In my first post about liminal spaces and surrealism in horror, I felt it would be too much to include traditional artist research, so here we are again - time to delve into how atmosphere has been represented in the world of art and installations.
Artists have historically achieved this effect, such as Rick Amor with his dread-invoking escalators and William Eggleston in Memphis with road trip views, hotel rooms and storefronts. American realist painter John Register's art has liminal tones, but natural lighting and formal composition makes the loneliness of these images more comforting than discomforting. In this way, he captured what's known on Tumblr as the 'After Hours' aesthetic - a more peaceful depiction of liminal space. Australian painter Jeffrey Smart used urban and illusory elements to make similar uncanny dreamscapes. Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico, who greatly influenced earlier Surrealism, masterfully crafted liminal-adjacent spaces in his work, utilising extremely distorted perspectives and arcadian architecture, as well as statues and mannequins to add uncanny "human" presence. Late 20th century architecture is nostalgic to us in the same way ancient European architeture was to him, and his art was heavily influenced by childhood memories.
Michaela Lahat's photo series 'Vertigo' uses mirrors and collage to examine the tension between memory and physical space. By Lahat's projection of almost Cubist principles (multiple angles/perspectives of a subject within one image), I am reminded of vortography, a kaleidoscopic technique coined by Alvin Coburn in which one uses a triangular formation of mirrors in front of the camera lens to create a unique reflection effect (detailed in a future research post). https://michaelalahat.com/vertigo
Evan and Stacey Smith explored sacred spaces as liminal subjects in a mini-architectural installation work. I found the minimalistic approach very refreshing and enjoy the colour scheme - it feels more inviting than creepy, but liminal nonetheless. As with another theme mentioned further on, it reminds me of the doors from Pixar's Monsters Inc. "One enters a space through sight, following passages created by form, light and color. Known symbols – such as hallways, passages, doors, spiral staircases, allusions to stained glass windows, lofty dome spaces or deep wells – provide the landmarks for a journey that must be taken by the one doing the seeing." https://theliminalityproject.org/2019/04/01/art-liminality-and-light/
French digital artist Gabrielle Traversat is a key figure in defining the liminal space movement, which I've been exploring in my past few posts. Utilising drawing, photography, Google Maps screenshots, stock images and Photoshop editing techniques, she creates surreal environmental scenes which embody the uncanny feeling of liminality due to their improperly composited lighting and perspective. Out of all the uncomfortable images portraying locations, Traversat's were the most effective. Something about combining exaggerated rolling hillscapes reminiscent of children's cartoon world design, industrial structures (e.g. water towers), everyday household items and common features of public space interior design turns the ordinary into the extraordinary. People have described her artwork as simultaneously intriguing and intimidating. I really admire and am enchanted by her style of image-making, also baffled by the strong emotions it stirs within me. I've noticed that some of her work employs techniques I've used before and/or am interested in, such as double exposure, manipulating colours in post-processing, scanography, parodying graphic design principles and video game aesthetics.
https://www.instagram.com/spectrometrie/
https://gbrltvrst.tumblr.com/
As soon as I discovered "peephole photography", it immediately related to liminality, science fiction and horror. When looking at these images, I thought about multiple dimensions, as if someone or something was looking through a door in the style of Pixar's 'Monsters Inc.' showing us "the view from the other side" like a parallel universe. Heather Siple is the main photographer I found associated with this style, and her hands-on, DIY alternative image-making technique in order to achieve this produces unique results that make the viewer feel like they are taking a glimpse into another reality, just neighbouring our own. I think this idea could be interesting in moving image. http://www.alternativephotography.com/peeping-through-the-magic-of-peephole-lenses/
I found some more examples of people using 3D video game environments and modelling software to construct eerie scenes, reconstruct their own nightmares and utilise pop culture icons.
In my previous post, I also talked about how context is vital for our brains' understanding of visual information. Confusing, disorienting images generated by ArtBreeder and various other artistic neural networks supports this idea, as they are often hard to decipher but not entirely unfamiliar. A viral example of this is the "stroke simulation" picture circulated around Reddit not long ago. People have related experiences of dissociation, stroke and dementia to the image, which illustrates how AI can create works reminiscent of their source material but not fully form them without applying formal artistic rules - not dissimilar to human beings. We could not create anything new or original had we only ever existed in a void - our visual memories are what inform our creative decisions and output. When people put stroke vision and AI vision side by side, they are essentially comparing two of the same processes - the failure of organic memory, and the failure of artificial intelligence memory.
Firstly I decided to create some images in Traversat's style, playing around with Photoshop to explore liminality and surrealism. I took photos at unusual perspectives and canted angles around Farnham. I then took screengrabs from various Google Maps locations within Reading (old school building & street) and urban iconography from Google Images, compositing them together. Had a go at a more appealing/neutral image and a more 'cursed' one.
Secondly, I used a mirror to create some interesting fading effects with my Canon 650D.
Thirdly, I took snapshots on my evening walk home after lesson with my phone and used the spherize distortion filter in Photoshop to try and emulate the fisheye peephole effect, as well as inner/outer shadow/glow effects and bevel/emboss. Initially I'd preferred to rent out a fisheye lens and an adapter if need be, but none came up on my search on equipment hire. It was a bit hit and miss recreating the peephole look, but was fun to put myself in the shoes of this mysterious cross-dimensional stalker.
I also built an obscure location resembling a school entrance in the Sims 4 and edited the screenshots to add noise, desaturate certain colours and rendered 3D lighting effects.
Lastly, I used ArtBreeder (https://artbreeder.com/) to create some unsettling images by playing around with the general creation feature, ending up with some spellbinding results. I created photobashes and quick digital paintings of what the blended creations reminded me of, as others have done with the viral "stroke" image. I love that you can't tell they aren't concrete photos until you pay closer attention; at a glance, your brain interprets them as something recognisable.
I ended up designing some sort of infernal, Anubis-adjacent Doberman/Labrador demigods.
In order to push the physical space aspect of my experimentation, I also used the Deep Style tool on Deep Dream Generator (https://deepdreamgenerator.com/) to mix found images of the Baku cityscape and traffic, trying to emulate my own memories of looking outside my parents' car window on a raised junction as they drove me to nursery.
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