Task 6: “An Emoji Story”

For context, I used my iPhone’s Notepad app to complete this week’s task.

Did you rely more on syllables, words, ideas or a combination of all of them?

As the series I selected is quite complex and includes many critical and nuanced details, I found it challenging to synthesize all that complexity into simple emojis. I found that I relied almost exclusively on words and ideas, but I can concede that my interpretation of the narrative might differ significantly from someone else’s, thus choosing different emojis and perhaps even sequencing altogether. Bolter (2001) articulates that two readers of the same pictorial writing could use different words to describe what they see, as it is constructed culturally as being closer to the reader since spoken language is not used to mediate the meaning. Without the opportunity to communicate anything orthographically, it will be fascinating to see how my peers might interpret what I have developed here.

Did you start with the title? Why? Why not?

Yes, I started with the title because it could be conveniently constructed using emojis. Even if someone has not watched the series (yet), they can glean a very general impression of what happens throughout the course of the story; the “spoilers” are not easily discernible, but to someone to has watched the series, they may be able to interpret my “retelling” of the narrative through emojis. Interestingly, Bolter (2001) describes pictorial writing as lacking narrative power since the picture elements can contain a myriad of verbal meanings that often mean too much as opposed to too little. In essence, if someone has not watched the series, it could almost represent a game of ‘Broken Telephone’ in which the reader has a drastically different interpretation of the narrative than what it actually is.

Did you choose the work based on how easy would it be to visualize? 

No, I chose the work based on my passion for it and the inherent challenge of conveying major plot points without the convenience of orthographic communication. I tried to focus on the most important events and outcomes, paying special attention to the sequencing of events to cause less confusion to those who might recognize the series and have seen it. I found that it was quite enjoyable to “boil down” the essence of a story I love through a purely pictorial format as I am a highly visual person to begin with.

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