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 Drie
   
Rat-Hole Chic
Location: Hudson Valley NY
Gender: Female
bringing it back.
 |  |  | An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
< on 8/25/2004 7:58 PM >
|  | | | An Attempt at Explaining Urban Exploration to the Public.
Lately, it seems, Urban Exploration is getting so much hype. The Discovery channel is making a show about urban exploration, where they apparently have people rappelling around Buffalo Central Terminal. There’s been articles about people kicking in doors in college steam tunnels, articles about kids dying while exploring caves, and articles about explorers being mistaken for terrorists. It’s enough to make anyone in the community sick. None of this information, which seems to be suddenly showing up at a rapid fire pace, shows what urban exploration really is like. There’s very little information from the angle of what it’s actually like to be someplace, and to experience it for yourself. It leaves the public with an entirely skewed view of the hobby. Its creating an image of explorers as extreme sports athletes, or kids horsing around in places they shouldn‘t, or dangerous people to be watched for. All of this was enough to inspire me to attempt to explain what it feels like to be inside a ruin, and why you would want to explore. It’s my take on the subject, and every explorer, I’m sure, has a slightly different point of view. I don’t have any immediate plans for the article, but working on it has made me feel better. I’ve left out place names, locations, and any information about entering and leaving. It’s just the raw guts of any trip; what it feels like to be there. I’m obviously mainly an explorer of abandonment’s, and although I know UE goes so much further, this is what I was comfortable with writing about. Enjoy.
-Drie
In the absence of the living, there still exists a life. Every abandonment has a heartbeat, a pulse that makes it both unique and alive. Finding that rhythm is one of the purest things I‘ve experienced, but explaining why I’d want to can be something else entirely.
When I tell someone that I’m involved in Urban Exploration, I get a wide range of responses. It’s everything from “Isn’t that dangerous?” to “That’s illegal!” to “Do you ever see ghosts?” to, mainly, “Why?”. Although Urban Exploration has been getting a lot of press lately, nothing that I’ve read really addresses why anyone would want to spend their spare time running around abandoned buildings. This is my attempt, for everyone who was ever curious to know, at explaining why.
Part of it is in the way an abandonment sounds. It’s the sound of what it means to be forgotten. A leaking roof is a drumbeat, not a problem. The wind through a broken window is a song, not a repair waiting to happen. There are no worries about the comforts of inhabiting an abandonment. The heat is free to escape, The rain can do as it pleases, and no one is speaking here. You won’t hear the normal noises of a structure being inhabited by it’s users. There are no footsteps but your own when you are inside. It’s a particular kind of quiet existing that you can only really feel inside an abandonment. If you sit still for any length of time, you become a part of the quiet. You can hear both the rain and your heartbeat; Both the wind and your breath. It’s a kind of quiet I’ve never found anywhere else.
Part of it is in the decay. It’s watching a structure being reclaimed by nature. On first glance, it’s no more than the way a tree will sometimes begin to grow in a crack in the floor. It’s grass on a carpet, or flowers in empty bathtubs. Look closer, however, and you’ll see roots destroying floorboards, vines peeling away paint, rainwater softening walls and whole ecosystems of moss merging with rugs. It’s a razing so different than man’s violent tearings down. If you visit a place often enough, the slow motion collapse of a site becomes an art form to be watched. To see first hand the way a floor will cave in over a period of six months or a year gives you an emotional attachment to it’s demise. It’s a similar feeling I’d imagine one would have if they built the structure, or spent any amount of time there during its height. Some people see a place born into usefulness. Explorers see it leave the world of man. Stay a while, and you’ll become aware of the floor beneath your feet in a way you’ve never felt. No longer can you rely on it’s safety. There is no one here to make it safe. Every footstep you take is as a visitor to a thing no longer considered necessary. Here, you become aware of the motion of your body within a space. How your weight and actions effect your surroundings. Here, you can begin to know the intentions behind your own movement.
Part of it is in the smell. Here, the way nature mixes with man-made substances is the natural state of things. Wet concrete, growing things, plaster dust and stale air make every abandonment unfamiliar. It’s not the smell of a place for humans. There is no smell of cleansers here. No one comes to make sure the place is well aired. Strangely, as an explorer, after a time, you being to enjoy it. It gains the representation of getting away from the world on a terrible day. It becomes a symbol of the moment that you know, at least for a while, no one will find you; that you are as forgotten as the place itself. It could be, after a while, that the smell of abandonment becomes the trigger for some of your best memories. It could be the smell of being alone.
Part of it is in the things you find. Every object tells you a story. Even the plainest things, -sheets of paper, a forgotten sweater, piles of keys- Make you question what happened here. Every object that you touch becomes a foreign thing. You may as well have never seen it before, because you don’t know why it was used. You can only make your best guess. You can easily spend hours in an abandonment, sitting perfectly still, reading old records by the light of a flashlight. You can be completely absorbed in this world you were never a part of. Gaining so personal an insight on the life of a site can make your own problems seem very far away. It’s like reading someone’s diary; Everything you see doesn’t belong to you.
