they wander into an abandoned area are confused by their sudden freedom and
start breaking windows and urinating on the floor. Instead the explorers described
by Ninjalicious usually show a sincere respect for sites by not breaking or taking
anything, writing their names on the wall, or even littering while on their adven-
ture (19).^ This is not because explorers are kind by nature as much as the problem
of being caught doing something like that, or the increased security measures that
usually follow such events. To destroy the place would diminish the experience of
future explorers as well as damage the reputation of the community. Instead of
collecting souvenirs from these adventures Ninjalicious promotes a mindset from
comedian Steven Wright: “I have a large seashell collection which I keep scattered
all over the beaches of the world... maybe you’ve seen it?” (21).
What differs the urbex practice from children’s play is the dedicated and system-
atic mapping and sharing of adventures through sites and zines and the aim to
challenge the routines of modern urban life. By stretching boundaries urbex is
gradually extending our visions to places previously unseen to us and we experi-
ence a new perception on how to move through the city, as well showing the
healthiness of curiosity. Instead of going to see the exotic in far away places the
foreign lies hidden just around the corner, awaiting us if we are brave and attentive
enough. Urbex escapades are cheap thrills, and something very different than the
costly safari or adventure holiday in the mountains. However, Ninjalicious also
warns that the exploration excitement can create addiction, similar to “gateway
drugs”. However, according to his recommendation “you should go exploring in-
stead of doing drugs – both activities are addictive and mind-expanding, but ex-
ploration is cheaper.” (7)
In this way urban exploration is one of the examples of where a hacking practice
becomes political as it questions where society draws borders and pronounces ac-
cess. The explorers trespass into the forbidden and physically question the sur-
rounding perimeters and the walls of control built by others. This is a form of in-
filtration that is based on affirmative curiosity that questions how the borders
through society are drawn up. Perhaps more importantly they also show an exam-
ple of trespassing that is not burglary. Infiltration is not spying and political activ-
ism questioning the borderlines in society can be done in many ways. Explorers are
not parliamentary negotiators addressing the drawing up of borders, but rather
they show a wider spectrum of practices that happens at these borderlines to show
more possibilities and effectuate more action spaces.
&Another hacktivist line of practice that reveals new action spaces works in the
world of “hardware hacking”. This is the culture of explorative tinkering with
closed electronic music products and usually goes under the name of Circuit Bend-
ing; “the creative art of audio short-circuiting” (Ghazala 2005). Here, discarded
music toys and cast off sound machines are artistically tuned to make new exciting
music machines. These hacked toys are bastard inventions between classical musi-
cal instruments, electronic noise units, and new aesthetic tools for composition.
Central to this form of hacktivism is not only the exploration of new noises to be
bent out of the chips and circuitry, but dominantly a practical excavation of open
circuits, revealing new constellations of noise and sounds. With a moist fingertip
slowly moving over the sound chip hidden noises are released, unimaginable and
inaccessible from the black and white keys on the keyboard.Urban exploration, sometimes called
“roof and tunnel hacking” or “vadding”,
denotes the unauthorized or prohibited
entry and exploration of hidden or locked
spaces. It is a form of trespassing and
infiltration that is similar to hacking as it
combines exploration with the questioning
of borders and also requires the develop-
ment of certain skills of navigation and
dexterity. It aims at giving users access
to features and action spaces that were
otherwise unavailable to them.