminal Spaces kickstarted the Backrooms and became defining in the fictional universe, not the other way around. Coco chz (talk) 09:44, 8 December 2025 (UTC)

"Nostalgic appeal"

The nostalgic appeal mentioned in the opening paragraph makes the mistake of including within the definition children's playspaces from the previous few decades, which are familiar to (some) viewers from their own childhoods, but which are no longer used, and hence seem sadly abandoned. Whereas, people from Europe have no direct awareness of these kinds of spaces (except from TV, or from the Internet), and their only reaction to them is one of strangeness and alienation. Nuttyskin (talk) 10:56, 10 June 2023 (UTC)

The Shining

Is the Overlook Hotel from the film considered an example? At least in the way the empty hotel was utilised in the plot… SinoDevonian (talk) 13:54, 18 November 2023 (UTC)