The Art of Trespassing

The+Art+of+Trespassing

Landon Bivens

      *Disclaimer: Do not attempt anything listed in this article*

 

Trespassing: Enter the owner’s land or property without permission.

 

Human nature is a very complex subject to discuss and even harder to define. But there are some aspects of human nature, prevalent in everyone, that are easy to understand. One of these attributes is our desire to rebel. Most people have internal thoughts that urge them to do something out of line. We know these better as “intrusive thoughts” though they go by many different names. Although many people ignore these thoughts, some feel the need to explore them, and ask, “What if I tried that? What could happen? Should I do that?” 

 

A small group of people often give into this impulse, and go out on a limb and try it. Within this group, there is a subgroup of people that have these urges centered around exploring abandoned places. They have coined the term urbexers for themselves. Deriving from the word urbex, meaning exploration of urban styled areas. These urbexers all share a common interest in exploring and photographing abandoned buildings. Ranging from older houses, to closed hospitals, and even things like schools. But how does this seemingly harmless hobby relate to trespassing?

 

Well, almost all urbex enjoyers never get permission to enter these abandoned properties in the first place. There is a multitude of reasons behind this, most commonly being land owners simply don’t want people intruding on their properties. Although there are other case scenarios where a urbexer may attempt to obtain permission from the land owner but the owner simply cannot be contacted, or worse, has died. Other common reasons are liability, vandalism, deemed unsafe for exploration (usually by the owner), and fear of the explorer sharing the location with others. And while it would be untrue to believe that these reasons are unfounded, most explorers will not do any of these things, and if they deem it unsafe, they will not continue with the exploration. 

 

All in all, explorers usually aren’t able to obtain permission and decide to investigate the buildings on their own accord. This of course is considered trespassing, and should not be done.