An urban explorer stands near the outfall of a muffin shaped brick and concrete storm drain, under Saint Paul, Minnesota. Urban exploration, or UE, is the examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of human civilization. Urban exploration is also commonly referred to as Infiltration, although some people consider Infiltration to be more closely associated with the exploration of active or inhabited sites. Other terms for UE include "reality hacking," "urban spelunking," and "urban caving".
Targets of exploration
UE can further be separated into subcategories. Urban explorers do any or all of these things, but often specialize on one or two.
Abandonments Ventures into abandoned structures are perhaps the most common example of UE. Abandoned sites are generally entered first by locals, and often sport large amounts of graffiti and other vandalism. Explorers often focus on the natural decay, as nature grows trees on the roof and weeds in the carpet, and unnatural decay of the structure as scrappers, looters, squatters, and vandals demolish the building from the inside out.
Common abandoned structures to explore:
- Manufacturing facilities
- Brickworks
- Grain elevators
- Houses
- Missile silos
- Abandoned tunnels such as mines, headraces, tailraces, and rail tunnels
- Hospitals, asylums, and sanatoriums
Tunnels Active tunnels include steam, power, telephone, water, and other utility tunnels; subway and other transit tunnels; and storm or sanitary sewers.
Utility tunnels Universities and other large institutions often distribute steam for heating buildings from a central heating plant. These steam lines are generally run through tunnels, which are often human-passable for maintenance purposes. Universities that have steam tunnels often also have a tradition of steam tunnel exploration by students. This was once called vadding at MIT, though students there now refer to it as Roof and tunnel hacking.
Steam tunnels in general have been getting more secure in recent years, due to their use for carrying network backbones and terrorist fears.
Sewers Entry into storm drains, or draining, is another common form of UE. Groups devoted to the task have arisen, such as the Cave Clan in Australia. Draining has a specialized set of guidelines, the foremost of which is "When it rains, no drains."
A small subset of explorers enter sanitary sewers. Sometimes they are the only connection to caves or other subterranean features. Sewers are the most dangerous locations to explore, and those who explore them are on the fringe of a group that's already on the fringe.
Transit tunnels The penalties for getting caught in subway tunnels are some of the strictest in the hobby. As a result, subway exploration is the least publicised type of exploration. New York City probably has the largest number of subway explorers.
Active buildings Another aspect of urban exploration is the practice of exploring active or in use buildings. This includes seeing secured or member-only areas, mechanical rooms, roofs, elevator rooms, and other normally unseen parts of such buildings.
Ethics UE is not a crime per se, and most explorers see it as not done to break laws other than trespassing. Explorers generally justify their crimes as usufruct, because they enjoy the location without causing harm or depriving the owner of their property. The common but not entirely accurate catchphrase for this ethical standpoint is the Sierra Club's motto: "take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints." The common code of ethics frowns heavily upon theft, vandalism, tagging, graffitti, and any other crime except for trespassing.
Exceptions to the rule exist. Graffitti in drains is often condoned or encouraged, as long as speleothems and other features aren't damaged. Some explorers remove items from abandoned sites, to preserve them or to have a souvenir. Many locations contain a small area reserved for leaving tags, known as a guest book.
See also
External links - http://www.infiltration.org - The zine Infiltration, blog Usufruct, and facet of the forum Urban Exploration Resource
- http://www.urbanexplorers.net - Information and the mailing list Underground
- http://e.webring.com/hub?ring=draining - the Urban Exploration web ring
- http://www.uer.ca - "Urban Exploration Resource"
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