Mirror of Hands is an interactive art piece designed for public installation and created in 2025. The piece is coding in java script using the p5.js and ml5.js coding libraries. By using the ml5 library the piece takes advantage of pretrained machine learning models. The program instructs the user to take different poses then, using AI pose detection, checks to ensure the user is in the desired pose before continuing.
The piece investigates the misuse of a 2009 study titled “The history and geography of human handedness,” and how that piece has been politicized, connecting it to a larger history of bizarre associations between human handedness. The piece forces the user to identify as with one hand or another, while reflecting their image back to them, showcasing that their answer is recorded. The program then uses culture jamming to blast their senses and recreate the chaos of online conflict. Interaction with the program requires access to the user’s camera. A video of the user experience is included below.
Link to Mirror of Hands: https://editor.p5js.org/parkermdU/full/4ardWga21