| Author | Message | ||
     Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.42.53.100 |
I think I want to live there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okRUrxvngCc&feature=fvwrel | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.116.60.103 |
I like the music at 11:10. Sounds like something by Brian Eno and David Byrne. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.42.53.100 |
There are more evocative pictures of this on the net. It looks like a dream. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.77.143 |
Wasn't that music used in FULL METAL JACKET? | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.116.60.103 |
It is a bit similar to the music we hear when private Pyle totally loses it. Both pieces are looped or sound like they might be. The bit used in the documentary sounds like it was recorded by live musicians, though - some kind of drum and a flute. Very evocative, as eerie as side two of Byrne and Eno's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts." | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.42.53.100 |
I thought it was like John Cage. What did you all make of the island though? It is worth looking round the net for other images. Here's a great article - and if you click on all the links and look at all the pictures you're in for a treat; http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/10/a-picture-to-dream-over-the-isle-of-the-dead | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 213.106.77.123 |
I remember reading about Hashima a few years ago- really eerie, fascinating stuff. Have you ever heard of Sanzhi, Tony? Sadly demolished now, but plenty of photography relating to it- I think you'd like it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanzhi_UFO_houses | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.47.18 |
I remember that music in FULL METAL JACKET in the Vietnam scenes when the marines are walking through rubble in silence. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 111.243.156.48 |
I've been to Sanzhi a few times. It's a nice district on the north coast and there's nothing haunted or abandoned about it. Like the rest of Taipei, it is highly modern and developed. A bunch of gaudy, 'futuristic' buildings were built in a small compound area on the outskirts many years ago - they were abandoned for a while but have now been demolished. There were some rumours about it being haunted, started and spread on internet sites by people from outside Taiwan, and that gave rise to some resentment here several years ago (I remember it being on the local Taiwanese news). | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 92.22.48.160 |
Apparently Hashima Island was the inspiration for the bad guy's lair in the new Bond movie (though I haven't managed to see it yet thanks to ill health the last few weeks). I just found a couple of blog posts about that and the island on a photography website: http://gakuranman.com/the-mysterious-island-in-skyfall-hashima-gunkanjima/ http://gakuranman.com/gunkanjima-ruins-of-a-forbidden-island/ | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.42.53.100 |
That lucky, lucky man... Thanks, David. My son saw Skyfall last night (I wanted to take him, but my neighbour and his son beat me to it while I was out with the missus!  ) and said it was the best of the Craig Bonds. He loved it. So odd that I should have found out about this island just before the movie came out. I had no idea it was going to be in it. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.42.53.100 |
Another island of note; http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/55234 | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 92.22.10.204 |
Oh yeah, I've read some ghost stories about that place, but nothing with that much detail or up-to-date photos. I've just discovered there's a derelict Victorian boating pond up the back of my town that I plan on visiting when I finally get over this lingering lurgy I have. It doesn't look like there's much there, but I'm amazed I never knew about it before. I thought I knew every abandoned building and oddity here. | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 92.22.10.204 |
Also, the setting for the Playstation 2 horror game Forbidden Siren 2 is based on Hashima island. So there's (sort of) a way to explore it without flying to Japan. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.42.53.100 |
Ooh! I was thinking a game would be a good way to capture these places. I'm fascinated by them. | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 92.22.10.204 |
I've always thought an urban exploration game could be really interesting, especially if it came with a map editor. You could have levels based on well-documented locations which no longer exist, like Danver mental hospital, and entirely fictional abandonments. I'm just not sure what the actual gameplay would be, if just exploring would be enough to keep it interesting or if you'd need mechanics like using stealth to avoid security guards and upgradeable equipment and abilities. | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 92.22.10.204 |
Actually, if you fancy a look here's some galleries of the places I've managed to explore. Most of them were a few years ago now. The remains of St Peters, a ruined seminary: http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r182/VelesPhoto/St%20Peters/?albumview=slides how This was a mansion which had been turned into an old folk's home. It's been demolished but they've done nothing with the land, the rubble has been lying there for over a year now: http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r182/VelesPhoto/Beach%20House/?albumview=slid eshow This was a farmhouse behind my home town, it's gone too and is currently being developed into housing: http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r182/VelesPhoto/Flatt%20Farm/?albumview=slide show An oil rig construction yard: http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r182/VelesPhoto/Shipyard/?albumview=slideshow A pool hall, nursery and former spiritualist church, now a car park. I got a classic horror movie cliche scare from a stray cat in here. Nearly gave me a heart attack. http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r182/VelesPhoto/Stev%20Ins/?albumview=slidesh ow And finally, Hartwood Mental Hospital. I got nabbed by security here before getting to see everything, sadly: http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r182/VelesPhoto/Hartwood%202008/?albumview=sl ideshow | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 2.96.205.244 |
