Port 80

Infiltration’s website is so interesting that I have to write about it. (Other entries here are in the works, but I’m working on a layout change before I post anything else. Visit CSS/Edge for a clue of what the new layout will involve.)

Infiltration is the electronic edition of a magazine dedicated to the art of “Urban Exploration” – the hobby of going places that aren’t intended for public use. This is only appealing if you have worked in a place that is “off limits” to most - for many of my readers, the wings of a stage. These “off limits” areas are often home to the most interesting nooks and crannies - the holes in the walls, the archived pieces of equipment from a decade ago, the “guts” of a facility that most people never see.

Perhaps my greatest fascination with “off limits” spaces came during my time volunteering at the Boonshoft Museum’s Astronomy Department. It is only after working in a museum that one can understand how much is not open to the public. In the Boonshoft Museum, a small locked door in the astronomy department conceals offices, workshops covered with star charts and littered with slides for planetarium shows, heavily air-conditioned and blacked-out computer rooms, and access to countless stor age areas. Few visitors know or realize that the planetarium dome they see is actually a secondary dome, dotted with pinholes for airflow, resting several feet inside the external dome visible from outside. In between those two lie all manner of treasur es “not for public consumption” - old exhibits, stacks of decades-old magazines, archaic equipment, racks of slides and slide projectors, and access to the planetarium control booth. For the adventurous, a ladder leads up to the top of the planetarium dome, where you can look down through the pinholes in the dome to the floor stories below.

Unfortunately, most visitors only see the sanitized side of the planetarium, not aware that two feet behind their seat rests a pile of discarded computer monitors, or that the cheerful staffer running the planetarium booth and pointing out constellations is sitting beside a“Billy the Big-Mouthed Bass” plaque. The visitors almost certainly don’t know that the staffers use the planetarium speakers to blast out gangster rap in the well-soundproofed dome as they change slides between shows. Infiltration is dedicated to those who can appreciate the curious beauty of these quirks of life, and who will go to lengths to find them.

(Hat Tip: “…she’s a flight risk.”)

We don’t seek to smash the state, just to ignore its advice on a subject it doesn’t really know much about. When we see a sign that says “Danger: Do Not Enter,” we understand that this is simply a shorthand way of saying “ Leaving Protected Zone: Demonstrate Personal Accountability Beyond This Point.” - “Ninjalicious”, “No Disclaimer” at Infiltration.org