Task 6: An emoji story

Below is my emoji story based on a movie I recently watched.

Initially, I felt quite intimidated by this task because I found it a bit difficult to communicate via only emoji’s. This feeling probably arose from the fact that we rely so heavily on written communication, that visual communication does not seem sufficient on its own.

As Bolter (2001) argues, this is because written text has been viewed as superior, and visuals as inferior and incomplete. I believe that this notion is not an objective one, but rather due to the way our society operates. Almost anyone, with or without an education, can communicate using visuals, however, not everyone can communicate in written text, and if they can, it is generally in only a few languages, not all. Hence, language has divided us. Almost every culture and society has their own form of written communication, dialects, and accents. Achieving “native” proficiency requires you to be raised and taught in that community, and any deviation from the norm suggests you are an outsider. Using visual forms, such as emojis, are almost universal because the majority of people group emotions and representations the same way. My parents native language is not English, but whenever we watch English movies, they can always understand the plot if the acting and visuals are strong.

My parents would also be able to decode the meaning of my emoji story; they might not know which movie it is but they will understand that it is a love story.  This is why I choose to represent this story in particular, love is recognized in some form in almost any society. When I looked at my emoji keyboard, I noticed that the number of emoji’s the represent love and happiness far outnumber any other emotion/expression. This made it a bit easier to communicate my story visually because the primary emoji’s I needed were available. Regardless of how hard or difficult it might be communicate visually, it is definitely possible and the forms of visual communication are limitless. For me, this is why I value and treasure the visual art.  

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