 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
PRESS AND COMMISSION ENQUIRIES, EMAIL US AT: contact@circlemakers.org
 SITE UPDATE 27-07-2007:
Last year we created a crop circle for the ceral Shredded Wheat. You can now pick up a special edition verison of the box that has our crop circle on the back, see photo to the right.
We've just updated our Top of the Crops section with the latest and greatest circles to appear in UK fields to date.
SITE UPDATE 03-06-2007:
The 2007 season is upon us, and we've already seen some spectacular designs impressed into the rape and barley fields of Wiltshire (one of which is pictured on the right). As we do every year, we've set up a section on the site where we document what we feel are the best formations of the year. You can view the new 'Top of the Crops 2007' section here.
 NEWS UPDATE 25-09-2006:
Circlemakers John Lundberg and Rob Irving will be featured in the current affairs series Inside/Out on BBC1 (east) at 7:30pm tonight. They were invited to re-create the spectacular Mandelbrot Set crop circle that appeared in a Cambridgeshire wheat field 15 years ago. It wasn't ideal conditions as they had to work though the night in a torrential rain storm, but they persevered and come morning they'd managed to recreate the design stem for stem, as you'll see on the show. If you can't view it on TV tonight, the BBC have also uploaded the video to their website here.
In other news, here's what writer on all things off kilter Mike Jay had to say about out recently released book: "Finally, the definitive telling of one of the strangest tales of our times: eye-witness testimony to its birth, razor-sharp critique of the baroque pseudoscience that it spawned, and by far the closest analysis yet of the artistic negotiation between the circlemaker and the believer. Designed and laid out to perfection, this is the book that the phenomenon needs and deserves." Mike Jay, early circlemaker, author of The Air Loom Gang and The Unfortunate Colonel Despard. Cheers Mike, a very large untraceable cheque is in the post...
Our next project takes us to the Philippines, but more on that when we get back!
 SITE UPDATE 18-09-2006:
"I think being a circlemakers is ultimately a masochistic pursuit... we are the heretics." To tie in with the launch of our book circlemaker John Lundberg was recently interviewed by phenomenologist Caryn Anscomb for the excellent starstream research website run by Gary S. Bekkum. Visit the site to read the "Confessions of a Crop Circle Maker".
 SITE UPDATE 03-09-2006:
"STORE ORD" is Danish for "BIG WORDS". We were asked to create a crop circle incorporating the words "STORE ORD" in a field near Aarhus in Denmark, as part of a PR campaign for a Danish newspaper. The campaign generated a lot of media attention in Denmark including coverage in several newspapers, and on both local and national television. Find our more in our 'Big Words' section.
NEWS UPDATE 03-09-2006:
In July 2006 circlemakers John Lundberg and Wil Russell were flown out to northern Japan to create a crop circle that is to be used as a key component in a movie. We're not allowed to say any more than that at the moment, but we'll put up more information once the film is released in 2007.
Another projects we can't say too much about at the moment was a collaboration with the BBC which should be aired on BBC1 shortly. We think that crop circle researchers will be interested to see what we did...
 NEWS UPDATE 17-08-2006:
Yes the rumours are true, it's not an urban legend we're finally publishing an entire book (6.66" x 6.66" - 288 pages) about our crop circle exploits. It's taken us twelve years to write it but we think once you see it you'll agree that it's been worth the wait. It's called 'The Field Guide: The Art, History and Philosophy of Crop Circle Making' and has been lovingly crafted by Rob Irving and John Lundberg and edited to perfection by Mark Pilkington. You can find out more about the book, read the press release and take a peek at some of what's inside over on the Strange Attractor site, who are publishing the tome. We think you'll like it, we certainly didn't rush it and it includes lots of never before published texts, diagrams and photos. It's available direct from Strange Attractor, via Amazon or at your local bookshop.
 SITE UPDATE 17-08-2006:
It's a match made in heaven. We were asked by Shredded Wheat - we'd been expecting their call for some time - to create a crop circle based on their logo - the words Shredded Wheat standing in a flattened heart shape - that will be used on their cereal packs next year, so look out for them, we'll certainly have a pack or three in our cupboard. Take a look in our 'Shredded Wheat' section to find out more about the project.
