Task 6: An Emoji Story
Did you rely more on syllables, words, ideas or a combination of all of them?
During this task, I relied more on a combination of words and ideas. I thought about how I wanted to portray each thought or sentence, to describe the plot. It was interesting to think about what I prioritized and deemed as important in my description. There were some emojis that I thought would work; however, due to the irrelevance to the overarching plot, I forgo them. It was also interesting to think about how someone else would read this emoji story and how “universal” some of these emojis may be; which is likely why I ended up with the combination. There are some words that can be portrayed with one emoji, however a few together can portray a whole idea. At least, that was my thought process in using a combination of them.
Did you start with the title? Why? Why not?
I did start with the title and the type of media (movie, TV, book or show), mostly because the title is short and I found emojis that could, I think, clearly portray the title. I did think for a moment, if it would be considered as “cheating” or writing orthographically; for one of the emojis does have a word on it. There are a few emojis in the Apple keyboard that are simple boxes with words. However, I think because it was from the emoji keyboard, it was still in the realm of visual text.
Did you choose the work based on how easy would it be to visualize?
I did choose the work because of its simple title and premise. I have been alternating between watching this work and another, but this one was “simpler” and I am more familiar with it. I tried to think of sentences and ideas that were simple and short. Yet, at the same time, a few of my emoji “sentences” were more ideas to portray a passage of time and to show how the characters interacted with each other. As mentioned, they combined together to form an idea rather than each emoji just portraying an individual thought. I did struggle with how detailed I should go with the plot; making considerations for “the end” of the emoji story. From this, questions arose on how succinct language is and can be. Can one be more succinct and clear in using visual text such as emojis? Do emoji keyboards change between regions, based on the culture? Would I be able to easily read someone else’s emoji story if their primary language is different from mine – or even if they speak two or more languages?
This task reminded me of my diary writing days as a child. One diary is filled with emoji-like text, because I, naively, thought it would help make my diary more discreet and even “quicker” to write. I made my own code of frequently used words, so nobody could read it; however, I had a glossary that I referred to so I could remember my own code. It would be entertaining and intriguing to see my language development permanently recorded in those pages. Perhaps it could be compared to this emoji story; analyzing what visual text could be regarded as similar or different, when written by the same person, yet using two different forms of “emoji keyboards”.
Hi Clarissa,
New Girl is one of my favourite shows! You did a great job summarizing the general plot without giving away details for a specific episode per se.
I am going to guess and say that this TV show is, New Girl! I enjoyed trying to decipher what the pictures were trying to explain. You summed it up nicely and even went through all of the holidays which suggests that you must have done an entire season in this emoji story.
When you were searching for the emoji, did you just go through and find which emoji fit what you were trying to explain, or did you type a word and have an emoji come up? I just thought of this now. When I was doing my emoji story, I ended up typing the word out first and then finding the emoji that worked best, however, I suppose I could have just checked out all of the emojis before making that decision. The latter choice would have, indeed, taken a much longer process.