What happens when a tech-savvy performance artist and a whimsical fashion designer decide to rewire nostalgia through AI? You get twentynine—a wildly imaginative, tongue-in-cheek magazine and gallery project from artist Maya Man (aka @mayaontheinternet) and designer Isabella Lalonde (aka @BeepyBella). Built with the help of Lenovo and Intel, twentynine reclaims the chaos and charm of early 2000s teen magazines—and turns it into something surreal, self-aware and deeply reflective of our hyper-digital times.
At its core, Maya and Bella’s project is truly about pushing ideas further with the right tools—and for that, the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition became an essential part of their process. They’re not outsourcing creativity to machines. In fact, Maya trained AI models using a diffusion network fine-tuned with their own images and Bella’s archives. Bella, meanwhile, laid out pages of the zine using Adobe InDesign. Together, Maya and Bella are known for blurring the boundaries between digital and physical art, with their latest collaboration twentynine merging AI, fashion, and social commentary into a singular imaginative experience.
Maya Man is a New York–based digital artist whose work explores online identity, self-performance and femininity in the internet age. She’s best known for projects like Glance Back and FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT, which have been exhibited at the Whitney Museum and across international digital art platforms. Her work combines generative systems, performance, and critical commentary on how we construct ourselves online. Isabella Lalonde is a multidisciplinary designer and founder of the whimsical jewelry label Beepy Bella. Drawing from her background in fine art and fashion, she creates dreamy, surreal accessories often inspired by nature, childhood nostalgia, and spiritual motifs. Her brand has gained a cult following and has been worn by celebrities like Bella Hadid and Olivia Rodrigo.
The project is part of Make Space, Lenovo’s ongoing creative series designed to empower the next generation of artists by giving them access to the latest technology, cultural collaborators, and real-world opportunities to explore, play, and make boldly. Whether through gallery takeovers, workshops, or digital-first activations, Make Space exists to support artists and uplift their opportunity to shape the future of creativity.
twentynine isn’t just a zine—it’s a blueprint for what Make Space can be: immersive, collaborative, and unafraid to question the creative status quo. And for Lenovo and Intel, it’s proof that when artists lead the way, technology can expand possibilities.
Created as both a mini magazine and physical exhibition, twentynine isn’t your average zine drop. Modeled after publications like Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and shopping catalogs like Delia’s, it blends absurd AI-assisted spreads with fashion and performance art, questioning the beauty standards, identity politics, and influencer archetypes that shaped a generation. “We’re using technology, our human brains, and the assistance of a beautiful energy called AI,” Maya jokes. Think: quizzes like “Are you a good influencer?” or “Are you a good friend?” next to dreamy, AI-aided Beepy Bella jewelry ads and plush dolls pulled from their imagined editorials. Dreamy kaleidoscopic colors, far out collages, cute cartoon-inspired characters and fashion-forward style moments also fill the pages with more playfulness and whimsy.
From Smart Share—used to beam reference photos from phone to laptop instantly—to Smart Modes like “Attention Mode,” which helped them stay focused while editing, the Yoga was their absolute creative command center. “Smart Share felt like magic,” Maya adds. “It was like jumping dimensions. And I love that basically it’s like being a wizard with your tablets, and your devices are your wands for casting.” Bella felt the same way about the speed and fluidity of the process. “When I was working on our layout, the Intel Core Ultra processor made everything way faster than I expected,” she said. “It just let us flow.”
“We’re using technology, our human brains, and the assistance of a beautiful energy called AI.”
Every page of twentynine is to become an inspiration for something tactile: An upcoming exhibition will feature custom wall works printed with AI-assisted imagery and text pulled directly from the magazine. A series of handmade plush dolls—crafted from deadstock and AI-printed fabric—will be shown as sculptural extensions of the zine’s illustrations.
As part of the opening, Maya and Bella will also host a silent, performative magazine signing —framing the event as both influencer satire and commentary on girlhood. A printed walkthrough guides guests through each layer of the exhibit, encouraging them to reflect on identity, technology, and nostalgia. Altogether, the show is a living extension of twentynine—blurring the lines between publication, performance and participatory art.
At the heart of both the zine and the exhibition is the idea that AI isn’t here to replace creativity—it’s here to expose its edges and amplify its potential. “Your ideas have to come from your own mind,” Maya says. “Technology can assist in the execution, but it can’t do the conceptual work for you.” Throughout twentynine, the duo leaned into the glitches, the imperfections—the moments where the machine tried to mimic human thought but stumbled. For Maya and Bella, those imperfections became conceptually rich: a mirror to the outdated constructs of femininity and perfection that many have grown up performing. In many ways, AI’s failed attempts at flawlessness reflect how culture has long imposed unrealistic ideals—especially on women. By merging their unique visions with the next-gen power of the Lenovo Yoga and Intel, Maya and Bella’s zine also offers a critique, a reclamation and a vision for what creativity can look like when artists take control of the narrative.
So if you’re a young creator wondering whether tech has a place in your art—this is your sign. twentynine is proof that when artists lead and AI follows, the results can be brilliant, bizarre, and unexpectedly human. Maya and Bella reimagined what creative collaboration can be—not just for themselves, but for anyone willing to experiment, embrace the glitch, and build something bold.
The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition, imagined with Intel, is now available on the official Lenovo site and Best Buy.