 NEWS UPDATE 14-08-2006:
We've just returned from a truly extraordinary trip to Mexico working with Greenpeace on their genetically modified maize campaign. Read about what we did for them - which made front page headlines - over on the Greenpeace International website and the Greenpeace UK website. We've also now added a page about the trip to our site, it's called GM Crop Circle.
 NEWS UPDATE 11-07-2006:
As is now traditional at this time of year, the UK media once again turn their gaze to the crop circle phenomenon. Today sees an article in the Daily Mail newspaper, as well as coverage on breakfast TV and BBC radio about the spectacular 3D towers crop circle that appeared at Waylands Smithy in Oxfordshire last week. The Daily Mail described it as "the world's first three-dimensional crop circle". Now, there's a delicious irony to this as the media tend to have selective amnesia when it comes to crop circles. The first crop circle to incorporate 3D elements was actually created in 1999, when the Daily Mail commissioned us to make a demonstration formation for them at Avebury in Wiltshire! You can view the construction diagrams of the 3D impossible triangle formation at the bottom of this page.
 SITE UPDATE 09-07-2006:
And herrreeee we go again! The sun is shining, the crops are maturing and crop circles are popping up all over the place, like summer flowers. 30 years after Doug and Dave first ventured out into the fields with the metal bar from the back door of Doug's gallery to swirl their first simple circle the countryside is once again peppered with fantastic cereal artworks. Take a look at some of our favorites in our round up of the Top of the Crops 2006.
 SITE UPDATE 29-11-2005:
We were asked by Microsoft to travel right across the US (California, Oklahoma and Florida) making ground markings in grass and on beaches to tie into their X-Box 360 console launch. Our exploits were recorded by an MTV camera crew that followed us around and were featured in a making of documentary broadcast on the channel during the launch week. Read all about it in out 'Hex Box 360' section.
 NEWS UPDATE 29-11-2005:
For all those of you who missed our appearance this Summer in the landmark six part BBC arts series 'A Picture of Britain' about how the British landscape has influenced artists over the years (or if you did see it but would like to see it again) which was presented by David Dimbleby the BBC have now released the entire series as a triple dvd set. You can pick it up on Amazon for a very reasonable £18.74.
 SITE UPDATE 22-10-2005:
Well, the crops are harvested and the circles phenomenon here in the UK is packed up for yet another year. So let's take a look back and reflect on the 2005 season. This was a special year for us here at circlemakers.org as it marked our tenth year online, and it certainly lived up to our expectations. We've had a very busy 2005, it's been a bit of a blur to be honest and our busiest summer to date. The crop circle season didn't disappoint, there were some truly spectacular circles laid down in fields across Southern England with many pushing the phenomenon into new uncharted geometric and symbolic territory. Experimentation and innovation seemed to be this seasons themes. Pictured above right, formation which appeared near Savernake Forest in July 2005.
 Beyond the usual sneaking around in fields at the dead of night creating massive cereal artworks some of this years extra curricular activities for us have included setting a world record by creating the largest Sudoku puzzle on earth - probably safe to say in the universe - just outside Bristol on the M4 as a publicity stunt for Sky One and their TV show 'Carol Voderman's Sudoku Live'. We have to admit that when the call came in none of us had heard of Sudoku, "it's the fastest growing craze in the UK" said the breathless PR person from Sky. I guess skulking around in fields has left us slightly out of touch with the cultural bleeding edge... of course said PR person was right, as now it's impossible to walk into a book shop or flip open a newspaper without seeing the ubiquitous Sudoku number puzzles.
 Also this year our work reached out to its largest combined audience to date. We created 4 adverts - which featured us as well our our cereal creations - in collaboration with Nike Italy and in the process also managed to make ourselves the lead story on the Italian national television news during our trip which took us right across Italy. On our return to the UK we were asked by Britain's largest circulation newspaper The Sun to make an olympic rings crop circle in Wiltshire to promote their campaign backing the London 2012 olympic bid. We couldn't believe our eyes when we woke up the next day to see our handy-work featured on the front cover of the paper. It was a very odd walking around London that day, seeing peoples reactions to the cover. The Sun actually experienced a spike in sales on the day they ran the crop circle so it wasn't surprising that they immediately commissioned us to make another circle to back the bid, this time over in France. They ran a double page spread about our exploits which included borrowing 3 red, white and blue mini coopers from BMW ala 'The Italian Job' to get us to and from Calais, as we found out, they're pretty nifty at hand break turns on country lanes!
