this is an explanation

"To dissimulate is to pretend not to have what one has. To simulate is to feign to have what one doesn't have. One implies a presence, the other an absence. But it is more complicated than that because simulating is not pretending: "Whoever fakes an illness can simply stay in bed and make everyone believe he is ill. Whoever simulates an illness produces in himself some of the symptoms" (Littré)...Is the simulator sick or not, given that he produces "true" symptoms?...When the real is no longer what it was, nostalgia assumes its full meaning. There is a plethora of myths of origin and of signs of reality - a plethora of truth, of secondary objectivity, and authenticity. Escalation of the true, of lived experience, resurrection of the figurative where the object and substance have disappeared. Panic-stricken production of the real and of the referential, parallel to and greater than the panic of material production: this is how simulation appears in the phase that concerns us - a strategy of the real, of the neoreal and the hyperreal that everywhere is the double of a strategy of deterrence."

ABSTRACT

this is a house is an exploration of liminal spaces. It was created by Casey Partridge in 2024 as part of a web dev class.

Liminal spaces are a recent internet phenomenon describing images of once-occupied, now-empty locations that evoke a feeling of melancholy nostalgia. These images are characterized by the following:

Lack of visible occupants.

The absence of visible humans supports a feeling of eerieness. Humans in these images are represented by what they leave behind: an empty refrigerator, a lamp left on, a bare mattress (once a bed, no longer).
Lack of shadows / normal lighting.

The diverted expectation of home lighting in the photos allows these spaces to slip into an uncanny valley. It is bright, but the expected usual light sources are not immediately visible.
In this project, the lack of expected shadows is akin to a poorly rendered video game - creating a space that feels even less real.
Nostalgic themes.

The word nostalgia is often, in this context, associated with a longing for childhood. While liminal spaces often do invoke a feeling of childhood nostalgia specifically, they can also invoke nostalgia for other aspects of life: nostalgia for friendship, for travel, for gathering. These empty spaces act as canvases, inviting the viewer to paint their own experiences. These images produce a collective sensation of nostalgia, despite the lack of specificity (and generally, anything) within them.
These places are not abandoned; though they are aging, they are not yet decrepit and decaying. This is a house, a place that once was - a place that could be again.

METHODS

This website was constructed entirely using HTML and CSS.

The background elements were created in Photoshop as 2D images to emulate 3D spaces.

The furniture images were pulled from online ads and Facebook Marketplace.

The clouds are not real. Nothing is real.

FAQ

How are you today?
I'm good
Are you free to hang out on Friday?
Maybe, not sure yet
What do you want to do with your life?
Don't know
When are you going to get a real job?
When someone agrees to give me one
Why haven't you texted me back?
I forgot, I'm sorry

CONTACT

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