When I was writing my emoji story, I first started for looking for symbols with the same phonetic sounds of the title. I was searching for very specific symbols, like a person with a cape, and began filtering through all of the different sets with no luck. After some time, I started to realize that the system of trying to convert written text into symbols, by relying on the sounds of written text to be conveyed through the emojis was unsuccessful. This was because, even when I found an item, that could be used to relay a phonetic sound, it was questionable whether or not the reader would perceive the symbol as representing the speech sound I wanted it to. For example, I used, what I perceived as, a bowl of soup to make a “suu” sound, but then I realized that some people may view the soup bowl as ‘noodles’ instead. This would depend on their experience, as “(The) Agency of the individual who has a social history, a present social location, an understanding of the potentials of the resources for communication, and who acts transformationally on the resources environment…” (Kress, 2004, p.20) influences how individuals perceive symbols. Because of the subjectivity of symbol translation, I think that it is very difficult to translate a medium that was written in one mode, into another. It takes users of augmentative communication devices, which can use many different symbol sets, a long time to be able to learn and communicate using the new language of symbols. 

In the end, I decided that he best way to provide the plot of the TV show I watched, was to shape the reader’s experience through the relation of emojis instead. I did this by placing the symbols in approximation to one another, using spaces or positions to depict a break  in thought, or new element of the plot. I also used arrows to depict movement, whether or not that included movement in time, an unfolding event or an emotional state by one of the characters. Kress (2004) discusses this action as a practice of traditional writing,  “This gives authors a specific power: readers are dependent …on sequence and sequential uncovering”(p.13). By doing this, I realized it was hard for me to let go of “…an entry point given by convention and used by the author” (Kress, 2004, p.9) as I forced my reader to follow my guide along the page.

References

Kress, G. (2005). Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition, 22(1), 5-22. doi:https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/10.1016/j.compcom.2004.12.004