 But for us - despite how fun and challenging the above exploits were - the cherry on top this summer was definitely being asked to participate in the BBC's landmark art series 'A Picture of Britain' which was presented by David Dimbleby. The 6 part series explored how the British landscape has inspired artists over the years. Our episode reached an audience of 8 million and our work was featured right alongside such art-world titans as Moore, Constable, Lowry and Turner. This year the artworld recognition of our work also extended to our inclusion in 2004 Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller's latest curatorial project 'Folk Archive', which saw our cerealogical handy-work exhibited in several prestigious galleries including the Barbican Art Gallery in London.
 And as if that wasn't enough - there's more... Other TV projects included a very surreal collaboration with the hit US vehicle modification show 'Monster Garage' which runs on the Discovery Channel. Circlemaker John Lundberg was flown out to Los Angeles to help design a crop circle making machine! When he arrived he was amazed to find out that one of the people he would be working with was none other than the world famous abductee, Travis Walton who's story was turned into the hit Hollywood movie 'Fire in the Sky' a few years back. The show's host Jesse James has also been in the news recently as he married his long term girlfriend, the actress Sandra Bullock. If you're in the US you can tune in to see how we all got on, the show airs on 31st October 2005. In the UK the show won't air until 2006. Like we said, quite a year, roll - or should that be stomp? - on 2006 which marks 30 years since Doug and Dave first ventured out into the fields.
 SITE UPDATE 11-07-2005:
After the success of out first olympic circlemaking sortie into Wiltshire for the UK newspaper The Sun which they ran on their front cover they asked us to make another more audatious trip to France to create a crop circle backing the London 2012 bid. In keeping with the daring nature of the project we managed to convince BMW to loan us 3 brand new red, white and blue Mini Coopers to travel over to France in ala the movie 'The Italian Job'. Find out more in our new section 'The French Job'.
 SITE UPDATE 05-07-2005:
We can't say too much at this stage, but to view our most surreal collaboration to date, be sure to tune in to the BBC's landmark art series 'A Picture of Britain' presented by David Dimbleby on BBC1 this Sunday July 10th at 9pm. (Alternatavely catch the repeat on BBC2 on Monday 18th July at 7:00pm. The entire series is also being repeated on BBC4 starting on Tuesday 19th July at 10:55pm) We'll eventually put up more information in our new section 'A Picture of Britain'.
 SITE UPDATE 12-06-2005:
It's been a long time since crop circles were featured as the lead story on the cover of a national newspaper, but with a little help from us that's exactly what happened this week. We had a call from the UK tabloid The Sun. They wanted us to help them put together a PR stunt to raise the profile of their campaign to have the 2012 Olympic Games held in London. Find out more about the project and how our work reached an audience of 8.5 million readers in our new section 'Olympian Effort'
 SITE UPDATE 04-06-2005:
We've recently returned from a circlemaking tour across Italy courtesy of Nike. We created huge footprint crop circles for them in Milan, Rome and Foggia in the south of the country which they used in 4 adverts, 2 of which feature us! You can find out more in our new section 'Bigfoot' or go and have a look at the website Nike have created about the project at: www.freebigfoot.com. You can view all 4 adverts on their site along with photos and maps.
 SITE UPDATE 23-04-2005:
It has begun... the 2005 crop circle season is up and runnnig with 3 crop circles reported worldwide to date. The first was trampled into some grass by circlemakers with itchy fingers over in the Netherlands. The only formation worth talking about is a fairly ambitious ratchet design in oil seed rape in Dorset. you can find out more about it in our new section 'Top of the Crops 2005'.
 SITE UPDATE 19-02-2005:
We've added circlemaker Rob Irving's landmark article 'Art and Artifice' in which he claims that deception is part of creation and a necessary part of both science and art. It's a weighty tome, so we've also created a printer friendly pdf version that you can download and read at your leisure. You can find both versions here.
NEWS UPDATE 18-02-2005:
Circlemaker John Lundberg will be in the US at the end of February to screen and talk about his documentary The Mythologist which is about the enigmatic crop circle / ufo researcher and all round international man of mystery Armen Victorian aka Henry Azadehdel. The film is being screened on Sat 26th Feb as part of the True/False film festival in Columbia, Missouri. He is also participating in a panel discussion on Sun 27th called 'Constructing Trust/Marketing Truth' along with other film-makers including Adam Curtis, director of the extraordinary BBC series The Power of Nightmares.
