For this task, instead of describing the plot of a movie or book, I decided to represent the lyrics of a (famous) song using emojis. I didn’t find the task to be difficult nor easy. It didn’t take long to find emojis that represent the objects described in the lyrics, probably because these are quite ekphrastic. However, it was more challenging to find the emojis which function was to represent verbs or more abstract concepts such as “to”, “as”, “these”, “your”, “be”, etc.

What became evident to me as I did this task was that, even though images or symbols can provide information of experiences and objects, words can do a more precise and accurate job. It seems like, compared to semiotics, writing is a more sophisticated technology to create detailed descriptions. As we’ve learned in this course, there was an evolution from semiotics to writing and this task was useful to understand the reasons for such unfolding. However, I think it is important to make a distinction between the effectiveness and richness of symbology and visual reality. In this task, words (the lyrics of the song) are indeed explaining things more accurately and vividly than the emojis – but this is because the emojis are a very limited tool in the vast potential of visual perception. If the lyrics of the song were translated into a movie or a hallucination, we would probably gather much more information through perception than words. In effect, it seems like words are a limited technology created to describe the rich content of human experience – that is perceptions, emotions, and thoughts.

Both Kress (2005) and Botler (2001) mention how writing is going through a crisis and visuals are becoming more prominent because, in Botler’s (2001) words, “the image dominates the text because the image is regarded as more immediate, closer to the re­ality presented.”(p.51). If I was going to rely only on my experience from doing this task, I would argue this is not true – however, as mentioned, this is due to the limitations of the symbols used (the emojis). If I consider Botler’s observation from my experience of watching movies, videos, animations, high-res images, then it seems correct. It is hard for words to compete with these and, even when they do through complex and sophisticated elaboration, it can’t compete with the immediacy of the visual realm. However, I think it would be erroneous to dismiss writing over visuals or vice versa – it seems to me like each one of them has unique affordances. One that comes to mind is that words enable reflection and critical thinking which, it seems to me, it’s not possible to do through perception.

Another interesting observation that came while doing this task was that my representations are biased, which reminds me of the relationship between reading and subjectivity described by Kress (2005). An individual from another culture or from another time might not be able to derive meaning from the symbols I’ve selected to represent ideas, the world, and experiences. For example, an individual from 500 years ago wouldn’t be able to recognize the symbols of the microphone or the plane. In this regard, I could argue against Kress (2005) assertion that depictions are “full of meaning and always specific” (p.15). The author attributed vagueness and emptiness (p.15) exclusively to words, however in my view this also applies to images, and much of the meaning we derive from them is part of our cultural makeup.

Curious to know what was the song?
Click here to see the emojis next to the lyrics: Emoji Song

References

Chapter 4. Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed.). Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. doi:10.4324/9781410600110

Kress (2005), Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition, Vol. 2(1), 5-22.