University Researcher Suggested the Use of Abandoned Sites for Recreation

10:36, March 13, 2023

Ekaterina Bugrova spoke about the aesthetics of industrial ruins

The aesthetics of ruins has been attracting tourists and curious people for several centuries and manifests itself in various forms. This is the subject of a new study by Ekaterina Bugrova, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social and Cultural Service and Tourism of the Ural Federal University. She found that abandoned sites, including industrial sites, can be made popular tourist destinations by organizing legal and safe tours. The history of visiting abandoned sites and what motivates tourists to visit ruins on their own, the expert described in a scientific article in the journal Labyrinth. The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Project No. 22-18-00679).

"Ruin tourism is now considered one of the alternative forms of urban tourism. It involves visiting all kinds of abandoned spaces - cities, castles, industrial sites. An example of ruin tourism is photo tourism. Attractive images of ruins are one of the most common ways to aestheticize decay and ruin. Today, there are more than 10 million publications on social networks with the hashtags abandoned or ruin porn. The German travel agency go2know, for example, offers its clients trips to "lost places" - abandoned or preserved sites. Such sites include hospitals, including the Stasi prison hospital and the famous Beelitz-Heilstätten hospital, airfields, mental hospitals, hotels, theaters, factories and prisons," explains Ekaterina Bugrova.

The special atmosphere created by visiting an abandoned site attracts people because it stimulates the imagination and makes it possible to imagine how the object functioned when it was not abandoned, the expert adds. Good examples are Pompeii, Chernobyl, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.

Abandoned places can be a host for several types of tourism, the researcher adds. For example, a place for photo tourism, filming of movies and documentaries, TV series, film tours. They can also be places for quests, historical, nostalgic or macabre excursions, even gastronomic ones.

"It is worth mentioning gastronomic tourism specifically. The case of the ruin bars in Budapest clearly shows that the deliberate demonstration of the aesthetics of decay can become attractive to the mass consumer and become a kind of brand of the territory. A successfully organized business in abandoned spaces can act as an impetus for the development of the territory - both the object itself and the space around it. In this way, the ruins can be transformed from a symbol of destruction into a symbol of success," concludes Ekaterina Bugrova.

Industrial sites are not always perceived by people as potential tourist destinations, the expert adds. Industrial ruins are often associated with the idea of gothicism. Derelict industrial sites represent a disaster zone, a grim sign of impending decay. Such areas are either looted or become homes for the homeless or a place of "adventure" for teenagers. However, they can be used as developed recreational areas and art spaces. This is attractive to tourists because it allows them to satisfy their interest in the aesthetics of decay. People will be able to visit places that are closed to the public in a legal and organized way.

"Nowadays, industrial tourism usually means a guided tour of a working industrial facility. For example, the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. However, projects such as the European Route of Industrial Heritage show that this type of tourism is developing industrial heritage sites as tourist attractions, often represented by ruins. Another example is that on Wonderguide you can book a tour of the industrial ruins in Fukuoka, which are part of the Meiji Industrial Revolution monuments. These are factories, shipyards and coal mines that are on the UNESCO World Heritage List," says Ekaterina Bugrova.

The inclusion of industrial ruins in the field of tourism will show the importance of industrial ruins as cultural heritage objects. This will also lead to the preservation and revitalization of such spaces, turning them into safe and attractive places to spend time, the researcher concludes. In the end, this will not only contribute to the transformation of industrial centers, but also to the development of the local economy.

Reference

The aestheticization and romanticization of ruins goes back several centuries. In the 17th century, for example, the fantasy landscape appeared in painting, often depicting ruins (capriccio). In the 18th century, the "desolation" of the ruin became an essential part of the landscape as a consonant form of nature. In the 19th century, the "thirst for ruins" captured in fiction was joined by visual and landscape art. Ruins became the setting for the dramatic plots of Gothic literature, a kind of metaphor for evil doom and decay. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, abandoned objects have become the focus of photography and film cameras on a massive scale, becoming the site and subject of art projects.

The news article was translated by UrFU International Marketing Office. 
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