Reader Bryan sent us a photo this morning of a strange tile installed in the sidewalk at SE 7th and Hawthorne.
The marker is part of a mysterious cultural phenomena called the the Toynbee Tiles. No one’s sure who created or started installing the tiles, but they’ve popped up in many US and South American cities over the past three decades. They have cryptic messages about killing journalists, resurrecting the dead, science, and philosophy. It seems that some of the tiles are installed by copycat artists, imitating the style of whoever started installing them originally.
The tiles were recently the subject of a documentary film, which looks rather spooky.
I’ve got no idea when the tile showed up on SE Hawthorne—has anyone else seen it? This is the first I’ve heard of it.
Damn…I saw one of those in Philly last summer. Now there’s one a mile from my house??!? Very cool.
Rad! I haven’t seen it but I love this kind of mystery….
There’s also one on SW Broadway, right between the Banana Republic and Margulis/Jackson Tower.
Someone says there’s another one at SW 3rd and taylor: http://twitpic.com/show/iphone/7hmmoc
Their made by this crazy guy named sevy in Philly he drives around in a car with no floor board so he can park and put them down without anyone noticing
He thinks that science can make a version of heaven by resurrecting everyone on a teraformed Jupiter