Saturday 22nd October 2022
Lecture: Peter van den Burg & Melanie McCalmont
Time: 5.00 – 8.00pm
Melanie McCalmont (Including the Crop Circle Classification Project)
 

This lecture will be recorded if you can't join us on the day.

Peter and Melanie will be delivering a two-part presentation as follows. It’s just one ticket for both sessions. With a discussion afterwards

Part 1: We are experiencing a global transition of consciousness. Just as our technology, art, and literature reflect this transition, the crop circle phenomenon may likewise be a written testimony of that transition. Rather than linking specific crop circles to specific consciousness-raising events, we wish to reveal the underlying themes as they come and go. We use superimposed techniques to search for synchronicities. Can we detect a correlation between cultural- and crop circle evolution? 

Part 2: This presentation describes a new crop circle classification system that will help to develop a common framework for research and discussion. Classification is an organising tool that helps to communicate our observations, discuss relationships between formations, and create useful data sets. This proposed classification system has two themes: Measurable elements (i.e., size, shape, phases, lay, symmetry, etc.) and non-measurable elements (i.e., emotion, behaviour, synchronicity, cultural analogies, etc.) We will compare this classification system to the 1991 system. Participants will get access to a web platform for crowd-sourcing preliminary classification data. We hope to refine and adapt the classification system so that it can provide deeper insights for our community and science at large.

Peter van Den Burg has been researching crop circles since 2007. Primarily their geometric properties, gradually expanding his search to the relation crop circles have with the surrounding landscape. His drawings have been featured on the Temporary Temples website for the last two years. He lives in Norway with his dog Nico.

Melanine McCalmont is a US geographer and non-fiction author based in Colorado who has studied the geography of the crop circles since 1997. Melanie has a master’s degree in the Geography of Communication from the Univ of Wisconsin. Her field analyses why and how people communicate in places/locations, what tools they choose, and how those choices create shared meaning and function. Melanie visited the Wiltshire circles in 2010 and attended one of our early conferences.