Cryptography

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- What looked like a hacked traffic sign on Allen Parkway reading 'We are the asteroid' turned out to be a bizarre art installation.

ABC13's Courtney Fischer spotted something strange on her way to work Wednesday just before 3 a.m.

A sign off of Waugh Drive and Allen Parkway was displaying some odd messages.

"Warning: Hurricane Human. Triassic weather ahead. Global warming at work. Goodbye Arctic Ice, and We are the asteroid" were part of the messages on the digital sign.

"Safe to say, we got hacked," Courtney wrote on Twitter.

But it turns out, hacking was not the case. The Buffalo Bayou Partnership had a hand in putting up the sign overnight, as an art installation.

Described as a conceptual, text-based artwork by Brooklyn-based artist Justin Brice Guariglia, the repurposed highway sign features texts by Rice University professor Timothy Morton. Instead of alerting viewers to road conditions, the solar-powered LED message board features a variety of messages intended to call attention to ecological issues.

WE ARE THE ASTEROID III will be displayed at the Gus S. Wortham Memorial Fountain, along Allen Parkway just east of Waugh Drive, through August 31.

If you remember in 2017, ABC13's Jeff Ehling reported on another digital traffic sign that was hacked with anti-Trump messages.

The sign had a vulgar reference to the president and Russian President Vladimir Putin, but it also said to impeach Trump.

When Eyewitness News called the sign's owner, they directed Jeff to an access panel that was left unlocked. They walked him through shutting off the sign, fading those messages to black.

Follow ABC13 Reporter Courtney Fischer on Twitter and Facebook.

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