Consider for a moment the fact that the world is overwhelming. Noise, sounds, smells, they all overlap until nothing is pure. They are in a state of constant change. Your own things overwhelm you with their price tags. Every place is tread upon, every place is owned. To find a place to be alone, besides your own home, is nearly impossible; And still, even at home, there is a television blaring, a telephone ringing, bills to pay, laundry to do. Even at home, you are distracted by the things that make us human.
Consider, then, your state of mind in an abandonment. With your awareness of your surroundings heightened until you are one with them, you being to experience everything differently. It’s then that an abandonment can begin to have a voice, and speak to you. Here is where the exploration begins.
It’s rare to do anything anymore with nothing but the purest intentions to experience and learn. Exploration, comparable to love, is being intrigued by another to the point where all you want is for them to tell you everything. It seems every spoken word is monumental; Severe in it’s inflections, no matter how plain the intention. You can fall in love with a ruin. I’ve done it, so I know it’s possible. It begins with hearing the rhythm of a place, and progresses to melting into it, so you and it are one. It’s the feeling of solving a mystery, or letting something be heard. As an explorer, it’s what you set out to accomplish. To see, to hear, and to find out why. To experience first hand what the soul of a place is, and to know yourself better in the process.
edit- paragraph breaks
[last edit 8/25/2004 9:02 PM by Drie - edited 1 times]
Drie - www.synestheticlight.com
"In the absence of the living, there still exists a life." |
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Detroit
 
Moderator
Location: Ottawa /Gatineau /Montreal
Gender: Male
4-aminophenol and 2-5% potassium hydroxide
| |  |  | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 1 on 8/25/2004 8:17 PM >
| | | | Drie, that was beautifully written. You just summed up what makes abandonments so special. The silence, the smells, the decay, you touched on all of them.
I take photos of these places but I wish I could somehow record everything.
Great job, a really great job. 
[last edit 8/25/2004 8:17 PM by Detroit - edited 1 times]
The end of the beginning is the beginning of the end. |
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BigPoppaMikey
This user has been banned. See the banlist page for more details.
Location: Milpitas, California
Gender: Male
Don't follow me unless you want to...
| |  |  | | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 2 on 8/25/2004 8:22 PM >
| | | | Drie-
Thank you.
BPM
Wishing I was Jack Dalton just to have all the cool leftovers... |
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IIVQ
  
Location: La Sud-Est du cité majeur du North-Holland (Bijlmer), .NL
Gender: Male
Back in Urbex!
| | |  | | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 3 on 8/25/2004 8:29 PM >
| | | | Great entry Drie!
This one should have a link from the frontpage.
Waiting for that link, I allready placed it in my list of Insights on the Meaning and Thoughts of the Average Urban Explorer (AKA John "Rooftop" D. Rain)
Tijmen
P.S. No that wasn't a shameless attempt to spam my journal.
P.P.S. Okay, It was.
Posted by MapMan | 18/9/2005 19:25 | Hedy Lamarr made porn?
Posted by turbozutek | 20/9/2005 2:29 | Dude, educate us! |
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Beryl
Not as fluffy as Av!
Location: Germany
Gender: Male
Uncle Beryl
| | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 4 on 8/25/2004 9:21 PM >
| | | | Well done, Drie.
Licentious acrimonious puer æternus. Libertine. |
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xrahy
Noble Donor
| | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 5 on 8/25/2004 10:22 PM >
| | | | Very, very nice Drie. Your ability to translate the essence of UE into writing is awesome...Well done.
xrahy
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Indiana Jones
Location: Brooklyn, NYC
Gender: Male
| | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 6 on 8/25/2004 10:22 PM >
| | | | Perfect.
"the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty." -1984 |
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M-Explorer
Location: Groton, CT
Gender: Male
"Going where our feet takes us!"
| | | | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 7 on 8/25/2004 10:52 PM >
| | | | That was well written. It sure sums up what UE is.
Cry havoc and lets slip the dogs of war! |
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'Dukes
Noble Donor
Gender: Male
At least someone llikes me
| | | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 8 on 8/25/2004 11:00 PM >
| | | | Very well put.
Everything was right on, except for my personal reason for exploring things frozen in time; it makes me all that more appreciative of my own home and surroundings. There's nothing like exploring in the winter or fall appreciating the cold air, the dead space, wonderment; and then getting home and enjoying a hot shower and ditching the wet clothes (and then sitting around in flannel shirt and pajama pants while dumping the contents of the camera into the computer and enjoying a hot meal while the fireplace burns). Makes you appreciate the small comforts of life.
