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Vancouver now home to its very own mysterious metal monolith

A member of a nearby community workshop says she has her suspicions as to who was responsible for the creation of the monument

Vancouver has joined the many locations around the world that have had mysterious metal monoliths pop up but this time there might be an explanation.

The structure was found Wednesday morning sunk into the garden bed of the Vancouver Hack Space on Venables Street and Woodland Drive. Janet, who runs the space’s welding shop, described it as a 10 foot tall, by two feet wide stainless steel triangular prism. Even stranger than the monolith’s appearance though were the sounds it made when Janet pressed her ear against it. 

“There's a low rumble,” she said. “It sounds a lot like the Star Trek Enterprise and then occasionally it makes little science fiction sound effect noises like ray gun sounds and beeps and boops like R2D2."

She went on to say that occasionally the monolith will play the theme song from 2001: A Space Odyssey ⎼ but with kazoos. 

Despite not knowing exactly who created it, Janet has high suspicions it was someone who is part of the Vancouver Hack Space.

"We have all the tools we need to do this, something triangular has been erased from one of the whiteboards, so I suspect it was probably one of our members,” she said adding that nobody has owned up to it just yet. 

Keeping up with previous monolith sightings in the news, Janet says she does not think it is part of a viral marketing campaign like some have posited but instead the work of restless creatives. 

"Honestly I think this is just people who like to make stuff blowing off steam. That's the thing that makes the most sense to me,” she said. “If anything it's just a testament to the fact that people who like to make stuff can come together during this really weird challenging time and just make something joyful."

Janet says that while she wants to keep it, it is technically on city property so she will ask the city’s engineering department for permission to leave it where it stands.