HI is a series of staged encounters with a word we use without thinking. Ever-present across conversation and social interaction, a HI is perhaps the most casual message we can send. The word itself is almost forgettable by design, a scrap of language, a universal signifier with variants in languages from German to Hindi. Some dictionaries class it as a ‘natural exclamation’ — like its pre-linguistic, a sound from the unconscious. But how natural is it really? If it’s unconsciously produced, then what buried meanings can it conceal? It’s easy to fall into the trap of HI’s deceptive simplicity, the word’s blank stare. Its warmth can tip over into unearned familiarity; it can be earnest or insincere, easy or tricky, real or fake. Here, transplanted into different visual contexts, each HI projects a different, perhaps unexpected, mood or tone. In a world defined by mass communications, both real and virtual, it would be naïve to think a word can only mean one thing. Especially a word we use all the time. 

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