In this exercise I am to look at the set textbook pages 80-82 and write down the signifier and the signified of such images. I am then to take note of where these phenomena are formed and their relationship to the land.

Signifier – the form a sign takes : Flattened corn in a stylised pattern

Signified – the concept to which it represents or refers : Crop circles in Wiltshire “traditionally the home of paganism and New Age mythology” refer to an unexplained relationship between the land and possibly paranormal forces.

I remember the early 90’s when mystery crop circles were all over the news. It seems a shame that artists owned up to making them and although taking the credit, also ruining the sense of mystery. This has not put people off attempting to ‘prove’ that crop circles are made by aliens, I found one BBC report (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2191565.stm ) in which a crop circle artist states that he has been told crop circle artists are part of a cover-up by the Government, even though he himself has confessed to making them in the first place.

I think crop circles are class, they give people a sense of wonder and fire up imaginations in a way in which a lot of things often fail to do when you become buried in the humdrum of adult life.

They are most often found in wheat fields because wheat when bent gives the sharpest edge to enable artists to create the crispest lines. They are most often created down in South West England where tales of folk lore are the strongest. They are often located on ley-lines, or lines of energy believed to be within the land itself.