 NEWS UPDATE 04-02-2005:
I'm usually moaning about my bank, but for once they've done something that makes me want to sing their praises. Abbey are now letting customers personalise their bank cards with their own photos, find out more on the Abbey Photocard website. I decided to use one of our aerial photos of the spectacular Woodborough Hill formation from 2000 with its interlocking fibonacci spirals on mine. Click to enlarge the image.
 NEWS UPDATE 28-01-2005:
After watching Jon Ronson's recent Channel 4 series The Crazy Rulers of the World which focused on a secret military unit called The First Earth Battalion that believed they could become invisibible, walk through walls and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them circlemaker John Lundberg wanted his very own First Earth Battalion t-shirt. You can have one too, as he's printed up a few extra for like minded individuals. You'll join the ranks of Jon Ronson, Crazy Rulers of the World contributor Peter Brusso and First Earth Battalion inventor Jim Channon who already have one. Visit John's website for more information.
NEWS UPDATE 23-01-2005:
We've added a couple of screen shots of the crop circle we created for BBC Drama last summer for the 'Sea of Souls' show. Take a look in the 'fictional circlemaking' section.
 NEWS UPDATE 22-01-2005:
2005 is a bit of a landmark for us here at circlemakers.org as the site has now been online for 10 years... we can't believe it either! We've seen many crop circle makers, researchers and websites come and go over the past decade, but we're still here and intend to be here until someone pulls the plug on the internet. On that note, you'd be surprised how expensive running a successful website can be, don't panic, we're not going to ask you for money - but if you want to show you appreciation for 10 years of circlemaking thrills and spills go splash some cash in our shop - no, our retainer from sources we'd rather not disclose has kept our virtual head above water, but sadly this isn't that case for other such sites. Crop circle 'researcher' Paul Vigay (pictured above studying his bank statement) who runs the rather good cropcircleresearch.com website has hit some choppy financial waters and is appealing for ten thousand dollars "as a matter of urgency" in order to keep his website online. Assuming you haven't donated all of your disposable income to the tsunami appeal, Paul has set up a page where you can send him some cash. Let us know if you see Paul driving around Wiltshire in a freshly pimped-up car during the summer months.
 SITE UPDATE 27-08-2004:
We've added a couple of new pages about recent projects. At the beginning of August 2004 we were asked by National Geographic TV to create a demonstration formation in daylight opposite Silbury Hill in Wiltshire for a documentary on the crop circle phenomenon. Find out more in our new section "Round in Squares". Also, recently BBC Drama gave us a call and asked us if we'd like to create a crop circle for the second series of their spooky drama series 'Sea of Souls' which has been described as a kind of Scottish X Files. Find out more in our new section "Fictional Circlemaking"
 NEWS UPDATE 02-08-2004:
Between 1991 and 1994 Nick Pope (pictured right) worked at a division of the Ministry of Defence called Secretariat (Air Staff)2a and was given the job of investigating the UFO phenomenon. In his article 'Crop Circles - An Official History' Nick talks about military and government interest in the crop circle phenomenon, including questions asked in parliament, why military aircraft have often been seen over crop circles and plans for covert military surveillance of crop circle sites.
 SITE UPDATE 31-07-2004:
The end of July has seen a spike in the number of formations appearing out in the fields, the increase in numbers has coincided with an increase in complexity. As the 2004 season speeds towards its end we are seeing some real jaw droppers appearing. Check out out 'Top of the Crops 2004' section to view the cream of the crop.
NEWS UPDATE 25-07-2004:
There's a great full page feature about our crop circle making exploits in today's Sunday Telegraph called The fellowship of the rings. You need to register to view the article so we've put up a plain text version of the article here.
 NEWS/SITE UPDATE 11-07-2004:
Circlemaker John Lundberg is featured in today's Sunday Telegraph Magazine in the "My First..." section, where he talks about his first crop circle making experience over a decade ago. You can view the article here.
We've also updated our 'top of the crops 2004' section.
