liminal

LIMINALB E Y OND SPA C E & T IME

Z A C K S IM O N S

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B E Y O N D S P A C E & T I M E

Riders on a digital storm. And despite

having created the storm ourselves it

always remained a bit of a mystery, even

to us. It was always slightly beyond us.

And it wasn’t long before we were beyond

ourselves. Beyond our place, beyond our

time. It took a while to recognize, but we

had created a new world at the edge

of multiple space/time planes.

WE WERE RENEGADES.

6 » 7 L I M I N A L

TICK

L O N G A G O

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N O T S O L O N G A G O

TOCK

8 » 9 L I M I N A L

But with the

push of a button—

10 » 1 1 L I M I N A L


Eddie currents quickly began to form within the flow of time. This was the dawn of a new age— the age of liminality.

12 » 13 L I M I N A L

Time began to flow in every

direction and a condition

known as liminality prevailed;

a temporal state of existence

at the threshold of multiple

space/time planes.

LIMINALITY


The era of time flowing in linear fashion

was over forever. Recorded media created

eddies in the current of time. Loops in the

system where a moment could live forever,

a length of time turned back onto itself,

never moving forward, never progressing.

Stuck in and of itself.

These loops brought with them travelers,

followers, searching for lost moments in time

and fleeting glory of the past. Unknowingly

to them, however was that in effort to relive

days gone by they were forgoing the present.

Dismissing themselves from the physical

reality in which they had forever existed and

to which they would never belong again.

Soon these seekers began sharing moments

with others across a vast network where time

and place no longer existed in any logical order.

Linear living was over. It was only a matter

of time before these travellers stopped living

lives of their own and began existing in a realm

connected through wires and radio waves,

devoid of physicality. Place was little more

than a caption and time was nothing but than

a stamp. At the click of a button or drag of a

finger time could be travelled. Place to place at

the blink of an eye.

This new world, liminality, is a “threshold”

in time and space, the middle ground between

more than one entity without being either

entity. The energy of both entities collide at

this spot. The top of a mountain—in between

the sky and the earth. Seashore—in between

earth and ocean. Midnight—for those sixty

seconds it cannot be either the past, present,

or future. These are all symbols that are

related to the spirit, which had become the

collective unconscious.

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The complexity of this new lifestyle was mind-boggling. Few of us even understood it, but we all wanted more.

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Was it worth discarding

the physical world for this new

way of living? It soon became

obvious that many thought so.

A NEW REALITY

HOURS SPENT IN NEW REALIT Y/YEAR

GROW TH OF NEW REALIT Y FIRST TEN YRS


Whether they intended to do so or not

was a different question. But it didn’t take

long before this new world was becoming

more relevant that the previous. Time spent

in the digital world soon far outweighed

time spent in what was previously known

as reality —as real.

It seemed like an odd decision but came

remarkably natural to many. It was not long

before time spent outdoors was replaced

with time spent indoors. Soon after time spent

indoors was replaced with time spent inside—

inside of the new world. The digital reality

devoid of space and time. A realm where not

a single companion was present yet all

seemed infinitely available.The visitors of this

space could not see each other. They could

not hear each other’s voices. But they were all

engaged in some new form of conversation.

It was a new way. A new way of living that no

one really understood. Conversations consisted

mainly of one-way niceties shared over long

periods of time. Doing this no longer mattered

as much as sharing what you did over these

vast networks.

The warm rays of the sun were traded for

bluish glow of an LCD screen. Truly such an odd

world that no one seem to yet understand.

Nothing could be felt yet everything could be

seen. What did this mean for things that

could be felt? What did this mean for the phys-

ical world? Only time would tell. No one knew

the truth, no one knew what the future held.

All we know was that we wanted more.

INDOORSOUTDOORS

NON-LINEAR TIMELINEAR TIME

NEW REALIT YOLD REALIT Y

AVER AGE TIME EXPENDITURES

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NO ONE KNEW THE TRUTH. NO ONE KNEW WHAT THE FUTURE HELD. BUT WE BEGAN BUILDING PORTALS—PORTALS THAT WOULD TRANSPORT US INTO THIS MAGICAL REALM.

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It was only a matter of time before the portals were everywhere. They were practically inescapable— and we loved it.


For some time while the New Reality was

growing in popularity, there simply were not

enough portals to transport everyone.

Some were large and cumbersome. Others

were to expensive for the common traveller.

In any case, we needed more. We wanted

more. The smaller the better for some length

of time and then the trend reversed itself.

We wanted bigger as well. At the end of the

day we wanted new portals of all sizes, all

shapes, so we could travel to the New Reality

from any possible situation.

But as with anything, when there is demand

there will soon be a supply. And supply there

was. It didn’t take long before our portals were

everywhere. On billboards, on bus stops, in

storefront windows. It was truly only a matter

of time before the portals were inescapable,

they were everywhere. And we loved it.

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Now that we had

portals in place—

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We brought everything we

could. All of our favorite things

from the realm we used to

know were reconfigured and

transported into our new

digital kingdom.

THE EXPANSION


We had no limits. We wanted it all. All our

favorite things were picked up and transported

to this new digital kingdom. You name it, it

was digitized, pixelated and reconfigured.

