 |
|
|
UER Store
|
|
order your copy of Access All Areas today!
|
|
|
 Captain Obvious
    
Location: among the tank farms
Gender: Male
in ur xbox...there are midgets
 |  | When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
< on 3/15/2007 1:14 AM >
|  | | | Webster's English Dictionary defines exploring as:
to travel over new territory for adventure or discovery
So what's with this my-spot-is-better/bigger-than-your-spot, I've-visited-more-places-than-you crap? This isn't about kills, like we're painting little buildings on the sides of our respirators.
Nor is it a pissing contest. Your personal and exploratory superiority is not dependent on how badass you make yourself out to be. Oooh, look at me, I've been to x Factory. Look at this picture of me flipping off the camera, that will prove my badness to you. Sheer arrogance never got anybody anywhere.
A few months ago, I watched as some guy, maybe 15 posts to his name, put up some simple pictures of school steam tunnels. They weren't particularly remarkable or high-quality shots, but they existed, and they showed a real hidden place.
Immediately, another member jumped down his throat, saying he had a bad subject, bad lighting, and this would 'count as a strike against him.'
In the end, exploring is all about finding new places, not simply walking in the footsteps of others. In a way, the trashed farmhouse is more valuable than the vast asylum. But when you discover the farmhouse, you are laughed off the forum for not having the balls to go to the asylum, which incidentally, has 14,534 photos already posted of it. The farmhouse is untouched by a camera's flash, Nature and vandals its only admirers.
Explore the farmhouse.
Nov. 24, 2007--The city of Cleveland, Ohio, announces that it has developed tactical nuclear weapons, and does not wish to hear any more jokes.
|
|
Wiccan
   
Location: Hamilton Ontario
Gender: Female
| | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 1 on 3/15/2007 1:30 AM >
| | | | *whispers* I love farmhouses.
|
|
SaraBellum
Berkshire Hunt
Location: Villa Villekulla
Gender: Female
Coming to a cinema near you this summer.
| |  | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 2 on 3/15/2007 1:37 AM >
| | | | The internet pissing contests and dick waving get under my skin a whole lot less now that I stopped giving a shit. When you explore with a small group of close friends, all the squabbling don't mean anything.
For the record, though, I consider myself a tourist and I don't see anything wrong with that.
[01:47:56] <GreyDeath> Sara just stares her enemies into submission and eventually madness
"You can either be wise or a bad-ass gangsta, but not both. You must choose your path." ~~metawaffle |
|
Yehoshua
Location: Ontario
Gender: Male
| | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 3 on 3/15/2007 2:10 AM >
| | | | I hate city houses, but love farmhouses...I can't explain it, but one feels invariably like B&E, while the other feels like basking in history.
That said, before I found UER/gotIntoTheScene/whatever, I simply referred to it as "I'm going adventuring tonight", which was a juvenile way of saying I was skipping my night classes to go explore a drain, abandoned mill, or whatever.
I think in large part, cameras ruin the experience - if you're just there to get photos, to post them on a website for accolades, that's not really "exploration" - people go on photo-trips to the Amazon, sure...but that's not what drove the early explorers on to go where nobody else had ever gone.
[last edit 3/15/2007 2:11 AM by Yehoshua - edited 1 times]
Our Citizen.
Our Justice.
Bring Omar Khadr back to Canada. |
|
femaledragonx
Location: Detroit & Everywhere Else I can dream up to go to
The singularity is near
| | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 4 on 3/15/2007 3:01 AM >
| | | | not clear what your exact goal is here with this post. there are a few tangents and aggressions expressed. to be quite frank, i consider myself a tourist in all of these locations in a way. they are not home to me. they are not familiar, that is what one strong part of their beauty. even if ten thousand people go to the big asylum i have never seen, i will still want to go, because the experience is meaningful to me. same for the other types of locations as well. even if you and ten thousand people take the same god damn pictures i take, i will still lift my camera into the air and attempt to capture the beauty of what i am experiencing, for me.
-in an asylum where i fell very in touch with what the patient's lives were like
-in the catacombs or a tunnel where i feel like i am on a different planet, in another world
-in a factory or big warehouse with huge interior/exterior and various curious rusty equipment, i will marvel at just how frail and small we, as living creatures, and as humans
-in a bunker where i wonder how afraid the young soldiers stationed there were when it was active
-and in an abandoned old house, where i spent many years exploring as a child, always trying to imagine who lived there and what their life was like
in all of these places i am a tourist, an adventurer, a traveler, and an explorer. i will enjoy every moment of it. from the titillating moment i find reference to a closed down historic structure in a google search, to the wild feelings as i circumnavigate the unfamiliar terrain inside a new location, to the moment i finally step foot out of a window with finished rolls of film and a slide show in my mind of what i saw inside, i will feel the deepest of satisfactions.
i strongly agree that everyone contributing here should be respected (unless they are being a blatant moron of course) and i dislike when people who enjoy one type of abandonment mock those who like another. we all have different tastes, and often out tastes develop or change. i will continue to be a tourist or an explorer and taste as much of the glory of decay as i can.
although some of us may do so anyway, none of us are in a position to judge.
