Well, one very frequent error relates to an old PARANOIA XP wallpaper:

My confusion led to some investigation. First, I had to actually work out that this was the image they wanted. I had a reference to their target, but not the target itself. So, I went over to the Wayback Machine on the Internet Archive. I didn’t expect to find a single specific image this way, but the archive had it. I typed in the exact address and image name – en voila! (or something like that). Anyway, I present it above for your viewing and downloading pleasure if you should feel inclined.

However, I couldn’t figure why anyone would be trying to access this image so vigorously (indeed, the vigour means I may well reduce the file size of this wallpaper image to minimise the impact on my bandwidth). I went to the site and having restored my own image, found it half way down the page. Scrolling up a couple of posts, on this French forum, I found the likely reason for all the hits on my image (which got loaded more as a matter of coincidence than interest!) – a World Cup-related image of two ladies with a football (probably NSFW), wearing little more than some artistically applied body paint representing a few patriotic flags.

Vive le foot féminin, indeed!

I attach a personal favourite below that fits PARANOIA in an alarming way, with an ULTRAVIOLET Clearance citizen lambasting a RED Clearance woman’s clear fear and confusion over what the green stuff in the foreground is all about. The thing on the wall in the background could easily be a terminal of The All-Seeing Computer, with an obvious eye-like element at the centre of the device.

Recommended reference material – perhaps worth a pop, or at least borrow one from the local library!

While you can see some of these pictures online, you can’t really appreciate the vivid imagery. The beautiful, sharp and dramatic images of hidden Manchester landmarks really engage the senses and if not for my own fears for personal safety actually make me want to go try some UrbEx activities myself. Seeing the flooded canals that once served as bomb shelters and tunnels that have supported, or still support, the industry of Manchester filled me with a sense of mischievious adventure and excitement.

Andrew uses some interesting techniques of image manipulation and opaque multi-picture overlays to create a stunning sense of forced perspective and depth – again, far easier to appreciate and study in person.

There are images from the Underplex here – ancient service tunnels, long abandoned conveniences, and fast-flowing detritus-filled waterways. Doorways, stairs and arched portals punctuate walls at different levels, some half buried or never intended for human access. Filthy sheets of glass might occasionally provide a murky sheen of daylight, but never much more than that. Even tunnels and service routes closer to civilisation provide a view of a world bereft of day-to-day human activity, routes frequented only by occasional service vehicles, maintenance crews and trespassers. This one even looks like an Alpha Complex service tunnel, with pipework coloured by Security Clearance.

You can see some samples of the pictures from the exhibit on Andrew Brooks’s web site – or visit the free exhibit yourself until May 2009.

I can envisage the core of the generator hanging above the platform in the first picture, while the second image provides a great idea of the immense size of the dome. Indeed, I think it probably isn’t large enough. The third image adds to the range of tunnels and passageways suitable for inclusion in ‘The Underplex‘… a conveyor belt that seems to vanish off into infinity somewhere, it provides a sense of the industrial combined with a notion of the ‘what the heck do all these red things do?’. Well, it does for me.

Images © Panos