Urban Exploration

Urban Exploration is a short documentary produced for our final year project at Edinburgh Napier University. If most of the world has been explored what is left for the budding explorer to see. They can rediscover, explore the forgotten, hidden parts of our built environment. The documentary observes the desire in today’s developed societies to leave safe city areas and explore the unknown, and importantly the act of recording these experiences. The film follows three urban explorers in Edinburgh and provides an insight into the increasingly popular past-time of urban exploration. Abandoned buildings, tunnels, industrial sites, high places are all examples of the type of places they explore. An abandoned seminary looms round the corner in a forest that has grown up around it. A soon the be demolished city centre brewery under the cover of darkness. A rooftop of a gutted office block at sunset. A derelict hospital administration building's basement tunnels. These people, looking for something fun to do go urban exploring and do it in their own way. They are not a typical snapshot of urban explorers but show their way of doing things. Looking at their photography you can see not only the beauty in the decay but that they are serious about what they do. Not only is it the act of exploring but the thrill and danger of possibly being caught. In this increasingly health and safety conscious world these young men look to the often dangerous off limits areas in search of fun and the chance to see something new.