[6.4] An Emoji Story

by markpepe

I thought the best way to explain the plot of this TV episode was to express ideas, though I tried using syllables just for the name of the TV show.

I started with a syllabic visuals for the title of the show because I thought that would be the best way to understand the ideas conveyed. If one knows the title they should, hopefully, be able to connect to the four human emojis. I tried my best to use emojis that represent their look and somewhat convey their personality.

My strategy to base this assignment was to browse the series by episode and pick one that had a straightforward plot. Just so happened that the next episode in the list made a good candidate. It started with the four main characters at a coffee shop and their discussion on the use of the subway, then they go their separate ways, and the episode concludes with them back in the coffee shop. I used emojis to establish their place then followed by emojis conveying their situation and or feeling. 

Bolter (2001) says, “MOOs may be stories, but they are not sophisticated fictions” (p. 75). I had to break down the scenes to their most basic structure: who and where, or who and what they are feeling. Using just emoji’s it is not possible insert the nuances of the story. Furthermore, Kress speaks of “mode” and “medium,” changing the mode of a story while also changing the medium of the story is quite challenging for the same reasons as above. Changing the mode and medium of video, which has moving pictures and audio, to a static emoji is going to degrade the amount of detail in the story.

I’m looking forward to deciphering everyone else’s emoji story.

Spoiler Alert!  This is an emoji story of Seinfeld Season 3 Episode 14, “The Subway”. I tried two variations for the title sign + wheat (field) or sign + stadium (field) and I chose the later.

References

  • 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
  • Kress (2005), Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition, Vol. 2(1), 5-22.