Bluejake

I went to see Signs last weekend with Jen, James, and Sam. Now, I've enjoyed M. Night Shyamalan's previous efforts- especially The Sixth Sense. While he often goes over the top on the surprise endings and is a little pedantic with his themes (Death, in the first movie, Strength and Weakness in the second, Fate and Faith in the third), his movies are usually worth the price of admission. Try saying that for MIIB, or Austin Powers 7. Since we saw Signs I've been thinking a little about crop circles. Now, for the last ten years it has been widely and definitively known that crop circles are a hoax (although some hardcore "cerealogists" remain unconvinced). The great British website Circlemakers has a good guide to making your own circles and lots of documentation for the dozens of circles that their team constructed over the last fifteen years. It is interesting to me that Crop Circle makers have not attained any measure of recognition by the international art community. I think that the circles can definitely be considered examples of earthworks (like Smithson's Spiral Jetty). Many crop circles also display patterns reminicent of Op Art. Finally, the whole creation of this giant fraud and the various intertextual arguments it spawned seems to me to be one of the most inspired pieces of performance art in the last thirty years.

Ideas