We asked a film scholar and astrophysicist who explores the potential for extraterrestrial life about who could’ve put this piece of art in the Utah desert and what it means.
Still, it’s a fittingly mystifying symbol in a year that’s often felt stranger than fiction. And while we may eventually learn more about the artwork’s origin, any piece of Kubrick-inspired art should leave some questions unanswered, said I.Q. Hunter, a film scholar and De Montfort University professor. « The Utah work is a slice of the future set in a prehistoric past, absolutely alien and incomprehensible in the landscape, » he told CNN. « It would be a pity if we discovered what the Utah sculpture was, as that would lessen its mystery. » We still don’t know. No artist has publicly claimed it, and when Utah officials stumbled upon it, it was unmarked. But we can safely assume the artist was not an alien — humans are clearly capable of building rectangular pieces of art, said Jason Wright, a professor of astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University and the director of the university’s Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center.
