06 Circle Between The Lines March, 2014 | Page 64

CIRCLE FROM THE STARS MYSTERY CIRCLE, ITS ORIGIN AND ART WOO JANG YOON These theories explain that mysterious circles have been created by the hands of men, the weather, or animals. In fact, it is scientifically agreed that most or all mysterious circles have been made by men as pranks. Constructing mysterious circles is actually quite simpler than it seems: tie one end of a rope to an anchor point and the other end to a board used to crush plants. When all the crops placed at an equal distance from the anchor point are flattened, you'll have made a beautiful piece of work. Interestingly, two British men -Doug Bower and Dave Chorley- confessed in 1991 that they had made their own first mysterious circles in South England. However, the mysterious circles they made eventually turned out to be a hoax. Cereologists(those who study crop circles) supporting the weather theory have claimed that mysterious circles have been created as a result of extraordinary meteorological phenomena ranging from tornadoes to ball lightening. Also, in 2009, the attorney general of the island state of Tasmania said that Australian Mysterious Circle, its fields of opium poppies. Unfortunately, wallabies had created mysterious circles inOrigin and Art there is no evidence supporting any of these explanations. Circle from the Stars? Go to Wiltshire, England. Drive 2 miles west of Amesbury and 8 miles north of Salisbury. You'll arrive at Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage, which is the vestige of a ring of standing stones. But before you get all excited, look around for a second. Hold your breath. What do you see? You'll see a giant, magnificent, intricate pattern of circles. You got it right. You're looking into the mysterious circle. The mysterious circle, originally named the "crop circle," is an enormous pattern created by the flattening of crops such as wheat or barley which are usually created overnight. The mysterious circle has been around Earth for a while. It is known to have first appeared in 1686, when a British scientist named Robert Plot reported "fairy rings" in his The Natural History of Stafford-Shire. Surprisingly, these mysterious circles are still appearing nowadays; actually, the reported cases have substantially increased since the 1970s. The mysterious circle is named "mysterious" because the patterns appear so elaborate that we can only believe it has been artificially made. Well, it hasn't. Since the middle ages, there have been many theories explaining the origin of these circles. 64 Jangyun Woo | mysterious circles, people After the report that men created non-fiction from all over the world initiated the same actions. As a result, many mysterious circles found since 1991 have mostly been formed by humans. The spread of these trends have made creating mysterious circles a part of art. People now make and view mysterious circles as the elaborate artwork of humans. The circles are even used for various advertising purposes. There are numerous theories explaining the origin of the mysterious circle, but none has yet been scientifically proven. Magical phenomena like the mysterious circles make us flashback to our childhood, a naïve time when we wondered if there really were creatures that lived on another planet. Are these mysterious circles the work of men, or are they simply uncanny natural phenomena? I’ll leave that to your imagination. 63