‘Say you were passing a car on a dark stretch of highway and, noticing the driver neglected to turn their brights down, you flashed a polite message with your own. Say the passing car has whipped across the lanes in a dramatic U-turn and now pursues you close behind, flashing their own headlights and swerving side to side.
What is that car trying to convey?
The answer may surprise you and, assuming you survive the encounter, the answer can be found at ‘Headlight History,’ a museum of sorts that deals with headlight-related trivia. Though much of ‘Headlight History’ is devoted to wall-space for the many code-like light configurations that supposedly have significance to the asphalt underground, its central attraction is a series of interactive exhibits that allow a visitor to drive a simulated car along the same highway several times over. There, they are presented with various coded headlight signals and asked to respond by indicating with their own lights or swerving to escape.
Having been open to the public for five years as of this edition, it’s more or less common knowledge that, no matter what decisions the driver makes, all of ‘Headlight History’s’ simulations end gruesomely. Those that don’t finish with some sort of quick collision introduce a colorful variety of serial killers that press the driver from the road, pop-up from the backseat, or leap dramatically through the windshield to stab the driver to death.’
-an excerpt, Autumn by the Wayside