"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd." -Bertrand Russell
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." ~Annie Dillard |
|
Caine In The Underdark
Location: Toronto, Ontario.
Gender: Male
Aah.... Shit.
| | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 5 on 3/15/2007 3:01 AM >
| | | | My dick is totally bigger than yours.
†:: A strange thing has been happening in London.
A man wearing a rabbit mask has been cutting off the heads of young girls, and then fleeing from the scene. Spectators are calling this mystery man, The Mad March Hare. ::† |
|
TDK1000
| | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 6 on 3/15/2007 3:37 AM >
| | | | DanB you're s0 3lit3
|
|
minusonebit
Location: Oklahoma City, OK, United States
Gender: Male
Will Explore for Food
| |  |  | |  | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 7 on 3/15/2007 3:37 AM >
| | | | Are you kidding? We are on the internet. Its all about waving your cock around, trying to prove your penis is bigger than someone else's even though its a small, shriveled up, shameful little thing.
Commit a Random Act of Exploration. |
|
screamingwatts
| | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 8 on 3/15/2007 3:40 AM >
| | | | I agree with everything FemaleDragonX said in her post.
I do consider myself an explorer before a tourist...mainly because to me, the definition of "tourist" is to just look at things presented to you. i work in niagara falls, and every day in the summer i see different people doing the same things at the same "attractions". I think the term "explorer" covers more than that... going out of your way to access a location not typically accessed by others, exploring its depths, seeing something that most people consider unattractive or unwanted, in a completely different light. and often getting dirty while doing it - something most tourists frown on :p
this is one of the reasons i take pictures of locations i visit. not to show them off so i can add another notch in my "bedpost of visited locations", but to show people that place in a way most wouldnt see it - trying to capture beauty in an derelict, unwanted place, seen by most as nothing more than ugly. not many people even know what the insides of an abandoned factory, theme park, hospital, whatever, look like, or even care - but its cool to show them something they otherwise may never get to see, in a way that interests them.
I take them as much for myself though as i do for others. I love exploring a location for the first time... I always feel like i'm on another planet or some far away place - and even if I never return to that place, I love having those pictures to remind me I was there, and how interesting that place was. I try capturing its individuality through my photos.
[last edit 3/15/2007 3:46 AM by screamingwatts - edited 1 times]
|
|
micro
Gender: Male
Slowly I turned
| | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 9 on 3/15/2007 4:35 AM >
| | | | Maybe you were just taking the piss, but it's kind of hard to take what you wrote seriously when you're also making posts like this:
Make them in order from worst to best.
January: Generic farmhouse
February: Generic factory
March: Really cool drain thingy
April: Someplace artistically trashed (NYC farm colony? Byberry?)
May: Vehicles (Junkyard, maybe?)
June: Active (Bridge climbing?)
July: Missile silo
August: Somewhere surreal (Linfield? American Star?)
September: Random Kirkbride
October: Confluence
November: Gunkanjima
December: Pripyat |
Also, you conveniently disregard all the other definitions for "exploring" some of which probably have far more relevance to the types of things people here are doing, for eg: "to investigate, study, or analyze." Something tells me that if we changed the name of this hobby to "urban investigation" or "urban examination" there'd probably be a lot less internal wrangling and finger-pointing going on around here.
[last edit 3/15/2007 4:42 AM by micro - edited 1 times]
|
|
desmet
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
| | | | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 10 on 3/15/2007 4:41 AM >
| | | | Posted by Captain Obvious
Nor is it a pissing contest. Your personal and exploratory superiority is not dependent on how badass you make yourself out to be. Oooh, look at me, I've been to x Factory. Look at this picture of me flipping off the camera, that will prove my badness to you. Sheer arrogance never got anybody anywhere. |
Wait til you get your one year star...thats about the time you realize that people here are pompous and theres nothing you can do about it.
Posted by Captain ObviousA few months ago, I watched as some guy, maybe 15 posts to his name, put up some simple pictures of school steam tunnels. They weren't particularly remarkable or high-quality shots, but they existed, and they showed a real hidden place.
Immediately, another member jumped down his throat, saying he had a bad subject, bad lighting, and this would 'count as a strike against him.' |
I think I remember the thread, and I think you are taking that comment way too seriously. Relax.
Critique is part of photography. We've been through this so many times. Deal with it or ignore it. Don't whine about it. It's one of the best things about UER.
