The Aldbourne formation is similar to the Vertigo record label logo. Comments by Fervidus and Bob Vernon.

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Updated Monday 24th July 2006

 

3D crop circles and Marcel Duchamp's Rotoreliefs.

After sending my last email(s) I began to wonder if my memories of the Vertigo record labels were indeed correct (it was the 60s after all, and you know what they say about remembering the 60s), so I Googled "Vertigo records" to try to find some pictorial proof.  Well, to the limited extent that I looked, I couldn't find any image of the famous "swirl" pattern covering the entire label of an LP, as I described being the case in my email, but I did find indirect proof that my memory was correct here: 

http://www.collectable-records.ru/labels/O_Z/Vertigo/1.htm


As you can see, not only is the logo bigger (than the example on your site) on the label of this LP by Colosseum (which, incidentally, I know that I owned in the 60s), but the side of the LP shown (side B) has the list of tracks for both sides, which can only be because the label on the other side (side A) was completely covered with the "swirl" pattern, just as I  remembered. 

Anyway, I am now content to rest my case that this pattern was originally meant to be viewed in rotation (although it has to be admitted that, for some reason, when translated to the form of a crop circle, it looks remarkably 3-dimensional even without rotation), and is, in fact, an example of a stereo kinetic optical illusion that has absolutely  nothing to do with wormholes.

LINK


I am just writing to suggest that people are possibly getting too carried away with the idea of wormholes in relation to the 3D crop circles that have appeared this year.  I think it is far more likely that they are simply a continuation of the optical illusion theme that included the Escher triangle crop circle last year.  Before seeing on your site today the connection made between the recent New Barn crop circle and the Vertigo record logo, I had, in fact, already made the same connection with the Avebury Trusloe circle in June.  Although I am old enough to have actually possessed such records, I could not remember the precise pattern of the logo, and so I got it wrong in assuming that that of the Avebury Trusloe circle was exactly the same (apart, obviously, from the mirroring in the crop circle).  What I could remember, however, was that the Vertigo pattern, at least on early LPs, was not just, as suggested on your site and in Wikipedia, a small logo, but rather took up the space of the whole label on one or both sides of the LP.



The idea behind this was that you were supposed to watch the pattern on the label as the record rotated on the turntable (preferably while stoned) in order to enhance both the 3D and trance inducing effects - hence the significance of the name of the label, Vertigo.  I also remembered learning at the time that the pattern was derived directly from the work of the artist Marcel Duchamp - i.e. specifically, his "Rotoreliefs".  And that is why I am writing really, because the Rotoreliefs and the Vertigo pattern were examples of the type of optical illusion called stereokinetics in which certain 2-dimensional patterns can be made to appear 3-dimensional when appropriate movement is applied to them.  Therefore, inasmuch as the design of these 3D crop circles all appear to be derived from the Vertigo pattern (the New Barn one, in fact, being identical), I would suggest that those who are reading references to wormholes in them are fancifully barking up the wrong tree.


Some illustrative references are: 
 
 
Also, out of curiosity, I made an animated gif image of what the Avebury Trusloe circle would look like if rotated on a turntable.  (Obviously, the New Barn circle would now make a better candidate for this treatment, but I haven't got time to do it at the moment - if someone else wants to have a go, that's fine by me.)  I include this as an attachment with this email, but I am having problems sending images at the moment (it's a complicated story), so, if you don't receive the image, you can also get it from:
 
 
You have my permission to use the information in this email (including the
gif) however you please.

Bob Vernon


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Mark Fussell & Stuart Dike