I find the skinnerian rewards comment attractive, and I find interesting the idea that we're into in these spaces because of the impact that video games have had on our subconscious. I personally disagree - I think spaces like these commonly appear in video games for the same reason we enjoy exploring them in life. The developers have the same thoughts we have, and the video games they create give us a safe and convenient way of exploring cesspools and abandoned wastelands. If you agree that these 'mongrel spaces' are particularly good catalysts for wonder and imagination, that's something video games are very good at actualizing, too, eg in the form of alien overlords or mutants or magic. That also applies to film, literature, sculpture, really all forms of creation and design. And that's really the main point I wanna make
Interest in these spaces, insofar as ruins, abandoned places, and decay, goes back at least to Rome. The Romans, intensely interested in Greek art and the ruins of Greek civilization, sometimes created artificial ruins in the landscape around their villas. A great example is at Tiberius's villa, which has artificial ruins at the mouth of a natural sea cavern. The structures are hidden and revealed with the changing tides, and the mouth of the cavern symbolizes the entrance to the underworld (the word grotto actually comes from the Latin word for crypt (which helps sustain the association with decay), and which in turn comes from a Greek word meaning secret or hidden place. Grotto is also the base for grotesque, which actually comes from the description of uncovered Pompeii ruins as grotto-esque)
Tib's villa became the precedent for the artificial grottoes that are part of many Roman and Italian villas, always as cool, damp, maybe slimy holes hidden in some part of the landscape. They're usually decorated with naturalistic patterns, and may combine with a nymphaeum of sculptures. Their intent is to create a cool retreat on hot days, but also to create a sort of mystical space and a reward for the perceptive guest. The grotesque hidden minecraft ruins we made during alpha were definitely virtual grottoes
Also in the aesthetic sense, ruins and a sort of wild roughness were a big part of the picturesque movement of the 18th century. Picturesque paintings typically have a deep field of view, often with a classical-style ruin located off in the distance, and have a yellowish, almost sepia cast. Such paintings were designed with the specific intention to instigate wonder and imagination. In physical form, artificial ruins also appear in French and English landscape gardens like Stowe. Stowe is interesting because it uses English-style ruins to symbolize the corruption of Tory England, and classical temples to symbolize the virtues of a past civilization they've only ever read about. Buttes Chaumont in France, with ruins, cliffs, and a waterfall cavern constructed out of concrete, is probably the closest thing to an irl gamescape.
Through the early 20th century, this aesthetic was all about the underworld, the passage of time and something mystical about exploration. Captivating subjects, part of the everyday person's frame of reference during that time. WWII brought major changes to our ethos - it's my opinion that WWII, particularly the holocaust and the war bombings, like London, Dresden, and especially Hiroshima and Nagasaki, still have a huge impact on our subconscious and our aesthetic values. If the atomic bomb started environmentalism, it also started the sludgefeast of puss, blood and bile. Kubrick's the Shining is our ethos. In
this thread about urban wastelands Hundley recommended Stalker, a lucid film touching upon this subject. There's something innate to our culture or our species about exploring grotesque places; now there's an added layer of curiosity for post-apocalyptic settings. Maybe it's searching for an adaptive advantage as Neuropath said, or like Tiberius's grotto and the picturesque landscapes, we're trying to experience part of the most influential stories of our lives. I dunno if that sounds like pure junk
I just recently visited a brownfield that used to be a petroleum storage facility, and I was kind of disappointed to see some dorks spray-painting bubble letters on one of the old holding tanks, and as I was leaving another guy skateboarded up and jumped the fence. the place was hopping
edit gulp that's a big post. maybe this should be split into a new thread
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