It was our new realm, ours to design, ours to

create. It could be anything we wanted it to

be and we wanted it to be everything. Nothing

was too far fetched. We brought our friends,

we brought nature. We brought our favorite

restaurants and the streets that made up the

corner they sat on as well.

Times were great. We had it all. Everything we

didn’t like form our past world was left behind

for a new network of instant gratification. It

was the community of the future. So open, so

democratic. We shared everything.

Everything we did was posted—shared for

others to view. And any moment that we

weren’t engaged in what we were doing we

could instantly become part of what our

friends were doing. Transporting time and

space at the click of a button, the scroll

of a time. It was all there for us, everything,

and infinitely available.

This was the future and it was glorious.

We didn’t know who half of our friends were

but it didn’t matter because we had so many.

Everyone we had ever met and plenty of those

we never would were right there. The hassle

of doing things together was no longer. Because

we were always together in our fanstastic

new digital realm.

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BEAUTIFUL IMAGES OF FLOWERS REPLACED FLOWERS THEMSELVES. NEVER AGAIN WOULD WE HAVE TO LEAVE THE COMFORT OF OUR OWN HOMES UNLESS WE WANTED TO—AND FEW OF US EVER DID.

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We didn’t know who half of our new friends were but we had so many that it simply did not matter.

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There were brief moments

spent in the physical world—

unavoidable gaps between

portals—where I would find

myself reminiscing about

the world we left behind.

INTO A WORLD FORGONE


Practically everything was available in the

digital world but there were certain things

that simply could not be transported. I missed

them and they were just not available. These

moments happened in frequently but they did

happen. Typically during the brief moments

spent in the physical world—gaps—unavoidable

spaces between portals. I would notice things

that I truly loved from this world forgone.

These moments made me infinitely curious.

What did they mean? Was the universe giving

me a sign? And which universe was sending

the message? What it the digital or the phys-

ical. I could no longer tell.

Time went by and the curiosity persisted.

Perhaps, I was realizing, there was room for

multiple realities. Perhaps somehow these

worlds could coexist. Perhaps this was the way

we were meant to be. But no answer seemed

obvious. Not question clarified itself. I began

searching for clues. I wandered far into the

natural world looking for an answer. What

did it mean? Was this world worth something?

I was beginning to believe it was. There was

something here that did not exist in our new

digital world. It was something that could not

be transported. It was warmth. It was tactility.

Sensation beyond the purely visual, beyond

the spontaneous affirmation offered by this

infinite interconnectivity.

But still the question remained, what did this

mean? Was our new realm false? Was it just

a veneer? The further I pressed into the natural

world more questions came to the surface

and I welcomed them. The questions made me

only press further. With each step I felt

further from a portal and closer to an answer.

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I couldn’t help but wonder, when a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to tweet it, does it matter?


Does it still fall? Does the world recognize it as fallen or was it simply lost to a void between realms?

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AND WHAT COULD IT POSSIBLY MEAN TO FALL IN LOVE WITH SOMETHING THAT I COULDN’T “LIKE” ON FACEBOOK?

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I finally had to ask myself—

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Upon my return from the land

forgotten I was thrown into

a darkness that no one could

have foreseen.

GRID FALL


As I made my way back from the warmth of

the natural world I expected to hear the steady

hum of portals. But it was no where to be

found. The cold glow of the LCD monitors was

not there and I realized I could not see where

I was going. I did not know where I was.

As I made my way closer to home I found all

of the usual portals darkened. Their screens no

longer displaying the realm we loved so much.

The grid had gone down.

But it wasn’t only the New Reality that had

gone down, it wasn’t just the digital realm that

was unavailable. Everything was dark. The old

world, the physical, the tactile world was dark

as well. I could not figure out why. How could

everything go down at once?

But then I started to think. Was the old

reality, this physical world now dependant on

the digital? Perhaps it was. That had to be

it. We had become so dependant on our new

world that the old world was supported by

it. Propped up by a lie. A falsehood. A glossy

facade of connectivity. The digital world had

been nothing more than a limited interpre-

tation of our physical world. And as we grew

more dependent on the digital our physical

world crumbled beneath us. It wasn’t only the

physical world. It was our relationship with

the physical world and our relationship with

each other.

My mind continued down this rabbit hole of

thought and I soon realized that I had no idea

where I was. My inate sense of place was

lost without being informed by a digital portal.

My ability to communicate face to face was

severely impaired. We had become slaves to

a world of our own manufacture.

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WHERE WA S I? I HAD NO IDE A.

MY SENSE OF PL ACE HAD BECOME

COMPLE TELY DEPENDANT ON

A DIGITAL INPUT THAT WA S NO

LONGER AVAIL ABLE.

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I didn’t recognize anyone. Were these people my “friends?” I had no idea. And what if they were? It didn’t matter because I no longer knew how to talk to them.

4 4 » 45 L I M I N A L

OUR BELOVED DIGITAL PARADISE HAD BEEN NOTHING BUT A FACADE. A COLLECTION OF AVATARS AND DIGITAL NICETIES THAT WE WERE NOW UTTERLY DEPENDANT UPON.

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It was only a matter of time before the grid came back online. I met its return with strong trepidation. It was time to let it go. It was time to disconnect.

I pulled the plug and walked away, back into the physical world to rekindle my relationship with reality. Sensation, tactility—the land beyond the instant and visual, the temporal and fleeting. Beyond.

liminal

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