In order to complete this task, I relied heavily on ideas. The concepts of the title and plot summary were paramount. I definitely started with the title as it was the easiest part of the task in this case. I chose this work because my partner and I actually play an emoji game with TV shows and movies from time to time just for fun, and this was the most recent thing we had watched together. 

I pondered this task with this week’s writings in mind and found myself thinking emojis are so archaic in their visual representation in the current day. We have so much technology at our fingertips, I would even say emojis have evolved. My Bitmoji collection is far more advanced than the emoji keyboard. 

Here is the same sample in Bitmoji’s :

The face tracking version of my analysis.

(All video’s mentioned in animation linked in the transcript below)

Transcript of Animation:

In my opinion, Bitmoji explains it more clearly, granted they are not just visual representations but also include text.  What if we were to communicate as seen in Stark Trek the next generation episode Darmok. Is the species that communicate all in metaphor, the oral equivalent of emoji communication?

Perhaps the evolution of writing is more about recreating events with regard to time and energy.  Historically, writing has been the more efficient use of time over image creation. The technology for image creation and reproduction has been too time-consuming and did not allow for larger and larger volumes of information to be communicated efficiently. The advent of the computer and cellphone have reimagined what is efficient for recreating the most accurate depiction of an event or thought the “natural state” (Bolter 2001). 

Video image and hypermedia give an “easy” or efficient way of more accurately demonstrating an event or author’s position than text alone. This may be less about the evolution of text and more about the evolution of technology to convey the natural state in the case of Medieval writing the audience that was literate and Anglo Saxon was infinitely smaller than the future populations. The ability to print writing matched the size of the audience as it does now with computer technology and population. After the medieval time, populations of those consuming text were out of proportion with the technology capable of producing the increasing volumes of written work re-rendering the technology to writing equations out of balance and plunging the “evolution of writing” back to a more alphabet driven endeavour (Bolter, 2001). 

The explosive radiation of technology throughout the globe and its efficiency to recreate the natural state of events and thoughts has realigned the equation of technology to writing allowing for a renaissance of the medieval-style relationship of the image and text. 

Hypertext and Hypermedia have reestablished the marginal notes of medieval publications (Bolter 2001). The progression of text is directly linked to the evolution of technology associated with recreating the natural state for others. Projecting into the future, we will likely see a serious jump in the evolution of text when the efficacy of 3D environments like Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality become more ubiquitous. These media will create a new way of creating the natural state for others. The ability for thought via computer to be linked to these technologies will even further confound text and natural state. 

So why the resistance to change if the shift in communication is to the more natural state. Without exploring this in-depth as there is no time. Economics and Class have the power to resist change in order to preserve the elitist attitudes towards knowledge. This is especially evident in academic writing even more so academic writing that may have an economic value attached as in the case of research leading to patent. The open-access and near-ubiquitous ability of technology to convey the natural state and provided insertion points for all abilities is in direct conflict with the maintenance of capital structures used to perpetuate class as a product of economic wealth and as a mechanism of control.  We need only consult the perpetuation of ableism as a demonstration. 

The evolution of technology and its subsequent availability to the western population at large has yielded unintended consequences. Voice and knowledge are being given to marginalized populations which in turn is pulling back the curtain on the societal structures maintained to perpetuate class and economic prosperity. See the video on image boards for communication and hear the voices of those long silenced.

Congruent with this line of thinking it isn’t difficult to see how institutions indoctrinated to maintain industrial revolution models of society have been and continue to be resistant to the change in the text as outlined by Kress.

References