Posted by Michael Glickman on June 9, 2012

TWO LIFE FORMS

Fig.1 - Silbury Hill Scorpion, 22nd May 1994

By 1994 we had not had many figurative formations and this was quickly felt to be a scorpion. It was remarkable in its simple and inventive use of components. One could see here the sophisticated yet almost childlike way that articulate forms could be produced by the knowing assembly of simple shapes. The thorax was our old friend, the Celtic Cross, a quintuplet or dice five-spot with its outriders or satellites linked by an orbital ring. One of the satellites was to form a head, defined by a simple crescent indicating a set of jaws. Another, smaller crescent formed the sting at the end of the tail. But the feature that played a central role in the 1994 season, was the body made of eight diminishing circles.

We had to wait a while for the big sister!

Fig.2 - Bishops Cannings Dragonfly, 15th July 1994

The Silbury Scorpion and the Bishops Cannings Dragonfly have beautifully (and individually) considered upper parts. The differing construction of the head and thorax in the each of the two formations shows the fluency and inventiveness of the authors. The formations share, however, the characteristic body of diminishing circles, eight for the Scorpion and eleven for the Dragonfly.

The Dragonfly was positioned adjacent to the A361 road from Avebury to Devizes on a gentle slope that presented the formation theatrically, almost shockingly, to drivers heading south into Devizes. The position and size of the formation was said to have almost caused traffic accidents. The Dragonfly remains, for many researchers, one of the classic crop formations of the phenomenon.

THE THOUGHT BUBBLES
This was a new development and was to define a formation-type. The chain of circles increasing in size was reminiscent of the strip-cartoon convention; hence the name Thought Bubbles.

After the Scorpion and the Dragonfly there were seven examples of the thought bubble type. They had one characteristic that they shared with the two life-forms. They were all sited on hillsides and invariably the circles were smallest at the bottom of the slope and increased in size as the formation rose up the slope.

I had long been in awe of the crop circle phenomenon’s mastery of geometry and two dimensional form. We are familiar with the circles’ skill at implying solidity or three dimensionality in graphic form but here, with the Thought Bubbles, they were demonstrating their awareness of the earth’s slopes and a comfort with its topography.

Fig.3 - Six Thought Bubbles

Fig.4 - The hillside at Ipsden

Two days later on 17th July at Moulsford in Oxfordshire [Fig.3/3], a semicircular “collar’ was added between the head and the body. This semicircle was of the diameter that the growth rate of the formation would have required but it formed neither a complete circle nor a ring but instead contained a smaller circle.

Two bubble formations, [Fig.3/4] and [Fig.3/5] arrived in adjoining fields at East Dean in West Sussex on 23rd July. Both contained circles within their large head-rings. In the case of the lower East Dean formation, the inner circle was off-centre and positioned towards the body. In the case of the upper, the ring was centrally contained. This formation uniquely had a scattering of grapeshot circles clustered at its tail.

The sequence ended on 14th August at East Isley in Berkshire [Fig.3/6]. This was also on a particularly steep hillside, and again it had an off-centre circle in its head-ring.

The thought bubbles appeared in Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, West Sussex and Berkshire. A remarkable spread for so small a group. Another arrived in Exton, Hampshire on 4th August but has been omitted from the diagram (a) because it was so similar in profile to East Isley and (b) because my colleague, Ofmil, felt uncomfortable about the problem of arranging seven elements in a rectangular frame!

While drawing the scorpions and comparing them with the subsequent thought bubbles, I made a curious discovery. Both the scorpions and the bubbles shared a string of circles as their fundamental characteristic. I observed that in the case of the thought bubbles the diminishing circles were inevitably organised in a smooth and rather elegant curve. However the curves of both the Silbury Hill and the Bishops Cannings events, though still clearly describing a smooth arc, show, on closer examination, an almost imperceptible kink. It is curious that the thought bubbles, abstract forms, display perfect curves while the scorpions which, whatever the intention, certainly appeared to be creatures, seemed to be recovering from broken spines. Might this be a gentle and oblique comment on our treatment of life on earth?

A STONEHENGE REVELATION

Fig.5 - Stonehenge, Wiltshire, 7th July 1996

I was working with Patricia Murray in 1996 and we went to the gigantic Stonehenge formation many times. I do not know if it was the most visited crop circle ever but certainly we never found it empty, day or night.

Fig.6 - Stonehenge diagram showing 16 and 17 twins

Though I was personally doubtful about this exercise we rented a theodolite, an instrument for measuring levels, and set out to survey the formation.

The results were amazing. We found that two of the thirty-six circles forming the spine of the formation, 16 and 17 [Fig.6], were highest and at precisely the same level. Remarkably they were both exactly the same diameter!

The thought bubbles were eighteen years ago, Stonehenge sixteen. Throughout these years I have been preoccupied with the intelligence which would order these formations so meticulously in this way. I have been fascinated by the will and intent which (for reasons we cannot yet discern) wished so subtly to introduce the third dimension, up and down, height and level, into their project. Above all, I have been dazed by the contemplation of the effort and organisation that was needed to put together this miraculous enterprise.

Acknowledgements and thanks
Photography: Steve Alexander, Michael Glickman and John Haddington
Diagrams and graphics: Ofmil Haynes Jr
Certain insights: Karen Alexander