EXPLORE EVERYTHING: PLACE-HACKING THE CITY PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Bradley Garrett | 287 pages | 09 Sep 2014 | Verso Books | 9781781685570 | English | London, United Kingdom Explore Everything: Place-hacking the City - Bradley L. Garrett - Google Books An extraordinary and important book. It contains exhilarating passages that decry the enforced striation of contemporary urbanism. It is a call to arms to not accept the city as spectacle, but to overcome the existing logic of the capitalist city and actively re-appropriate space. It also bears the mark of its origins as a doctoral thesis, with frequent references to Guy Debord and the theories of various philosophically minded geographers. Garrett and his fellow travelers are as fit, agile and fearless as ninja. A reading list to celebrate works of and inspired by the Situationist International, on the 50th anniversary of the May uprisings. We use cookies to enhance your experience. Dismiss this message or find out more. Forgot your password? If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website. University of Southampton Institutional Repository. Explore everything: place hacking the city. Verso Books. Garrett, Bradley. Record type: Book. Abstract It is assumed that every inch of the world has been explored and charted; that there is nowhere new to go. Full text not available from this repository. Explore Everything reclaims the city, recasting it as a place for endless adventures. Garrett has evaded urban security in order to experience the city in ways beyond the conventional boundaries of everyday life. He calls it 'place hacking': the recoding of closed, secret, hidden and forgotten urban spaces into realms of opportunity. Explore Everything is an account of his escapades with the London Consolidation Crew, an urban exploration collective, as well as an urbanist manifesto on rights to the city that inspires new ways of belonging in and understanding the metropolis. It is a passionate declaration to "explore everything," combining philosophy, politics and adventure" Inhalt The UE Scene. The Ruins of History. Capturing Transition. Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City, by Bradley L. Garrett | Times Higher Education (THE) In this process the anthropologist has crossed the boundary line and created a new reality, becoming a representative and leading a movement. I have a new sympathy for taggers and graffiti artists. Garret unwittingly becomes a voice for disenfranchised urban youth, except unlike my sons he enjoys the privilege of a doctoral degree. By being grounded in the harsh reality of the city Garret shows he is aware and alive, appealing to an awakened consciousness in the reader. He is overly analytical and psychologically reflective but this does add thoughtfulness. He is not there to change anything, to challenge elites or to steal but he emerges as a thought leader anyway as he moves beyond the public commons to invade privately owned or inaccessible areas. He neither trusts the police, nor private security and refuses to obey the limits of city spaces. He revisions the way we see the city. He appeals to a sense of freedom. This book explores the pushing of sociological boundaries just because you can. And you should. As a former urban geography student one of my favourite forms of governmental architecture is the post war British style called Brutalism and when I travel I always search for its uncomfortable raw concrete bunker look to catch a photo so this work was always going to appeal to me personally. There is no frivolity or lightness with impenetrable security in places such as downtown Chicago and Garret breaks down barriers subversively in a quest for personal discovery. It becomes an addiction, requiring deeper risk and adrenalin surges. Ownership is gained through atmospheric photography and hyper- testosterone driven claims on urban exploration websites. Competition is driven by new exploits, new heights and depths and ultimately the personal knowledge that such risk taking enables. This personal knowledge is a vehicle for introducing philosophy to the reader. It is strangely postmodern. He explores the power differentials between the city canopy and sewers. In one sense he colonises places, creates new tangible histories and in another he democratically reclaims them. Philosophically he is supposedly neutral towards urban systems, and the art of just being and accepting what is, rather than preserving or conserving values is emphasised. The author has no intention of creating museums of these places but their greyscale, paint peeling, concrete blocky remnants are noticeably thought-provoking. For Garret, the photography is memorial enough. Old hospitals, asylums and disused industrial sites present themselves for brave exploitation and yet the book is largely introspective. One wonders if Garret is there to simply conquer himself. Place hacking is an enquiry into existentialism. It