

The New French Hacker-Artist Underground - friggeri
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/01/ff_ux/all/1

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swombat
I wonder what train of thought leads the director of a historical institution
like the Panthéon to fail to realise that he sounds monumentally stupid when
he sues a group like UX for fixing the shit he should be maintaining, and then
actually hires someone to break it again.

~~~
herge
Tell it to the UX designer that got fired for answering to Dustin Curtis.
<http://www.dustincurtis.com/incompetence.html>

~~~
nickolai
Not that kind of UX. In this article UX stands for 'Urban eXperiment', not
user experience. Have a look at it it is an interesting read.

~~~
angdis
Yes, not the same UX, but somehow the same principles seem to resonate.

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Jun8
Fantastique! Chronicling this group would make a _great_ documentary, or even
a much better film than the sorry dragon tattoo fodder. These guys are hackers
in the true sense of the word.

On a tangent, there are many tunnels under Chicago, too, which has neen used
during the Prohibition. Any local HNers who has been to these?

~~~
TDL
I was thinking just the same thing. This would make a great movie. This story
is similar (in my view at least) to the spy/master thief movies from the '70's
where they showed the audience how the spy/thief went about accomplishing
their objectives.

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j4pe
I like to think that there's something special about Paris that inspires these
underground art movements. Back in '04 the group called themselves LMDP in a
Guardian interview, and they didn't mention restoration. Maybe there are
multiple underground hacker-artist societies. [
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/11/film.france> ]

~~~
kenamarit
There must be. I just got back from a trip to Paris and I went with a friend
to visit the catacombs (a Parisian who had never been), and she told me that
in high school (or lycee or whatever they call it in France) that her and her
brother would go to underground parties where they'd have to enter through
sewers. Seems like knowledge of getting underground is widespread if you know
who to ask and where to look.

Thanks for the link!

~~~
brugidou
A lot of people wander in the tunnels of Paris indeed.

In the 60's the young generation started organizing crazy parties (Especially
in the famous "Salle Z" or "Z Room") with hundreds or thousands of people. It
has been a widely illegal and famous way to organize hazing sessions for Paris
schools and universities.

Now cataphiles are all over Paris which has more than 280km of catacombs. It
takes hours to go from one place to another. Some are more visited than others
and easier to access. It is a common (and fun) thing to do when you are young
in Paris, you can also easily find the movie theaters and get the maps from
internet.

People sometimes get caught, the police is patrolling but the risk (~60€) is
low.

I doubt i'd suggest it for tourists unless you have a friend who knows where
to go. It takes hours to find an entrance and sometimes more than 4hours walk
to find "nice" and historical areas.

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balsam
I first heard of UX when I was looking for information on the secret society
that maintains this quirky building in paris where Louis XVI used to hide.
Anybody knows of this other secret society? P.S. Both are fascinating to me
because of resonance with the Gibsonian.

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orenmazor
this is possibly the first truly interesting and amazing article I saw on HN
today.

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untitledwiz
These kinds of efforts are amazing! I am left speechless. This group
represents the true essence of hacking.

