Q: How does one destroy a tile? What happens to make them no longer there?Ī: While it's setting in, traffic often destroys part of a tile. The major exceptions to this are the highway tiles, which are considered to be of the new style (mainly because of handwriting and date) despite being geared towards drivers. in the area through which cars drive, while new-style tiles tend to be closer to the sidewalk and oriented to the eyes of a pedestrian. Generally, the old-style tiles tended to be deeper into a crosswalk, i.e. Thereafter, tiles became smaller, less artistic, more hastily written and completely lacking non-text flourishes (e.g., pictures.) This era begins the "new style." By 2007, old-style elements began reappearing, and the distinction has since become more ambiguous. Q: What's the difference between 'old-style' and 'new-style' tiles?Ī: Briefly, the latter involved an evolving style that eventually flowered into colorful and large mosaics, concluding circa 2001. A final point: a floorboard-less car will assist in the process of laying tiles, but it is not necessary, nor do we think that all tiles were laid via a floorboard-less car. By the time the top layer of tar paper is removed, the tile will have become deeply embedded and will be impossible to remove without fully repaving the street. Pressure from car and foot traffic further impress the tile into the ground. The tile is "baked" into the ground by the sun's heat, which liquefies the asphalt ever so slightly. The whole concoction is then laid down in the asphalt of an intersection while concealed by the tar paper. The linoleum is also smothered with Elmer's glue and asphalt crack filler. Two pieces of tar paper are used to cover the linoleum like bread covering the filling of a sandwich. Copycats have been sighted as far west as Portland, and are spread throughout the United States, with a few appearing as far away as South America and Iraq (!).Ī: First, a message is carved on a piece of flexible, not brittle, linoleum. Trenton and numerous Philadelphia suburbs have surviving new-style tiles. Louis, Cincinnati, and Margate, NJ, all have surviving old-style tiles, while barely visible fragments also remain in New York and Chicago. As of 2012, Philadelphia still has nearly 100 that survive in some form, none older than about 11 years old. We kept lists for years, but it simply became too difficult to monitor the survivors. Q: Where can I see one? Do you have a list of the surviving tiles?Ī: Unfortunately, we do not have a current list of extant tiles. Copycat tiles continue to appear en masse. No major tile run has appeared more than about a two hours' drive outside of Philadelphia since 2002: one isolated sighting off I-95 in Connecticut in 2006 is the sole known exception. Tiles are generally laid during the summer months. House of Hades, the most prolific copycat movement, has probably laid around 100 as of 2012, and there are several other smaller copycat movements.Ī: Yes. We would guess that over 300 new-style tiles (2001–present) have appeared in or near Philadelphia, as well as a small number outside of Philadelphia. 1985–2001) that have appeared in 25 cities in the US and South America. The most common variations change ‘MOVIE’ to ‘Kubrick’s’, ‘RESURRECT’ to ‘RAiSE’, and/or omit ‘ON’.Ī: The Toynbee Idea message seems to have first appeared around 1980 in various media, but the first tiles were probably laid circa 1985.Ī: We know of around 150 old-style tiles (from c. They are four-lined messages, sometimes described as “plaques”, found in the asphalt of numerous major US (and, in four cases, South American) city roads.Ī: Their message reads, "TOYNBEE IDEA / IN MOViE `2001 / RESURRECT DEAD / ON PLANET JUPiTER" with occasional variations and frequent additional texts. ABOUT THE TILER (Warning: spoilers from this point on.)Ī: They are graffiti, guerrilla propaganda, outsider art, and an unsolved mystery wrapped into a single cryptic phenomenon.
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