Threads

Threads treats secondhand smoke as an invisible thread — the same gesture that binds smokers into a shared social act pushes non-smokers away. The installation reads the visitor’s hands. A smoker’s gesture opens a projected interview and lets it speak; a dismissive wave glitches and mutes it, turning an instinctive aversion into visible interference.

A cigarette embedded in the plinth is the trigger: pulling it starts the projection, making the viewer an active participant in a story about exclusion and connection rather than a spectator of it. The work asks how quickly a reflexive reaction can silence the things a room would rather not face.

System

An LDR sensor reads the cigarette; a webcam and MediaPipe track the visitor’s hand gestures inside TouchDesigner, which drives both the projection and a glitch/mute response. Fog, a single lamp and stainless steel hold the scene in the register of someone watching from a distance they think is safe. Sound is an original glitch and ambient score.

Concept, system design, fabrication, visuals and original sound — Jerome Wu. Individual project, 2025.