observes, and brings the explorer into the dynamism of now, acknowledging the past but letting it go. It brings into question why we code these spaces as impermissible and why we criminalise people for simply being there. On one level the author coaxes us into allowing monuments such as under-city tunnels, sewers and empty factories to crumble but on the other hand he demonstrates their worth. Some places such as Parisian tunnels are ancient and some in Las Vegas and Los Angeles are in the process of being built, therefore the reader is juxtaposed between the past and the present as if time folds over on itself. The style of the book is acutely academic, seasoned with anecdotes and narratives of adventure, history, male camaraderie, and quest. It will appeal to those of us who want to steal our communities back from authoritarian institutions, to enhance creativity and narratives in city life yet are disaffected and challenged by the flow, scale and boundaries our spaces create. I do hope my youngest son does eventually read this exceptional book, it is a primer for refusers and incorrigible idealists. May 09, Edward Taylor rated it really liked it. As a teen, I spent a lot of time doing things like this but never to the extent of what Garrett and the crews he was documenting did. At this point, I am surprised I don't have asbestosis. To "hack" is a colloquial term used to reference people in places that others are forbidden to access; be they sewer lines, underground subway tunnels, and abandon locations. They also speak of "plain clothes" hacks where they access some of these locations in broad daylight under the noses of the people who As a teen, I spent a lot of time doing things like this but never to the extent of what Garrett and the crews he was documenting did. They also speak of "plain clothes" hacks where they access some of these locations in broad daylight under the noses of the people who were "supposed" to be there. Photos, maps, and detailed tales of the hacks are amazing and well worth the read as the book is very short and shows not only how awesome the events could be but also speaks to the lawbreaking consequences and possible disease and illnesses involved in such. Oct 06, Jay rated it it was amazing. Really love this book - it works on many levels: 1. An exhilarating first-person account of years exploring London and beyond, all ingenious plans, dizzying heights, run-ins with security and general jaw-dropping derring do. Brad tells a yarn with panache and wears his emotions on his sleeve - the excitement, the fear, the come-down: we get it all. An ethnography of an urban exploration crew: how it formed, grew, defined itself against other groups, became closer-knit through shared Really love this book - it works on many levels: 1. An ethnography of an urban exploration crew: how it formed, grew, defined itself against other groups, became closer-knit through shared experience adversity, and schismed. Anthropologically it's particularly interesting for being about as participatory as "participant observation" can get. A reflexive meta-analysis of the ethical quandaries this throws up is in there, but lightly worn - this is the mass-market book, not the PhD thesis itself. An argument for the 'right to the city', a kind of guerilla spatial democracy. So - a fascinating book, well-written, lots of great photos shame they're uncaptioned though and leaving you with a whole lotta things to think about the next time you enter the tube, or walk past a building site in the City of London. Highly recommended. Sep 23, Tara Brabazon rated it it was amazing. Every single researcher in the humanities and social sciences should read this book. Every member of an ethics committee should read this book. Everyone thinking about the boundaries, limitations and borders of knowledge should read this book. Garrett investigates - and indeed participates in - the urban explorer 'movement. The frame of the book - where it starts and ends - is the researcher Every single researcher in the humanities and social sciences should read this book. The frame of the book - where it starts and ends - is the researcher being arrested by British police. The intermediate chapters offer powerful examples of 'place hacking' and probe the uncomfortable and unusual and often discarded spaces of the city. Besides being useful for urban researchers and ethnographers, this is a book of its time. But so will powerful and gutsy new knowledge. Feb 11, D rated it it was amazing. Explore Everything is the culmination of several years of ethnographic research conducted by Bradley Garrett while embedded with urban exploration groups. Garrett starts his journey as an urbex peon struggling to gain access to the community. By the end of the book hes an established member of the London Consolidation Crew, an infamous infiltration crew whose notorious conquests include the Kingsway Telephone Exchange and the London Post Office Railway.