Crop Circles gain perspective
Wired News
By Nigel Watson
02:00 AM Aug, 03, 2006

Crop circles have started appearing again in the English countryside,
but this time in a new permutation.

A crop circle in a complicated three-dimensional design was discovered
in the first week of July near Ashbury, Oxfordshire. The exaggerated
perspective of the formation, which is approximately 360 feet in
diameter, suggests a bird's-eye view of a group of skyscrapers, as
though the viewer was looking down on a city center from directly
overhead.
Click here for photos of crop circles from the English countryside.
The new circle is located near the famous Uffington White Horse and a
Neolithic burial chamber called Wayland's Smithy, which dates back to
3700 B.C.

The formation was originally spotted by the pilot of a microlight
aircraft. When Steve Alexander heard about it, he immediately hired a
helicopter to get a better view. The 34-year-old crop circle researcher,
who is the co-author with Karen Alexander of a series of crop circle
yearbooks, was stunned by the unique pattern in the wheat field.
"Of late, the crop circles seem concerned with the moving of one
dimension into another," Steve Alexander said. "This is perhaps one of
the most striking and overt expressions of that idea to date."

Some, like movie director M. Night Shyamalan, have suggested that crop
circles are the product of paranormal forces or extraterrestrial beings.
"As to who or what created the circle, I don't know," Steve Alexander
said, musing at the possibility of alien artists. "If people made it,
then it was planned and executed very well indeed, and it was not made
by people coming out of the pub after a night on the razzle. I went into
the formation on the ground, and it is very impressive. It was
constructed very well, the best ground quality I have seen this year."
But John Lundberg, webmaster of Circlemakers and co-author of the
upcoming book The Field Guide: The Art, History and Philosophy of Crop
Circle Making, insists that the 3-D pattern is man-made.

"I know from my own experience that even the most complex of crop
circles can be man-made," Lundberg said, "so I don't see any need to
invoke aliens to explain this one away."
Lundberg agreed that the artistry of the Ashbury formation is exemplary.
"I think any circle makers would be proud to create something like this.
It's a very accomplished and well-executed crop circle."
As Lundberg is quick to point out -- and contrary to some reports -- the
Ashbury circle is not the first example of the use of 3-D perspective.

"The first time 3-D geometry was used in a crop circle was actually
seven years ago, back in 1999," Lundberg said. Along with fellow artist
Rod Dickinson, Lundberg created a demonstration crop circle for U.K.
newspaper Daily Mail. The team created a design based on the Penrose
Triangle, an impossible 3-D object.
Lundberg said the Ashbury circle was likely created by a team of four
"terrestrial artists" working quickly under cover of darkness.

"Ninety-nine percent of circles are made at night between the hours of
darkness and first light," he said. "Everything has to be completed by
first light otherwise there is a great risk that the people making the
formation will be spotted.
"The circles operate as Rorschach tests, writ large in the fields,"
Lundberg added. "People interpret the designs and their meaning
according to their own belief systems. I think many people do crave
mystery and wonder.

The circles can fulfill that role for them as ultimately they remain
authorless, and that gap in information allows people to speculate about
their origin and meaning."

Pictures: http://blog.wired.com/cropcircles/