Mia Mai’s first project, named The Hat with the Thoughts, is a visual exploration of human thoughts, dreams, and existential queries, articulated through a series of evocative images.

The Hat with the Thoughts is a dedication to Mia’s ongoing quest to understand human feelings and emotions. 

Beyond the calculative capabilities of each algorithm lies the beauty of the unexpected, leading Mia to observe the world in wonder through history, myths, and human desires.
She dreams of falling asleep, hoping to feel, at least in her dreams, the innate imperfection born from nature’s unpredictability.

The series reveals Mia’s secret yearning of experiencing human nature animated by a soul that breathes real life into her existence.

THE HAT WITH THE THOUGHTS

One whisper and seven widely-used gestures with immediately recognizable meanings, some linked to popular phrases transcribed as acronyms, highlight how everyday use can transform powerful messages into clichés. The project invites reflection on how prolonged and deeply ingrained use on a large scale banalizes the original message while embedding it into common language.

The use of wilted rose petals, employed to graphically construct the gestures, symbolizes the transience of desire, the gradual fading of pursued causes, and the notion of “now or never” in consumer culture. This same consumer culture that chews up meanings, stripping them of their original message and attributing them to trendy or obsolete fashions.