Can you guess?*
*NOTE: My reflection below might give many hints, can you try guessing without reading it first? : )
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My instinct was to go with a movie or books with a title that would be easy to decompose and represent with one emoji per word. The titles coming to mind where either too easy or too short. I decided to make this task more interesting and challenging by choosing one my favorites and just figuring it out.
The title was challenging. I initially aimed to break it down with emojis but it proved to be difficult as the title itself is a play on words that encompass a feeling. I had no choice but to choose emojis based on the story. This proved to be even more challenging because the story is sensory-delight composed of ethereal scenery with minimalist dialogue and action wrapped in a bewitching score. Essentially, how to convey a story in emojis, where the original is largely symbolic and left to viewer interpretation. In this sense I didn’t know if it was ekphrasis or reverse ekphrasis.
Furthermore, after laying out the emojis I questioned my interpretation of the narrative and if the sections that I chose to represent where commonly recognized as being central or if I had selected themes based on my connection to them. I noticed that the primary criteria in my emoji grouping and layout was to convey emotion vs. accurate linear storytelling.
By the standard of phonetic writing, however, picture writing lacks narrative power. The picture elements extend over a broad range of verbal meanings: each element means too much rather than too little…We cannot tell whose side the writer is on. (Bolter, 2001 p. 13).
Finally, I was surprised that the least significant challenge was a lack of emojis. I even omitted certain emojis for fear that they might be too literal. I am extremely intrigued to know if those who guessed correctly will do so analytically, trying to decipher a pattern, or if they will look for an overall impression to trigger recognition. Without framing, this emoji narrative can be interpreted “..in an open order fixed by the reader and/or viewer’s interest” (Kress, 2005, p.16).
References
Kress, G. (2005). Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition, 22(1), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2004.12.004
Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed.). Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410600110