NEWS UPDATE 06-07-2004:
There's an article about our commercial work called "Cereal entrepreneurs" in today's Independent newspaper in the UK. We invited Kate Burt to tag along with us when we created the sand drawing for UKTV GOLD and this article is the result.. "Crop circles used to be the work of amateur pranksters. Now, flattening wheat fields is a lucrative commercial enterprise. Kate Burt meets the Circlemakers". You have to be a subscriber to view the article, so we've uploaded a local version here.
 SITE UPDATE 01-07-2004:
To celebrate Hello Kitty's 30th anniversary Sanrio the company behind the cat asked artists and designers from all over the world to create artworks to celebrate her birthday. They will be shown at an exhibition called "Kitty Ex" to be held in Japan later this year (2004). We teamed up with New York artists surface2air to create a 200ft cereal portrait of her in a wheat field at Yatesbury in Wiltshire. Find out more in our new section "Cats Meow".
 NEWS UPDATE 21-06-2004:
Off on your summer holidays - need a good book to read? Then why not rush out and grab a copy of Iain Aitch's "A Fete Worse than Death" which is now out in paperback. Iain joined us out in the fields on a crop circle making sortie and there's a chapter about our exploits in the book. He's called the chapter "Top of the crops".. now where have I heard that before? Oh, and if you can't read, or can't be bothered to read, there's also an audio book version.
 SITE UPDATE 20-06-2004:
Fed up with having to trawl through countless websites with photos and commentary about less than impressive crop circle formations? Well, you don't need to bother anymore as we've done all the hard work for you and seperated out the wheat from the chaff in our 'Top of the Crops' section - now in it's 7th year! - which documents the best bits of the 2004 crop circle season for you. Go see for yourself: "Top of the Crops 2004".
 SITE UPDATE 16-06-2004:
Well, we're all looing rather tanned at the moment, as we've just returned from our most ambitious project to date. We were asked by the broadcaster UKTV to create a massive sand drawing of three UK comedy greats - Del Boy, The Vicar of Dibley and Alan Partrige - on Saunton Sands beach in North Devon to promote their 'Summer nights of comedy' season on UK GOLD. You can find out more about the project in our new section 'Beach of a Job"!
 NEWS UPDATE 19-03-2004:
Circlemaker John Lundberg's documentary "The Mythologist" about the enigmatic crop circle / ufo researcher and all round international man of mystery Armen Victorian aka Henry Azadehdel (pictured right) will be broadcast in the UK on BBC 4 on Thursday 25th March at 10:40pm. The film includes contributions from Rob Irving, Graham Birdsall, Eric Morris, Marcus Allen and Andy Roberts. More information can be found on the films website: www.mythologist.co.uk
NEWS UPDATE 08-03-2004:
The 2004 crop circle season has started, well kind of, John Sayer discovered a rather disheveled looking 8ft diameter circle swirled in what he thinks is a field of Rye at Aylsham in Norfolk. "A sign of things to come in Norfolk this year?" let's hope not John, eh!
There's a new crop circle website on the virtual block. www.cropcirclenirvana.com doesn't quite live up to its name at the moment, but it looks promising. Launched in August 2003 the site takes a refreshingly irreverent look at the crop circle phenomenon. The "Questions of Belief" article by Darren Francis is definately worth a read. The site is run by someone called Poppy Amersham - which sounds suspiciously like a pseudonym to us! Let's hope it doesn't go the same way as cropcircles.co.uk and totalhumansolution.co.uk... R.I.P...
 NEWS UPDATE 06-03-2004:
Well, it looks like veteran crop circle researcher Colin Andrews (pictured right) might be forced to go get a real job! He's posted an urgent appeal for funds on his website stating that "unless funds are secured within the next four weeks, the complete operation will close". If you want to help Colin out, you can make a tax deductible donation via his website.
We'll be meeting up with Colin at the edge of a field in Wiltshire in the next few days to hand over a brown envelope "stuffed with cash". We hope he can sort out his finances, because if he does bow out of the crop circle research field he would leave a huge void in his wake. Colin, can we suggest that you give Freddy Silva a call, as - if he is to be believed - sales of his crop circle screed "Secrets in the Fields" have now topped twenty thousand, I'm sure he'd love to plough some of the profits from the book back into crop circle research, eh Freddy?
If all else fails maybe Colin could join MI5's psy-ops department and retrain as a crop circle maker...
VIEW MORE CONTENT IN THE ARCHIVE. |
|
|
  | |