I saw a photo of this place referred to as an "abandoned city". It seems to be an abandoned development in the limits of a very active city in Taiwan. Still quite a place though: http://www.messynessychic.com/2012/10/26/swallowed-by-nature/ | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.42.53.100 |
This wonderful, too; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=otIU6Py4K_A Am I the only person to feel calm seeing these things? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.42.53.100 |
David - these pictures you've taken are fantastic. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.116.60.39 |
Nothing sadder than an abandoned teddy bear. "Play with me! Play with me!" I've managed to salvage quite a few from dustbins. Weird hobby, isn't it? | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 2.96.205.244 |
Thanks Tony  It's not just seeing them that's calming, exploring them is similar to taking a walk through an old cemetery, just so quiet and peaceful. I've just found another big house with an adjoining chapel fairly near to me that I need to visit, but it'll probably have to wait until the days are a bit longer/warmer in the new year. | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 2.96.205.244 |
Hubert, do they still talk to you when you've taken them home...? | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 2.96.202.2 |
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2139914/A-rare-insight-Kowloon-Walled-Ci ty.html "The city was a phenomenon with 33,000 families and businesses living in more than 300 interconnected high-rise buildings, all constructed without contributions from a single architect. Ungoverned by Health and Safety regulations, alleyways dripped and the maze of dark corridors covered one square block near the end of the runway at Kai Tak Airprot." This was the polar opposite of an abandoned town, but is still fascinating. I first heard about it in William Gibson's novel Idoru and was trying to track down some images of it by a Japanese photographer, Ryuji Miyamoto, but sadly there's no archive on the net and his out of print book is out of my price range. (I hate linking to the Daily Mail, but it really was the best article and image archive I could find) | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.42.49.91 |
Oh, thanks for this, David. The place looks absolutely fascinating, and sort of beautiful in a sculptural way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lby9P3ms11w | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 92.22.42.46 |
It turns out there's another, similar place in Venezuela. Over the last five years impoverished families have turned an unfinished skyscraper into a self-sufficient vertical village inside the exclusive financial district of Caracas. http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/dyn/31926/life-in-the-torre-de-david-3/#.UQ fpVL91GSo http://www.pulsamerica.co.uk/2012/10/25/torre-david-vertical-slum/ | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.140.118.61 |
Superb. A comment in there stuck in my mind - is this the future? | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 213.106.77.123 |
Not sure if I may have posted this at some point in the past, but I find this video sad and beautiful (despite the spelling and grammar fails.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caBOepufF-8 | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 213.106.77.123 |
There's more stuff in that vein here: http://blogof.francescomugnai.com/2013/01/30-of-the-most-beautiful-abandoned-pla ces-and-modern-ruins-ive-ever-seen/ | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 92.22.42.46 |
Well, there are going to be a lot of abandoned/unfinished buildings around and a lot of very poor people looking for places to live in the coming years so I really do think this kind of thing is going to happen more and more. Simon, I got sent that same link today on Facebook, coincidentally. I've seen most of the photos before but the St Etienne one is spectacular. I can't seem to find much about the location in English though, unfortunately. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.116.60.39 |
That Hotel del Salto looks a lot like the House on the Borderland the way I imagine it. No foamy spray rising from the chasm, alas! The abandoned piano nearly moves me to tears. Who would want to part with a beautiful instrument like trhat? | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 92.22.72.193 |
I found this on Reddit today, in a thread called "The slow, sad end of the last house on a sinking island". It makes me think of TM Wright's novel The Island, which has some incredibly vivid imagery which still sticks in my head to this day. http://imgur.com/a/kuMqf "Holland Island is a marshy, rapidly eroding island in the Chesapeake Bay, in Dorchester County, Maryland, west of Salisbury. The island was once inhabited by watermen and farmers, but has since been abandoned." In a case of synchronicity this popped up on Facebook this morning: http://www.messynessychic.com/2012/11/13/the-town-that-spent-25-years-underwater / "This is Villa Epecuen, an old tourist town south of Buenos Aires that spent a quarter of a century underwater. Established in the 1920s on the banks of a salt lake, the town was home to over 5,000 residents and a holiday destination to thousands more vacationers from the Argentinian capital." | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 2.96.207.42 |
I've just discovered if you zoom right into Hashima Island on Google maps you can explore it with Street View: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode&q=Hashima+Island%2C+ Nagasaki%2C+Nagasaki+Prefecture%2C+Japan&aq=0&oq=Battleship+Island&sll=32.627668 %2C129.738155&sspn=0.001319%2C0.002175&vpsrc=0&t=h&ie=UTF8&hq&hnear=Hashima+Isla nd&ll=32.627864%2C129.738579&spn=0.010481%2C0.017402&z=16 It just makes me want to visit it even more. | ||
| David Lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 176.26.69.174 |
Wow, a Japanese company has recreated a great chunk of Kowloon Walled City as a video game arcade. http://randomwire.com/kowloon-walled-city-rebuilt-in-japan | ||
| David Lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 2.219.133.41 |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25496729 A whole resort that was abandoned and left to rot. That would be amazing to explore, except for the risk of getting shot. | ||
| David Lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 2.219.133.41 |
Ooh, unintentional poetry! | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.237.187.186 |
Love these links you're sharing, David! |