This chapter analyses ruin porn from the perspective of the Internet, and specifically virtual online experiences. Not least where sexual pornography is so heavily associated with its experience via the Internet, as opposed to an act that occurs in ‘real’ life or even via static photographic representations, this chapter explores how ruin porn is accessed and experienced online. Online ruin porn is analysed here within the theoretical framework of virtual dark tourism. In analysing this online aspect of ruin porn, this chapter looks specifically at the case study of Chernobyl, and also assesses the limitations of online experiences, not only in terms of dark tourism more widely but also museum engagement with online and enhanced virtuality experiences as a method of measurement.
Anzeige
Bitte loggen Sie sich ein, um Zugang zu diesem Inhalt zu erhalten
The reference to Chernobyl is used here a catch-all term for Chernobyl itself, the reactor, and the nearby town of Pripyat—all of which were affected by the nuclear disaster.
Ganna Yankovska and Kevin Hannam, “Dark and Toxic Tourism in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone,” Current Issues in Tourism 17, no. 10 (2014): 929–939; Peggy Nelson, “Ultimate Ruin Porn,” HiLoBrow, December 17, 2010, hilobrow.com/2010/12/17/ultimate-ruin-porn/.
Robert Sorokanich, “The Myth of an Untouched Chernobyl,” Gizmodo, January 10, 2014, www.gizmodo.co.uk/2014/10/the-myth-of-an-untouched-chernobyl/; for a more general discussion of ruins as hallowed see Melanie Joy McNaughton, “Reimagining What Images Can Achieve,” Journal of Mass Media Ethics 28, no. 2 (2013): 140–142.
Paul Dobraszczyk, “Petrified Ruin: Chernobyl, Pripyat and the Death of the City,” City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action 14, no. 4 (2010): 378.
Philip Stone, “Dark Tourism, Heterotopias and Post-apocalyptic Places: The Case of Chernobyl,” in Dark Tourism and Place Identity: Managing and Interpreting Dark Places, eds. Leanne White and Elspeth Frew (London: Routledge, 2013), 92.
Alex Danchev, “Big Splat: The Art of the Drone,” International Affairs 92, no. 3 (2016): 703–713; Julianne Pierce, “Josephine Starrs and Leon Dmielewski: And the Earth Signed,” Artlink 36, no. 3 (2016): 52–57.
Michelle Bentley, “Experiencing Rwanda: Understanding Mass Atrocity at Nyamata,” in Ghost Roads: Essays in Virtual Dark Tourism, ed. Kathryn McDaniel (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2018), forthcoming.
Avital Biran, Taniv Poria, and Gila Oren, “Sought Experiences at (Dark) Heritage Sites,” Annals of Tourism Research 38, no. 3 (2011): 822–823; G. J. Ashworth and Rami K. Isaac, “Have We Illuminated the Dark? Shifting Perspectives on ‘Dark’ Tourism,” Tourism Recreation Research 40, no. 3 (2015): 316–325.
Anna Reading, “Digital Interactivity in Public Memory Institutions: The Uses of New Technologies in Holocaust Museums,” Media, Culture & Society 25, no. 1 (2003): 73.
Ibid., 77. The reference to ‘crimes’ is difficult here as the Chernobyl disaster was not a criminal act. The same sentiment, however, applies in that her quote relates to experiencing the remains of a distressing event.
Elisa Miles, “Holocaust Exhibitions On-Line: An Exploration of the Use and Potential of Virtual Space in British and American Museum Websites,” The Journal of Holocaust Education 10, no. 2 (2001): 90.
Robert S. Bristow, “Commentary: Virtual Tourism—The Ultimate Ecotourism?” Tourism Geographies 1, no. 2 (1999): 219; Tim Gale, “Urban Beaches, Virtual World and the End of Tourism,” Mobilities 4, no. 1 (2009): 130; Kevin Hannam, Gareth Butler, and Cody Morris Paris, “Development and Key Issues in Tourism Mobilities,” Annals of Tourism Research 4 (2014): 181.
Will Fulton, “I Tried VR Porn in a Ces Hotel Suite, and I’ll Never Be the Same Again,” Digital Trends, January 12, 2016, www.digitaltrends.com/virtual-reality/vr-porn-at-ces/; Wheeler Winston Dixon, “Salves of Vision: The Virtual World of Ocuus Rift,” Quarterly Review of Film and Video 33, no. 6 (2016): 501–510.
Lynne Hall, “Sex with Robots for Love Free Encounters,” Paper presented at 2nd International Congress of Love and Sex with Robots, Goldsmiths, University of London, 20–21 December (2016), 4.
Catharine MacKinnon, “Vindication and Resistance: A Response to the Carnegie Mellon Study of Pornography in Cyberspace,” The Georgetown Law Journal 83 (1995): 1959–1967.
Jesse Fox and Jeremy N. Bailenson, “Virtual Virgins and Vamps: The Effects of Exposure to Female Characters’ Sexualized Appearance and Gaze in an Immersive Virtual Environment,” Sex Roles 61 (2009): 147–157.
Petursdottir, Pora and Bjornar Olsen, “Imaging Modern Decay: The Aesthetics of Ruin Photography,” Journal of Contemporary Architecture 1, no. 1 (2014): 7–56.