I was reading an article in the New York Times about “Urbex,” which is shorthand for “urban exploration,” which by their definition was the trespassing in abandoned properties. It grabbed my attention because I’ve certainly done some of that, although I can’t say that I was always trespassing, but there certainly is an element of excitement by exploring abandoned or derelict buildings. But then the article went on to focus on the act of “rooftopping,” which they defined as accessing and then taking photos and selfies from the tops of tall buildings. I’ve created an image (above) using AI in order to help illustrate this idea of being on the edge of a skyscraper.
The AI art above is also intended to mimic the story of a Russian model named Viki Odintcova who notoriously climbed a skyscraper in Dubai and had a man hold her over the edge – with no supports or safety harnesses – while taking her picture for Instagram … meanwhile another person took a video of them doing it. It truly is crazy, and from what I can gather, she was apprehended by the police, but supposedly not fined or arrested, just forced to sign a document saying she’d never do it again …? Even that is crazy. I won’t be doing any rooftopping myself, as I have a sometimes and situational fear of heights. At one point one could still see the video clip online, but it appears it’s been pulled or deleted.
On a side note, in trying to create an AI image to illustrate this post, I came up with several examples beyond the one above that I liked from an artistic perspective. Here’s one where the woman appears to be falling amidst a number of skyscrapers, although it also shows some of the quirks of AI art in that it also seems like she’s improbably perched on the edge of that building even though the scale and angles are totally off … at any rate, it reminds me of some of the “falling people” paintings of Robert Yarber.
Just for fun, here’s one more AI image with a rooftopping theme, showing a couple seated on an unlikely ledge with a dramatic birds-eye view of countless skyscrapers. I wouldn’t mind this view, as long as I was inside a building looking out the window.
