Toynbee tiles st louis2/29/2024 ![]() As the picture of the Toynbee Tiles' narrative slowly entered into focus, Duerr was shocked by the answers he was uncovering and his unexpected emotional connection to the elusive tiler.Īn artfully crafted documentary, Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles is both an account of Duerr's own obsession and a meditation on the broadly defined drive towards cathartic realization in the face of towering obscurity. Along the way, the team met with the eccentric residents in the deepest reaches of South Philadelphia and dedicated shortwave radio buffs for clues and guidance. The investigation led the team through a series of strange and unexpected turns from the discovery of a Jupiter colonization organization to the David Mamet play “4 a.m.” and a TV news hijacker with a cryptic message. Teaming up with local Toynbee Tile fanatics Steve Weinik and Colin Smith, Duerr began his quest with few clues towards the tiler's identity. Having missed the tiler by minutes, Duerr vowed to definitively solve the mystery of the Toynbee Tiles. In 2000, his obsession was amplified by a near run-in with the tiler when Duerr found a freshly laid tile in front of a local convenience store late at night. Despite this prolifacy, Duerr could find no answers as to what the texts meant or who was responsible for them, although marginal clues towards the artist's identity slowly began to mount. Louis and Boston, which he would later visit soon, tile sightings soon appeared as far away as Buenos Aires and Santiago. He was shocked when, several years later, he discovered an obscure website on the Internet documenting tile sightings in other cities like New York, Baltimore, St. He documented dozens of tiles downtown, and was struck by how little attention the bizarre phenomenon received from other pedestrians. While the text on the plaques was clear enough, neither Duerr nor the numerous media outlets that had documented the phenomenon knew what these tiles meant, how or why they were installed, or who was responsible for them.ĭuerr's interest in the tiles began in 1994, when he moved from rural Pennsylvania to Philadelphia and began noticing them while working as a foot courier in the city's business district. Having appeared on hundreds of reported examples from the mid-1980s to present, the cryptic four-line message of the Toynbee Tiles read: "Toynbee Idea / In Kubrick's 2001 / Resurrect Dead / On Planet Jupiter". and South American urban intersections that had held Duerr's fascination for over a decade. Five years later, they began filming their investigation of these strange street plaques embedded in the asphalt of major U.S. But as Justin starts piecing together key events of the past he finds a story that is more surreal than he imagined, and one that hits disturbingly close to home.įilmmaker Jon Foy and Philadelphia-based artist and musician Justin Duerr began planning a documentary film about the Toynbee Tiles in 2000. He has been collecting clues that the tiler has embedded in the streets of major cities across the U.S. For years, finding an answer to this long-standing urban mystery has been his obsession. Most people don't notice the hundreds of cryptic tiled messages about resurrecting the dead that have been appearing in city streets over the past three decades. Outdoor Sculpture Series: The Apotheosis of St.Strangeness is afoot. ![]()
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