Posted by Captain ObviousIn the end, exploring is all about finding new places, not simply walking in the footsteps of others. In a way, the trashed farmhouse is more valuable than the vast asylum. But when you discover the farmhouse, you are laughed off the forum for not having the balls to go to the asylum, which incidentally, has 14,534 photos already posted of it. The farmhouse is untouched by a camera's flash, Nature and vandals its only admirers.
Explore the farmhouse.
|
Not feeling you on this one at all.
It sounds to me like you have some insecurities. Don't worry so much about what other explorers think. Fuck them. You're complaining about this place, essentially, not being noob friendly and I don't think that's a fair criticism of this board at all in any way. Plenty of noobage gets tolerated, and someone has to tell people how it is at some point, or they a.) won't have the great experiences, b.) won't learn to be good explorers.
[last edit 3/15/2007 4:42 AM by desmet - edited 1 times]
|
|
LizBellum
Gender: Female
Be really excellent at everything!
| | | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 11 on 3/15/2007 4:42 AM >
| | | | Posted by SaraBellum
For the record, though, I consider myself a tourist and I don't see anything wrong with that.
|
Posted by femaledragonx
to be quite frank, i consider myself a tourist in all of these locations in a way. they are not home to me. they are not familiar, that is what one strong part of their beauty. |
And that is why I love you both very much.
Being a tourist essentially means that you leave your house for the sole purpose of looking at shit [places, people, the environment]. What we do isn't much different, except we don't have a kitschy economy attached to it.
What we do have is a pretty lame internet-economy based on how super-duper awesome you can make yourself appear to people you'll never meet. So, yeah, I understand where you're coming from with your rant, but Sara's right: stop giving a shit, try and make a few new friends in your area, and you'll be much happier.
flickrgrrrrl :: boyfuckingracer |
|
Air
Location: Canada
| | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 12 on 3/15/2007 5:03 AM >
| | | | Posted by minusonebit
Are you kidding? We are on the internet. Its all about waving your cock around, trying to prove your penis is bigger than someone else's even though its a small, shriveled up, shameful little thing.
|
I vote this the best comment this week.
That, and we should put more emphasis on the SEARCH function.
And, its best not to get caught up in the pissing contests around here... its mostly just 14 year olds who dont realize the intrawebs iszt serioush buzinezz
[last edit 3/15/2007 5:14 AM by Air - edited 2 times]
"The extraordinary beauty of things that fail." - Heinrich von Kleist |
|
Caine In The Underdark
Location: Toronto, Ontario.
Gender: Male
Aah.... Shit.
| | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 13 on 3/15/2007 5:20 AM >
| | | | Posted by Air 33
I vote this the best comment this week.
That, and we should put more emphasis on the SEARCH function.
And, its best not to get caught up in the pissing contests around here... its mostly just 14 year olds who dont realize the intrawebs iszt serioush buzinezz
http://upload.wiki...Pissingcontest.jpg
|
Where have you been? The Internet is SERIOUS FUCKING BUSINESS.
†:: A strange thing has been happening in London.
A man wearing a rabbit mask has been cutting off the heads of young girls, and then fleeing from the scene. Spectators are calling this mystery man, The Mad March Hare. ::† |
|
Air
Location: Canada
| | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 14 on 3/15/2007 5:29 AM >
| | | | Posted by Caine In The Underdark
Where have you been? The Internet is SERIOUS FUCKING BUSINESS.
|
In that case people should be licenced to log on, otherwise we are ass deep in CRAP
"The extraordinary beauty of things that fail." - Heinrich von Kleist |
|
cambrianguy
| | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 15 on 3/15/2007 6:09 AM >
| | | | I'm too new to UE to complain, so I won't, but DanB, you seem experienced (judging from all the locations you've submitted). Remember...it's all in the eye of the beholder. What's "boring" to you may be "cool" to others, and vice versa. Just because some place has been photographed and posted/discussed a zillion times on the net, doesn't mean its "old news". Maybe someone got a pic from a "different angle" or something, or different lighting... or had a different story to tell about the place....whatever....you get the picture.
If you think posting about some place that's already been UE'd is wrong, or visiting it again with someone you see as a "tourist" is wrong, then why does the UE DB have the ability to "Add a Gallery" or "Add a Story", etc. That's what makes great locations even better.
I haven't UE'd as much as most of the people in my region, but I learn from them and even if means I try to visit the places they've already been to, I learn a lot from their experience in visiting those places in the past and it'll help keep me out of trouble. Learning from others experiences....a novel idea, eh?
