The organisers of Britglyph are hoping to eclipse the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire (above)
A collaborative art campaign inviting members of the public to create the world’s largest geoglyph is being launched on Monday.
The ambitious Britglyph project is aiming to replicate some of the most famous examples of the art form, in which textiles and earth are used to form a vast drawing or design over several miles of land.
“Since prehistoric times, humans have left their mark on the world around them by creating objects and markings designed to last the ages – even perhaps to be seen from the vantage of the stars,” explains organiser Alfie Dennen, who is “trying to re-imagine the nature of the geoglyph for the modern age.”
“There is a deep human desire to communicate with the mysterious, to leave something of ourselves in time, to make a mark and own a moment…if only to say ‘I was here, I lived!’”
A spider is one of the creatures depicted in the Nazca lines in Peru, which were created centuries ago.
Well-known structures include the Nazca Lines in Peru, where societies removed pebbles to produce line drawings resembling spiders, monkeys, fish and other creatures between 200 BC and AD 700.
Although the reasons behind the formation of the Nazca peoples’original geoglyphs are a matter of debate, they are often attributed to religious or spiritual beliefs.
The Marree Man, a depiction of an indigenous hunter discovered in South Australia in 1998 with a circumference of more than 15 kilometres, is widely acknowledged as the world’s largest known geoglyph. British versions include The Long Man of Wilmington, a human figure cast in chalk on a Sussex hill, and the 3,000 year old Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire.
The Marree Man in South Australia is thought to be the world's largest geoglyph
For this latest version of the centuries-old traditon, the nationwide effort will see a particular emphasis on modern technology, encouraging participants to contribute photos of themselves in pre-determined locations via email, mobile phone or the mobile application ShoZu.
“The designs on the Nazca plains, the Egyptian Pyramids, the Mayan pyramids, crop circles, hill figures, celestial measurement constructions and megaliths were created with the pinaccle of that era’s technologies,” explains Dennen, who is particularly appealing for people between Cumbria and Aberdeen to take part.
Dennen’s latest experiment is a sequel to Find Me, a trail earlier this year which led followers on a cryptic puzzle through London to create a two-mile piece of art by scattering 43 pictures across the city, galvanising the possiblities of mobile and online technologies.
“Britglyph was a natural extension of what I had learnt in putting the Find Me campaign into action,” says Dennen. “It is also truly a homage to our ancestors’ drive and desire to communicate with the gods, and to leave a marker of their existence in time and space.”
“We are creating a geoglyph with this project, but a geoglyph is just a drawing, so equally one could say that we are creating the largest drawing ever made with this project.”
Dennen is hoping to tailor the software involved to allow anyone to shape their own “digeoglyphs” (digital geospatial glyphs) once Britglyph is complete.
Visit http://britglyph.com/ to find out more and take part.
