One of the best things about Urban Exploration is that anything can be explored if your daring enough but, you don't always have to be an adventure extremist to do some soul searching in the city. Derive is a term that is used to describe moving through the city in an unknown pattern in order to explore the mysteries behind the main routes. In a city like London the refreshment of Urban exploration through a derive perspective is usually found in roof top views and exquisite artwork that sometimes looks futuristic like the industrial furnace graffiti below. I enjoy derive because it brings a sense of individualism as you walk the back roads seeing no one in site, an apocalyptic movie intro vibe, you still get that sense of seclusion, relaxation, and also curiosity. All the same things that exploring an abandoned site would give you; the interesting thing about urban derive is that the sites are not abandoned but forgotten by the majority of the population who seems to take the fasted route to where they want to go, never enjoying wholeness of the city.
Urban exploration via Derive is a great way for busy city dwellers to get a taste of safer urban exploration. When exploring houses and abandoned lots their are always many physical dangers but in the daylight of the city back routes there is a much safer and legal ideal for those who don't have the adventurous backbone. However, derive has become quite a popular activity all around the world; similar to geocaching, urban derives now have an app which is explained by Jeroen Beekmans as a fresh smartphone application that enables users to explore the urban atmosphere in a totally new way through the use of randomly drawn task cards that tell you what to do. These cards are refreshed every three minutes, creating a sense of urgency in the exploration for new objects, things, colors and people to follow, find and experience (2011). This is a huge step for urban exploration in a safer and legal (boring) way. With such technology anyone can derive and urban explore which could lead to a great public interest the designers may start to pay attention to. What gives the sense of adventure and seclusion of the hidden urban spaces is that it feels as though you are walking through the inner workings of the city; the true core that operates everything else. They tell a story of the urban culture, the hidden aspects that the main routes and city planners do not want emphasis on; it can awaken your sense of environment and how the flow of the city ignores these mini industrial places.