So relax, chill, and enjoy the ride. I've learned to and its less stressful.
|
|
MutantMandias
Perverse and Often Baffling
Location: Atlanta, GA
Gender: Male
Are you a reporter? Contact me for a UE interview! Also not averse to the the idea of group/anal.
| | | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 16 on 3/15/2007 6:14 AM >
| | | | Posted by SaraBellum
The internet pissing contests and dick waving....
|
I have to admit, Sara's cock is bigger than mine.
mutantMandias may cause dizziness, sexual nightmares, and sleep crime. ++++ mutantMandias has to return some videotapes ++++ Do not taunt mutantMandias
mutantMandias is something more than human, more than a computer. mutantMandias is a murderously intelligent, sensually self-programmed, non-being |
|
kowalski
| | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 17 on 3/15/2007 6:47 AM >
| | | | Posted by LizBellum
What we do isn't much different, except we don't have a kitschy economy attached to it. |
As you already know, I'd argue that at least one drifting subset of this community does value the kitsch, which just happens to consist of photos of hallways and chairs, and whose purchase cost could be said to start at that of the current model of Canon Digital Rebel and inflates hyperbolically from there. You may have a precise working definition of kitsch, but I don't know... I'm inclined to think that kitsch interpolates quite well onto certain fixations of urban exploration and urban exploration photography, given the environmental variables and the lack of an internal economy to speak of beyond what the participants create for themselves.
[Here, now, I'm not attempting to make a dig at asylum photographers, only to provide a serious bit of social commentary. Request hate mail from Photography Forum users be saved for a later date when I'm sure to give them more reason to warrant it.)
|
|
manitou
Location: Mississauga/Toronto/Waterloo
Gender: Male
I was born with an inherent knowledge of every abandonment in the world!
| | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 18 on 3/15/2007 6:55 AM >
| | | | On these forums there is a noticable pattern of noobs posting photos from locations that they believe to be new and incredible, only to be criticized by the established membership for posting photos of a location that has already been explored ad nauseum.
Of course these postings are quite understandable as anyone new to a society would almost certainly wish to be accepted by trying to prove their worth. For noobs with little or no experience under their belt these locations are more likely than not going to be previously known; admittedly, posting photos of a well known and previously explored site is better than posting the standard "I'm new, gimme locationz" thread.
While I have great respect for those who put time and effort into seeking out new locations many great discoveries are made on the shoulders of those who have gone before. Even in the most thoroughly explored and photographed locations there are new spots and new views that have not been seen before. Photographing a well-known site as changes occur can provide an excellent continuum of the processes at work at the site.
Of course there is a profound tourist element in this hobby. That can be seen anytime one opens a thread of asylum photographs and sees the same shot of a stairway. I am guilty of this as well as I have traveled to well-known sites and taken the money shot. While there is nothing wrong with this in itself, the posting of said money shot contributes to the dick waving. This can be avoided if people took a closer look at locations in an attempt at real exploration, especially if they intend to post thier photographs on here to show that they have "explored" a site, so that the end result of thier photography isn't the same "shopping list" of photos of a location.
As for the attitudes of members on the site, in my experience I have noticed a progression that occurs over time. There is the initial desire to prove one's self and become accepted. This will be followed by a highly objective, somewhat modernist and, paradoxically, highly conservative approach to the hobby characterized by restrictive views and adherence to the established norms. Once well established in this hobby and on these forums one takes on a post-modern view of the hobby where true exploration can finally start to occur. This is most likely the final stage in the progression (I don't think anyone has yet moved beyond this stage); this stage is also characterized by a realization of the absurdities that exist in the hobby and a significant greying of the established norms.
[last edit 3/15/2007 7:41 AM by manitou - edited 2 times]
www.dkphotogroup.com
|
|
LizBellum
Gender: Female
Be really excellent at everything!
| | | Re: When did "exploration" become "tourism"? -Rant warning-
<Reply # 19 on 3/15/2007 7:20 AM >
| | | | Posted by kowalski
As you already know, I'd argue that at least one drifting subset of this community does value the kitsch, which just happens to consist of photos of hallways and chairs, and whose purchase cost could be said to start at that of the current model of Canon Digital Rebel and inflates hyperbolically from there. You may have a precise working definition of kitsch, but I don't know... I'm inclined to think that kitsch interpolates quite well onto certain fixations of urban exploration and urban exploration photography, given the environmental variables and the lack of an internal economy to speak of beyond what the participants create for themselves.
|
Yup.
But, like Manitou, I'm going to have to go all post-modern on this one and argue that it's absurd to even waste big words on junk like this anymore. Instead, here's a haiku.
Urban explorating,
Great for 14 year old boys.
More boring than porn.
[last edit 3/15/2007 7:21 AM by LizBellum - edited 1 times]
flickrgrrrrl :: boyfuckingracer |
|
|
|
All content and images copyright © 2002-2024 UER.CA and respective creators. Graphical Design by Crossfire.
To contact webmaster, or click to email with problems or other questions about this site:
UER CONTACT
View Terms of Service |
View Privacy Policy |
Server colocation provided by Beanfield
This page was generated for you in 140 milliseconds. Since June 23, 2002, a total of 740903250 pages have been generated.
|
|
