Image: © Barrie Robinson
The creator of the mirrored ‘monolith’ on Compton Beach on the Isle of Wight has stepped forward to confess he is the man behind the structure.
Tom Dunford from the Isle of Wight had previously been reported as the person who discovered the glass structure on Compton beach on Sunday morning, while he was out walking with his fiancé.
A guessing game
He had everyone guessing over the last couple of days as to who had installed the structure – one that mirrored those already discovered in Utah, Romania and California – but burst the bubble this morning by admitting on BBC Radio Solent that he had created and installed the ‘monolith’.
NB: Monoliths are usually made of stone, but the moniker for this structure seems to have stuck, so we’ve used continued to use it
Dunford: Fascinated in futuristic design, science and space
Tom said,
“I’m a designer at the Meeting Pod Company and we design futurist hubs for people to work internally or externally and hopefully one day to live in.
“So I’m absolutely fascinated in futuristic design, science and space, so when I saw the first one pop up I thought it was brilliant, the second one popped up and I actually had a text from a friend saying, ‘you’re the man that can do this on the Island’.”
Dunford: “It was a lightbulb moment”
Asked whether he is amazed at the amount of attention his structure on Compton beach has got, Tom replied,
“Yeah, what I’ve learnt is that I’m like a terrible bank thief. I planned the design stage, and the installation went really well, the stages after the event, especially the worldwide press, I didn’t plan for any of those contingencies really.
“The actual idea sparked when I was walking back to the office and we had an old sheet of mirrored Perspex. It was like a lightbulb moment when I saw that I’ve got to now make it happen.”
Tom installed the structure at 4am on Sunday morning at Compton beach.
You can listen to the rest of the interview with Alan Newman on BBC Radio Solent.
