John Lundberg (born 5 December 1968) is an English artist and documentary filmmaker. His work is concerned with

ostension Ostension is the act of showing or demonstrating something. In communication In communication theory and especially in relevance theory, ''ostensive behaviour'' or ''ostension'' is a behaviour that signals the intention to communicate something. ...

. Underpinning all of his work is an interest in how myth and artifice can shape and alter reality, especially regarding

crop circle A crop circle, crop formation, or corn circle is a pattern created by flattening a crop, usually a cereal. The term was first coined in the early 1980s by Colin Andrews. Crop circles have been described as all falling "within the range of the ...

UFOlogy Ufology ( ) is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins (most frequently of extraterrestrial alien visitors). While there are instances of government, private, and f ...

, and other examples of

urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

s and the

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...

. He was born in London and studied fine art, interactive design, and the creative use of the Internet at

Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated MDX) is a public research university in Hendon, northwest London, England. The name of the university is taken from its location within the historic county boundaries ...

(1988–1991),

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

(1991–1992) and the

University of Westminster , mottoeng = The Lord is our Strength , type = Public , established = 1838: Royal Polytechnic Institution 1891: Polytechnic-Regent Street 1970: Polytechnic of Central London 1992: University of Westminster , endowment = £5.1 million ...

(1996–1997).Off Kilter
/ref> In the early 1990s he founded Circlemakers, an arts collective dedicated to exploring the phenomenon of crop circles and the role of deception in the process of artistic creation. Lundberg and his collaborators – including Rod Dickinson,

Gavin Turk Gavin Turk (born 1967) is a British artist from Guildford in Surrey, and is considered to be one of the Young British Artists.Tate Modern. (2009)'Pop Life: Art in a Material World' Retrieved 14 August 2012. Turk's oeuvre deals with issues of aut ...

, Simon Bill, Wil Russell and Rob Irving – followed after Doug Bower and Dave Chorley in anonymously creating their own crop circles at night. Sometimes treated as not only authentic but as "significant" by paranormalists, Lundberg and the Circlemakers' work has been the subject of a BBC documentary and been commissioned by various clients, including the rock band

Korn Korn (stylized as KoЯn, or occasionally KoRn) is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The band is notable for pioneering the nu metal genre and bringing it into the mainstream. Originally formed in 1993 ...

. In 2017 streetwear brand Supreme asked Circlemakers to create a massive crop circle of their Supreme box logo at a secret location in California. The crop circle can be seen in the short film produced by Supreme called Crop Fields. In 1995 Lundberg created the Circlemakers website to document his group's activities. He also coauthored the 2006 book ''The Field Guide: The Art, History and Philosophy of Crop Circle Making'' with Rob Irving. Lundberg and Dickinson have been accused of being behind the

Alien Autopsy The alien autopsy is a 17-minute black-and-white film supposedly depicting a secret medical examination or autopsy of an alien by the United States military.Barton, Steve (September 30, 2010)"Ray Santilli, Gary Shoefield Talk the Real Alien Auto ...

footage, a charge they deny (although Lundberg is a fan of the film). Circlemakers' activities have also led to Lundberg and his collaborators being threatened with violence and accused of being

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...

recruits.'' ubious source?' Lundberg graduated from the

National Film and Television School The National Film and Television School (NFTS) is a film, television and games school established in 1971 and based at Beaconsfield Studios in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England. It is featured in the 2021 ranking by ''The Hollywood Repor ...

's Documentary Direction program in 2004, and his graduation film ''The Mythologist'', about UFOlogist Habib Azadehdel, won the Jerwood First Cuts Documentary Award at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival, was shortlisted for the

Grierson Awards The Grierson Awards are awards set up by The Grierson Trust to recognise innovative and exciting documentary films, created to commemorate the life and work of the pioneering Scottish documentary filmmaker John Grierson. The inaugural Awards w ...

in the best newcomer category, and was shown on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

. His feature-length documentary

Mirage Men Mirage Men is a 2013 documentary film directed by John Lundberg, written by Mark Pilkington and co-directed by Roland Denning and Kypros Kyprianou. ''Mirage Men'' suggests there was conspiracy by the U.S. military to fabricate UFO folklore in o ...

