The crop circle world is always a hotbed of bickering, conflict and general silliness. Whereas things used to be a battle about how individuals thought crop circles were made, 2019 has seen a collective of land artists attempt to control who sees their work. Their methodology is simple; they withhold the location of their new creations from all but one photographer. He, in turn, releases his footage through YouTube and a website run on behalf of the group of artists. Accompanying the videos are comments and social media posts directing personal abuse at the Crop Circle Connector and certain photographers.
The Croppie didn’t give any direct coverage to the first artwork publicised in this manner, and nor will it do so for any others, simply because this site is about crop circles and not authored land art. However, this hasn’t stopped the Crop Circle Connector from attempting to hunt down the location of the land art first publicised on YouTube and Facebook on the evening of 21stJune. Somehow they managed to be successful in their attempt, and the following evening posted the images of friendly photographers without comment as to the piece’s origins.
Rumours have already begun circulating as to how the Crop Circle Connector achieved the feat of locating the land art in question, one suggesting that a mole inside the artists’ camp has been leaking information. A further piece of gossip alleges the artists’ favoured photographer has been sending abusive messages to at least one of his peers who has supplied images to the Connector.
This may all seem like a triumph for the Crop Circle Connector over the artists’ collective, and it has probably upset the latter, but The Croppie believes any victory is in name only. Why? In presenting what is a piece of openly authored land art and presenting it as a genuine crop circle, the Crop Circle Connector has made itself look desperate for content in an admittedly slow season (the slow growth of the barley crop has possibly been a significant factor), and given validity to the actions of the artists’ collective. A piece of land art that would have been looked at by a very small audience has now had its reach extended by a huge amount. What’s more, to readers of the Crop Circle Connector it has become a genuine crop circle. There is no better way to make the collective happy.
