a brief history of crop circles

“Crop Circles - flattened stalks of grain formed into geometric patterns - have appeared around the planet for decades. Although scientists from around the world have tried to find a logical explanation for the crop circles, which materialize over night, no one has come forth with a provable theory. The source of the circles has been attributed to everything from extraterrestrials and military radiation to two people named Doug and Dave. In recent years, crop circles have increased in size and complexity and frequency of appearance. The smallest are about 25 feet in diameter and some of the larger ones extend to 440 feet. The geometric shapes of the most sophisticated crop circles convey a mathematical elegance the is both awesome and baffling.”

In the Summer of 2019, my father and I set out to make our own crop circle, asking ourselves: Could we actually make a crop circle with simple tools? What happens when we use the “language of aliens?” What would it mean for us to leave our impression upon the surface of the earth - to form a land scar? We set out with rope and wood in hopes to create such a structure. To our excitement, we found that it was possible and we built a thirty-foot wide crop circle in our home town of Los Lunas, New Mexico.

In order to document our mark, a drone was required, which relies on radio communication to be controlled. Without the radio, evidence of our crop circle would be weathered away in time. When documented from the sky, the earth scar calls back to the history of crop circles, geoglyphs like the Nazca lines, and land art of the 1970’s. But the aerial view also resembles footage of distress, resembling documentation of wartime and natural disasters. The co-existence of hope and distanced communication alongside fear and distress is no mistake.

When displayed outside of Los Lunas, New Mexico, the footage is looped upon a stack of disjointed technologies: Two television sets, three detuned radios emitting static, and the crop circle tool used got create the land scar. The Single-Channel Video is a 1 minute loop narrated by my cousin, Sofia Romero.