, created with Mark Pilkington, Roland Denning and Kypros Kyprianou is about how the US government used mythology to cover up their advanced technology. The film had its world premiere at the 2013

Sheffield Doc/Fest Sheffield DocFest (formerly styled Sheffield Doc/Fest), short for Sheffield International Documentary Festival (SIDF), is an international documentary festival and Marketplace held annually in Sheffield, England. The Festival includes film sc ...

in the UK on 13 June 2013, its North American premiere at the 2013

Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of ''The Iron Gi ...

in Austin, Texas on 22 September 2013, its Australian premiere at the

Canberra International Film Festival The Canberra International Film Festival (CIFF) is an annual film festival held in Canberra, Australia. It is a cinema celebration across an 11-day program in October/November each year. It is a showcase of films from Australia and around the gl ...

on 31 October 2013 and its Nordic premiere at the

Stockholm Film Festival The Stockholm International Film Festival ( sv, Stockholms filmfestival, italic=no) is an annual film festival held in Stockholm, Sweden. It was launched in 1990 and has been held every year since then during the second half of November. The w ...

in Sweden on 10 November 2013. American novelist

Ernest Cline Ernest Christy Cline (born March 29, 1972) is an American science fiction novelist, slam poet, and screenwriter. He wrote the novels '' Ready Player One'', '' Armada'', and '' Ready Player Two'' and co-wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation ...

credits the Mirage Men movie as an influence on his novel and screenplay Armada. Mark Pilkington's book about the project, also called ''Mirage Men'', was published in 2010 by

Constable & Robinson Constable & Robinson Ltd. is an imprint of Little, Brown which publishes fiction and non-fiction books and ebooks. Founded in Edinburgh in 1795 by Archibald Constable as Constable & Co., and by Nick Robinson as Robinson Publishing Ltd in 1983, ...

. ''Mirage Men'' has been excerpted in the

Adam Curtis Adam Curtis (born 26 May 1955) is an English documentary filmmaker. Curtis began his career as a conventional documentary producer for the BBC throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The release of ''Pandora's Box (British TV series), ...

documentary HyperNormalisation on

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

. He's currently working on his second feature-length documentary ''Kaufman Lives'' about the life, death and legend of

Andy Kaufman Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman ( ; January 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984) was an American entertainer and performance artist. While often called a "comedian", Kaufman preferred to describe himself instead as a "song and dance man". He has sometimes b ...

. Besides his Circlemakers and film activities, Lundberg has also been involved with gallery-based art in collaboration with UFOlogists, and was reported to have been enlisted by

graffiti artist Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

Banksy Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams ...

to stealth-promote the latter's film ''

Exit Through the Gift Shop ''Exit Through the Gift Shop'' is a 2010 British documentary film directed by street artist Banksy. It tells the story of Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant in Los Angeles who, over the course of several years, filmed a host of street artists a ...

''.

References

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

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I make crop circles
Article on

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

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Crop Circles Gain Perspective
Article in

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...

magazine.
Circular Sightings Tough to Explain
Article on

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

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Hollywood falls under crop circles' spell
Article in

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

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Ever increasing circles
Article in

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Crop Circles: Artworks or Alien Signs?
Article in

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

magazine.
It’s harvest time for crop-circle hype
Article on

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

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Should alien 'DORA' really be 'HILDA'?
Article accusing Lundberg of being involved in creating the

alien autopsy The alien autopsy is a 17-minute black-and-white film supposedly depicting a secret medical examination or autopsy of an alien by the United States military.Barton, Steve (September 30, 2010)"Ray Santilli, Gary Shoefield Talk the Real Alien Auto ...

video. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lundberg, John 1968 births English artists Alumni of Middlesex University Alumni of the University of Westminster Living people Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art

References

External links