Description
Plotting expeditions from London, Paris, Berlin, Detroit, Chicago, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, Bradley L. Garrett has tested the boundaries of urban security in order to experience the city in ways beyond the everyday. He calls it "place hacking": the recoding of closed, secret, hidden and forgotten urban spaces to make them realms of opportunity. The book is also a manifesto, combining philosophy, politics and adventure, on our rights to the city and how to understand the twenty-first-century metropolis.
"Volatile and extraordinary . a gonzo road trip." -Robert Macfarlane, Guardian
About the Author
Bradley L. Garrett is a writer, photographer and researcher at the University of Oxford. After studying anthropology at the University of California Riverside and working in Australia, Mexico and Hawaii, he became an urban explorer, photographing off-limits urban spaces in both the US and Europe, his exploits have been featured on TV, radio, GQ magazine, the Guardian and the Telegraph. His latest adventures can be followed on www.bradleygarrett.com.
Reviews
Volatile and extraordinary ... a gonzo road trip. -- Robert Macfarlane * Guardian *
It's hard not to admire these explorers. Or Garrett himself, who says he wrote part of the book on a laptop while sitting in a crane overlooking Aldgate East. -- Sukhdev Sandhu * The Financial Times *
A no-nonsense, high-adrenaline, fast-twitch report that requires us to think about the city in new ways. This is a provocative challenge to received dogma. An inspiration to get out there, to go over the fence. To see with our own eyes. -- Iain Sinclair
Urban exploration is... a way of renegotiating reality, transforming the moment, turning the city into a video game. Except that, in this game, you only have one life. * Evening Standard *
For Garrett, physical exploration is merely the outward manifestation of a deeper philosophical inquiry. The theoretical DNA of much of his work traces back to the concept of "psychogeography." * GQ *
[Combines] erudite references (Montesquieu, Walter Benjamin) with compelling photographs of men in hoodies in strange places. -- Rowan Moore * Observer *
Book Information
ISBN 9781781685570
Author Bradley L. Garrett
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Verso Books
Publisher Verso Books
Weight(grams) 644g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 156mm * 23mm