Urban Explorers: Quests for Myth, Mystery and Meaning

This article is about urban exploration, a cultural practice of exploring derelict, closed and normally inaccessible built environments. The article is, in a sense, an experiment in research, learning and representation and is as much about the way the information is presented as it is about the topic itself. It consists of two parts. The first component is a video article that can be viewed online at http://vimeo. com/ 5366045 [Correction added on 13 October 2010 after first publication on 3 October 2010: The URL has been corrected]. The second is this document, an annotated script and short article meant to support the videographic document. This piece, as a whole, is a review of the work of five scholars (Alastair Bonnett, Tim Edensor, Caitlin DeSilvey, Hayden Lorimer and David Pinder) who have studied the theories and practices behind contemporary urban exploration from a number of different perspectives. I include video footage of my own ethnographic research on the topic, though I allow discussion of previous work to contextualize those images to establish what might be considered a videographic literature review.