Bureau of Liminal Affairs
Find nearby places to explore, with a walking itinerary issued as a permit.
Not yet available on the App Store.
What it does
- Choose a place, how far to search, and how many stops you want. The application form asks for a purpose for your walk.
- The app searches nearby map records for places such as footbridges, laundries, stations and disused buildings.
- The permit lists the sites in order, with a map and two short instructions for each stop.
- Mark stops as attended, add field observations, and see your next instruction on the Lock Screen.
- Permits are valid for 72 hours. They remain in the app’s saved files, called Drawer 3, afterwards, with a text copy available to keep or send.
The survey uses OpenStreetMap, with weather at the time of issue and nearby Wikipedia entries attached. Map records may be incomplete or out of date.
From the app · Public Notice 12-A
The Bureau of Liminal Affairs was established in 1972, by an administrative error that no one has had the heart to correct. Its mandate is the registration, survey and quiet stewardship of the places in between: the corridor, the underpass, the laundromat at the hour when the dryers outnumber the customers.
Post conspicuously
Instructions for the walk
Every stop carries two instructions: one for the walk, one for the site. They are issued with the permit and stay with that permit.
From a permit · Two instructions
- Walk as if returning, not arriving.
- Locate the hum. Every site has one. Do not name it.
The kinds of places you might find
Transit void
Stations, platforms and rest areas.
Retail afterlife
Coin laundries, vending machines, filling stations, the last payphone.
Temporary accommodation
Motels and hotels.
Infrastructure, unwitnessed
Substations, water towers and parking structures.
Formerly in service
Disused or abandoned sites.
Threshold
Underpasses and footbridges.
From the app: staff directory
If there aren’t enough places nearby
If the survey finds fewer than two qualifying sites, the Bureau issues a denial. You can widen the radius or choose another locality.
Motto: omnia loca intermedia — every place is between.