A friendly word of caution and consideration: there are many reasons why you should not visit this building but the biggest one is that you would be trespassing. If you don't care about breaking the law then you might care about breaking a leg in one of the many holes in the basement floor. I hope that this virtual film installation will curb some if not all of your curiosities. I personally spent many hours in this building and found it peaceful and calm...no ghosts; however, bats, barn swallows and loneliness do live here.
This installation has evolved over a period of six months.
It was constructed as a Senior Thesis project to fulfill the requirements of a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Cinematography with a focus on Experimental Film from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
I chose to construct an installation and use films that I had already produced in order to save some money. Also, I believe that films are only as good as the context in which they have been placed. These three films needed to have a place or context to live and this building seemed to be the home for them.
Due to it being an abandoned building it caries with it many limitations for it to be a traditional film installation (i.e. it's a safety risk to have people visit the site for the experience). Therefore, I decided I'd virtualize the building and make it avilable on the Internet. First, I had to get permission from the land owners.
I didn't know anything about web design and very little about photography outside of operating a motion picture camera. It turns out they really are not the same; at least, not to me. As it goes, I spent a long time getting acquainted with a digital camera before I eventually spent three solid days photographing a few thousand photos of the entire building.
Once the pictures were taken I thought the hard work was over. I was wrong. I still had to build a website and I had no idea how I was going to do that. Throughout the process I was introduced to Panorama Maker Pro 4 which made my life easier and created a realistic look at the larger rooms.
After months of learning web design, I put this site together and I'm still learning about how to work with servers and bandwidth; therefore, this site will hit and miss on loading pages. Please contact me with any trouble you may be having with the pages loading. I would like to offer a copy of the site on a media disc if I can work out the logistcs.
Enjoy the experience.
A special thanks to LT Tucker for allowing me access to the building. If this site draws unwanted attention to the building it will be removed from the Internet upon request.