'Dukes
[last edit 8/25/2004 11:00 PM by 'Dukes - edited 1 times]
I got your tour winner right here pussies, at least he'd crash out trying. |
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nightbird
Girl Moderator
Location: Buffalo, NY
Gender: Female
Gone abortin, BRB
| | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 9 on 8/26/2004 12:37 AM >
| | | | Bravo.
WTF indeed. |
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fedge
Location: Gaud Corners, Ontario, Canada
Gender: Male
you blight up my life™®
| | | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 10 on 8/26/2004 2:41 AM >
| | | | The newspapers and TV shows should use this, as opposed to their own interpretations which seem to box UE in a unfair corner...
18-odd Years Of UER-ing! |
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PhoBac
Nobler Donor
Location: Across Nun's Island
Gender: Male
...que
| | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 11 on 8/26/2004 2:55 AM >
| | | | You write about the smell!!! Smell for me is really important when I'm exploring. Each places I visit smell something different and the smell is a big part of my memory.
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Duke
Noble Donor
Location: Awww-shitby, Ontario
Gender: Male
Move it or lose it
| | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 12 on 8/26/2004 7:09 AM >
| | | | Right now I have my computer reading the whole thing back to me after having read it. Just because I was wondering how it would sound spoken. By the way, Macs pronounce your name "dry". I'd love to have that as a spoken word for a website I'm planning. Really beautifully written I must say, even sounds goood through broken synthesized speech
Contrary to popular belief, death isn't just for dead people. I know I was surprised too! It can happen to anybody! Horses, fiddler crabs, even a potato can die! - Tick
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meganb
Location: Indiana
Gender: Female
| |  | | | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 13 on 8/26/2004 12:23 PM >
| | | | Thanks Drie! You put words to how so many explorers truly feel about UE and brought light to things I didn't even realize I felt. This is an absolutely gorgeous piece of writing. Thank you so much for sharing! 
Sincerely,
Megan
Happiness is the only good.
The time to be happy is now.
The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so. -Robert Ingersoll |
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Professor Chaos
Noble Donor
Location: Halifax, NS
Gender: Male
| | | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 15 on 8/27/2004 6:31 PM >
|  | | | Hats off to you Drie.
"Toyota vehicles are marketed to people who would be more excited about getting a new fridge than a new car I think." -Bandi |
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Civil Disobediance
Location: 668: The Neighbour of the Beast (Canada:Toronto)
Gender: Male
"Time's fun when you're having flies." ~ Kermit the Frog
| | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 16 on 8/27/2004 7:08 PM >
| | | | Finally! Someone who understands the true meaning of Christmas!
Wha..?
Oh...
Nevermind. Nice summary, Drie, it really caught the essence of why I UE.
Thanks.
"Your mama is so fat, when she sings, its over."
_________
Civil D.
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nd31
| | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 17 on 8/27/2004 11:21 PM >
| | | | Very well conveyed. I agree on all points.
I love the sense of desolation, despair, disrepair, abandonment, decay... Its beauty is immeasurable, especially in comparison to many modern day eyesores. The exploration itself also does it for me, the fact that you're doing something other than your normal responsibilites. It's refreshing.
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Skaught
Location: Calgary
Gender: Male
| | | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 18 on 9/1/2004 7:48 AM >
| | | | I just say it is like Wreck diving. Except without the water.
Suddenly people just get it.
If you ever come to Calgary then email [email protected] and you'll be made welcome, taken to locations and given free accommodation. We'll help save you the $$$ you spend on the flight over here :) |
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MothMan
Noble Donor
Location: The Gem City
Gender: Male
If you didn't bring back any pictures with you then you obviously weren't there!
| | Re: An attempt at explaining exploration to the public.
<Reply # 19 on 9/8/2004 2:31 PM >
| | | | Excellent explanation, Drie. You capture the essence of it. Here is my take on why I explore/research/document:
It’s a heady feeling borne out of the experience of going where no one else goes because you’re not s’posed to go there. It’s a primordial act of defiance. It’s about calling your own shots and setting your own terms.
It’s the stuff of individualism, but much more.
There’s an awe and a wonder that envelops you while standing in a murky tunnel or peeping over the edge of a concrete silo. You learn about yourself—what you’re made of, what you’ll do. The rush is that midnight solo excursion into the heart of the defunct cement plant, getting into the tunnels and sensing you’re not alone, and feeling that loose anxious gnawing in your bowels as you force yourself forward into the dark anyway.
It’s cerebral and addictive.
Investigating, scrutinizing, and fantasizing your way through a derelict old house holds an appeal that some, like myself, refuse to live without. Documenting a place that will soon vanish is not a misguided rationalization, but a privilege few care to appreciate and fewer still lust for.
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