Teaser Video

Poster and Synopsis

Poster

Synopsis

Crop circle is one of the most unexplainable events that occurred in many countries around the world. A crop circle is a sizable pattern created by the flattening of a crop. It is an organized harmonic forms that manifest around the world, the result of an energy interacting with the physical world - in this case plants. This energy is comprised of light, sound and magnetism. To date, crop circles have been reported in 29 countries, and have appeared in mediums such as wheat, barley, canola, trees, ice, rice paddies, even linseed. Some says that crop circle is a hidden message sent from the unknown entity from other dimension. Some also conclude that crop circle is just another hidden agenda created by an unknown organizations for their own benefits. Albeit the numerous facts and myths stated about the crop circle, it is still a big question for people who really want to know the truth.

Crop circles are not a modern phenomenon, over 200 cases have been reported prior to 1970. Some eyewitnesses claims that crop circles forming in under twenty seconds; these witnesses describe sightings of “incandescent or brightly-coloured balls of light which either precede a crop circle or are actively involved in its creation; in some cases shafts of light have descended onto a field and swirled the crop into a geometricshape in less than fifteen seconds.” Such reports are often described by farmers and local residents.

The early designs in 1980 appeared primarily as simple circles, circles with rings, and variations on the Celtic cross. By the late 1980s they had developed straight lines, creating pictograms not unlike the petroglyphs found at sacred sites thoughout the world. After 1990 the designs developed exponentially in complexity, and today it is not unusual to come across crop glyphs mimicking computer fractals and elements expressing fourth dimensional processes in quantum physics.

This interactive and infographic installation will uncover some of the mysteries of crop circles by using an electronic LED’s as a new medium to form the symbols. The symbols that will be present are selected from the most complex and meaningful as decoded by the researchers. Although there will be numerous questions about the genuine interpretations of the symbols, this installation will give users some new ideas and info to think about. The user will start the installation by walking around the LED board, there will be several sensors on each corner to trigger the patterns, plus there will be a monitor showing about the origins, history, actual patterns and information on each of the symbols.

Contextual

Mr Kok Yoong ask us to define the actual context about our project. In my understanding, my project is about an unknown symbols from the crop circles that has been related with supernatural things and conspiracy theory. I tend to create a new kind of "Crop Circle" based on interactive installation using an electronic LED's (Dot Matrix) on a board.

From what I understand, my project covers 4 context as advice by Mr Kok Yoong.

-Historical Context

-Social Context

-Political Context

-Institutional Context

Historical Context

1. UFO incident near Roswell, New Mexico that started the extraterrestrial phenomenon in June or July 1947

2. People started to pay attention about the unidentified flying object and related them to the military aircraft

Social Context

1. After the famous Roswell incident, many science fiction movies / tv series started to take place in entertainment industries (The X-Files, Star Wars, Star Trek, ET, Independence Day)

2. New Pop Culture / trend about extraterrestrial and alien and people started to make money of it's popularity (Alien Workshop)

3. The discovery of Crop Circle became a new form of art for the designers and artists.

Political Context

1. Some believe that the government wants to divert people's attention about the global or local problems such as war crisis in the middle east, economy crisis, education crisis and the political crisis in the United States.

2. Some also believe that the government tend to generate fear among their citizens about the possibilities of war against the aliens from outer space.

3. Many weapons of mass destruction were produce as a national security excuse

4. Big countries fought each other for blaming that the UFO is actually a spy plane for spying an enemy, this create more excuses for more war.

Institutional Context

1. More people back to religious institutions because they are afraid of the unidentified extraterrestrial threats.

Flowchart

Budget

Content Development

In my previous technical specifications, I chose to use six motion sensors to trigger the patterns, but I think the cost is too high, instead, I decided to use webcam as a movement sensor on the top of the Dot Matrix Board.

Artist Impression

Six Different Symbols

This is the patterns that I will use in my installations.

Technical Specs

Last weekend, I went to Jalan Pasar to gather some information about technical specification about my project, I went to Nixie Electronic store and asked the technician there about the possibility of making a single board of 576 light bulb and make them light up in different patterns and sensors.

The technician said it is nearly impossible to build the device because of it's budget and time problem.

So he suggest to use Dot Matrix instead of light bulbs. But the overall size of my project will be less than the original.

Dot Matrix

This is the illustrated picture of a single Dot Matrix

and this is the whole size of my project that should be (top view)

this is the picture of a motion sensor that I will use to trigger the patterns (still considering)

Survey