subliminal, liminality and the sublime

I haven’t been able to find a direct connection between them, but it makes sense that the etymology of Limen (meaning threshold) is the root of subliminal, liminality and the sublime, as it relates to visual perception. If we can think of these as levels of perception then the subliminal perception is visual content perceived below a cognitive level. This content could be signals or messages that are indiscernible by the conscious mind, similar to messages used in propaganda. Then liminality would be the state of indeterminacy or at the threshold between subliminal and the sublime. At this place, or placelessness as it would be, one is neither “at” the sublime or subliminal but rather both, “both-and-neither” simultaneously. Sublime then is the highest level of perception, in that one is said to have complete understanding of something, this, to me, is unknowable.

cedar adirondack chair

work in progress...