John Lundberg

John Lundberg (born December 5, 1968) is an English artist and documentary filmmaker. In the early 1990s he founded [http://circlemakers.org circlemakers] , a UK based arts collective famous for covertly creating hundreds of the world's largest and most elaborate crop circles.

He was born in London and studied fine art and interactive design at Middlesex University (1988-1991), the Slade School of Fine Art (1991-1992) and the University of Westminster (1996-1997) during which time he also worked with the Turner Prize nominated artists Langlands and Bell. Before abandoning exhibiting in galleries to work out in the fields he exhibited his artworks in several galleries including a one person show called "Infinity Focus" at the [http://www.maxwigram.com Max Wigram] gallery in London which was curated by Gavin Turk one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) and in the group shows "A Fete Worse than Death" and "The Hanging Picnic" alongside Tracey Emin, Gillian Wearing, Gavin Turk, Gilbert & George, Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst at Joshua Compston's Hoxton gallery "Factual Nonsense". In 1993 after he had stopped exhibiting in galleries the art collector Charles Saatchi offered to buy one of his anonymously created crop circles and exhibit it at the Saatchi Gallery in London. His offer was declined on the basis that to function correctly as artworks the crop circles need to remain authorless.

In 1995 Lundberg created the [http://circlemakers.org circlemakers.org] website to document his group's activities. The site which averages one million page views a month is the only site of its kind on the Internet, and consists of over 250 pages of information about crop circle making. The site has received several awards, including The Guardian Site of the Year and a Yell UK Web award, as well as numerous favorable reviews in the media.

The circles he and his collaborators crafted anonymously gained him notoriety and created headlines around the world. Eventually Lundberg began to be approached by companies asking him if he could create crop circles to be used in TV shows, music videos, movies, adverts and PR stunts. Clients to date have included, Disney, Bacardi, BP, Scope, Royal Bank of Scotland, Red Bull, Microsoft, Greenpeace, Nike, AMD, Shredded Wheat, Hello Kitty, Pepsi, Weetabix, BBC, The Sun, Mitsubishi, O2, Big Brother, NBC-TV, Orange Mobile, History Channel and the Discovery Channel.

He has been accused of being involved in the creation of the notorious alien autopsy video released in 1995 by businessman Ray Santilli which purported to show the autopsy of an alien creature that was recovered from a crashed flying saucer that landed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1948.

There's a chapter about his crop circle making in Iain Aitch's book "A Fete Worse Than Death" ISBN 0-7553-1191-4. 2006 saw the publication of his book "The Field Guide: The Art, History and Philosophy of Crop Circle Making" ISBN 0-9548054-2-9 which was co-written with circlemakers collaborator Rob Irving. Henry Hemming's book "In Search of the English Eccentric" ISBN 0719522129 was published in 2008 and includes a chapter about Lundberg and his crop circle making collaborators.

He graduated from the documentary directing MA at the prestigious National Film and Television School in 2004 and his award winning short film [http://www.mythologist.co.uk The Mythologist] about a latter-day Walter Mitty character was broadcast on the BBC the same year. He is currently making his first feature length documentary [http://www.miragemen.com Mirage Men] , about US military disinformation with Warp Films. The film is scheduled for release in 2009 along with an accompanying book written by Mark Pilkington and published by Constable and Robinson. Lundberg was featured in the Discovery Channel's series Monster Garage (hosted by Jesse G. James) as a part of a build team slated with the task of creating a mechanical crop-circle maker out of a tractor.

See also

*Alien autopsy
*Crop circle
*Documentary film
*Hoax
*Trickster
*Young British Artists

External links

* [http://www.offkilter.co.uk offkilter.co.uk] Lundberg's official website.
* [http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/are+crop+circles+a+new+field+of+art/2398517 More4 News] News item featuring Lundberg talking about his work.
* [http://www.henryhemming.com/pages/audio%201.htm In Search of the English Eccentric] Extract from Henry Hemming's book about Lundberg and his collaborators.
* [http://www.paradigmjournal.com/art.html Paradigm Journal] Interview in arts journal.
* [http://www.starstreamresearch.com/confessions.htm Confessions of a Crop-Circle Maker] An Interview with Lundberg.
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/content/articles/2006/09/22/feature_inside_out_crop_circles_20060922_feature.shtml Inside Out] BBC TV documentary showing Lundberg re-creating the Mandelbrot Set crop circle.
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/25/ncrop25.xml The fellowship of the rings] Article in The Daily Telegraph.
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2191565.stm I make crop circles] Article on BBC News.
* [http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?&ucidparam=20060815150013 Mexican crop circle poses the GM question] Article about Greenpeace collaboration.
* [http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,71513-0.html?tw=wn_culture_2 Crop Circles Gain Perspective] Article in Wired magazine.
* [http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2374926&page=1 Circular Sightings Tough to Explain] Article on ABC News.
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A1177-2002Aug9 Fertile Imaginations] Article in The Washington Post.
* [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,780391,00.html Hollywood falls under crop circles' spell] Article in The Observer.
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,539938,00.html Ever increasing circles] Article in The Guardian.
* [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0801_020801_cropcircles.html Crop Circles: Artworks or Alien Signs?] Article in National Geographic magazine.
* [http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3077371/ It’s harvest time for crop-circle hype] Article on MSNBC.
* [http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/138_circlemakers.shtml Leaders in the field] Interview in Fortean Times magazine.
* [http://www.fsr.org.uk/fsrwng12.htm Should alien 'DORA' really be 'HILDA'?] Article accusing Lundberg of being involved in creating the alien autopsy video.
* [http://www.metamute.org/en/The-Art-of-Deception-A-Crop-Circle-Makers-Ideal-Home The Art of Deception] Article in Mute art magazine.