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'Monoliths' Found In Utah & Elsewhere (2020-2021)

A monolith of unknown origin has been found on the Moon in the Utah desert:
News story

There's a video of it at the link, if you're interested. See if you can think up a 2001: A Space Odyssey joke for it.
I think it’s something for satellites.
 
Art project/prank or something for new age hippy types?. Film or computer game promotion?.
 
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That area looks like you'd pretty much need a helicopter to get the monolith into place there.
 
I'm guessing it's a 'land art' installation, probably from up to 40 to 50-some years ago. Land art was a 'thing' back in the Seventies (plus or minus), and the Utah deserts were common sites for their presentation.
 
Oh, I loved the stop-go animation of the toy helicopter on the map. :haha-zebs:
 
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They need to take a sample of the metal. Who knows, perhaps it's outerworldly? ;)

If it's not too old, perhaps some artist will take credit for the installation.
 
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This metal pillar bears a strong resemblance to the work of John McCracken, who spent considerable time in the same area (northern New Mexico). McCracken died in 2011, and his representative says there's no record of his having done any installations in the Utah desert.
Alien visitors or avant-garde installation? Mysterious monolith discovered in the Utah desert

A mysterious object resembling the freestanding plank sculptures of the late Minimalist artist John McCracken—or the alien-built monoliths in Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey—has been discovered in a remote area of the Utah desert, prompting theories ranging from extraterrestrial visitation to avant-garde installation. ...

No artist has come forth to claim credit for the monolith yet, and David Zwirner, which represents McCracken, did respond to a request for comment at the time of this writing. There is no known record of the artist's work installed in the Utah desert, although McCracken did live in-between nearby northern New Mexico and New York until his death in 2011.

The wilderness of the Southwestern US has a rich and storied history of Land Art and especially for works that retain their magic and mystery by being largely inaccessible or challenging to locate, from Robert Smithson’s 1970 magnum opus Spiral Jetty in the Great Salt Lake to Michael Heizer’s 1969 Double Negative near the Utah border in Nevada.

FULL STORY:
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/new...erious-monolith-discovered-in-the-utah-desert
 
Very cool......I wonder if anyone will come forward to claim their art project?
 
Does anyone have a more precise location? (I don't suppose they are going too public with this, if only so as not to encourage the inexperienced to go crashing around in the desert).

The map on the video appears to show Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument at bottom centre - bordered west and north by highways 15 and 70 respectively (I think). But then that map could have been of absolutely anywhere - and doesn't have to relate to the actual location.

The monolith appears to be triangular in section. Given that both artists, and also more general purveyors of oddness, tend to like a bit of symbolism it would be interesting to know if it's equilateral - and/or if the vertices might be aligned in the direction of anything in particular.
 
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earth-with-wind-up-keyclockwork-01.jpg


I think we’re property.”

C. Fort

maximus otter
 
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Does anyone have a more precise location? (I don't suppose they are going too public with this, if only so as not to encourage the inexperienced to go crashing around in the desert).

The map on the video appears to show Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument at bottom centre - bordered west and north by highways 15 and 70 respectively (I think). But then that map could have been of absolutely anywhere - and doesn't have to relate to the actual location.

The monolith appears to be triangular in section. Given that both artists, and also more general purveyors of oddness, tend to like a bit of symbolism it would be interesting to know if it's equilateral - and/or if the vertices might be aligned in the direction of anything in particular.
They’ve said specificities that they are not going to divulge the location. We may get to find out in the future I guess.
 
Someone will find it on Google Earth soon, if it has been there more than a 2-3 years.
 
I'm guessing it's a 'land art' installation...
I kind of agree with you EnolaGaia, and it reminded me of Donald Judd's minimalist stuff in the Marfa desert. But I feel suspicious about the lack of bird poo coming down from the top of the monolith... it's awfully shiny. If I were a bird I might find that a nice place to sit.
 
How long before someone might create a meme of Kyle MacLachlan/Paul Atreides blasting the crap out of it with a "weirding module"?
It's beyond my skill set but ... someone? Anyone? :D
 
I kind of agree with you EnolaGaia, and it reminded me of Donald Judd's minimalist stuff in the Marfa desert. But I feel suspicious about the lack of bird poo coming down from the top of the monolith... it's awfully shiny. If I were a bird I might find that a nice place to sit.
There are not a whole lot of pigeons in the desert.
 
... The monolith appears to be triangular in section. Given that both artists, and also more general purveyors of oddness, tend to like a bit of symbolism it would be interesting to know if it's equilateral - and/or if the vertices might be aligned in the direction of anything in particular.

Yes ... It has a triangular cross section.

The available photos are either too indistinct or taken at too oblique an angle to reliably judge whether it's an equilateral triangle.

One reason I believe it's an art installation is that one apex of the triangle points directly to the fissure at the head of the cove from which water issues to form a small pool. This strikes me as a deliberate orientation for some sort of symbolic purpose.

This pair of photos illustrates the triangular cross section and the alignment of the 'pointy end' toward the fissure in the rock wall.

Utah-Metal-Monolith.jpg
 
Wow, that didn't take long. We had to wait for Google Maps to be invented before it was so easy to find the Sherman Ranch of NIDS fame. I went looking and didn't find it from the vague information on the net at the time. I later learned that I had circumnavigated the place in my car, coming within a mile or so of it at one point. Oh well.

Hmmm. This new thing is not far from Moab. I've been there many times. Moab is a hopping place, in the middle of a vast amount of stunning scenery. Lots of interesting places around there. The "monolith" is not far from the wreckage of a B-52 that broke up in the air decades ago. Something like 30 miles. I was always going to go find the wing fragment that's not far off the highway, but never got around to it.

That, er, installation looks to be made from stainless steel sheet, fastened together with screws or rivets. Not really much of a monolith, I think. Could have been made in someone's garage in Moab. Interesting though.
 
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According to the metadata from Google earth (from what I'm told), this puts its installation at 2015 or 2016.
 
I noticed the wording from the Utah Safety Department, whether alien or man made, this monolith is in violation of public safety!

So aliens, you are violating the law.
 

Oh it's right on the nose of the bunny /dog face!! Has that particular google map feature/illusion been noted on here already? Must have been. If you've not noted it before zoom out till it pops out at you :)

[Had to look up google earth earlier today as I'm reading a novel in which a journey from California to Utah is described and I realised my internal map of the USA has got Las Vegas more northerly than it actually is.]

Sollywos x
 
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