When I saw the description for this week’s task I was over the moon! One of my favourite BBC TV Game Shows – Richard Osman’s House of Games – has this as a game in their weekly episodes called Totes Emoji. Here is a link to the Totes Emoji game segment from their Campions week:
Emoji Story
Reflection
I must say, I found this more difficult than I expected! Particularly when discovering the limits of available emojis, and the subjectivity of what the core aspect of a story is when trying to explain it to others. I ended up needing to make a “key” for characters when I felt single emojis weren’t adequate, but that complexity makes the description look a little overwhelming! How in-depth to go with the description was also difficult to determine, since you don’t know what details are obvious for you and which may be obvious to others.
In the end, I relied more on storyline and ideas to convey my concepts. Starting with the title was an easy way for me to get to grips with the task myself, and to set a parameter of reference for people interpreting the emojis. It was also a very easy visual reference to create as it could mirror the title that people may recognise. This was one of the reasons I chose this over other work, as it is not necessarily in my recently read or watched repertoire! All my recent media (books, tv series, and movies) are a bit more obscure and I felt that even if I represented them perfectly with emojis, people would likely not recognise them. So I went with a long time favourite, in hopes that I could make this a more social and communal activity with this selection.
Sidenote
This week I don’t have too many extra resources or readings because I went through an up and down repatriation adventure! I was booked onto a repatriation flight from Germany to South Africa, which got delayed due to a technical malfunction. The next day, 2 repatriation flights left but a group of 39 of us were on neither due to a lack of seats because of overbooking and reduced seats due to the technical issue. I went from having been on a plane with a boarding pass, to not knowing when I would go home next. I became a central co-ordinator between the airline and the stranded 39 (since the airline had no contact details or e-ticket numbers required). After 11 hours in an airport on a Sunday we had managed to arrange a flight back home, with a stop over for a night in Amsterdam along the way. I finally arrived back on home soil at 3am on Wednesday morning, and am now in a government quarantine facility for 2 weeks before I’ll be released to go home to my family.
It’s been an adventure, with some serious ups and downs, but I’m home and have a 39-strong new friend/family! The exhaustion is real, and my quarantine room is tiny, but I have an internet connection and a business and an MET to keep me busy until I return to my family again. Below is a pic of our group just before we boarded the final leg home from Amsterdam, and following that are some news articles about the events if anyone is interested
Linda Duong
June 20, 2020 — 7:05 am
My first thought was the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants but I haven’t seen/read this and apparently there are less characters.
The line with the coffees made me think of the song Seasons of Love from the musical Rent (which I have also not seen).
I’m so happy you’ve made it home safely!!!
Jamie Ashton
June 21, 2020 — 2:52 am
I’m going to ask Ernesto if we can reveal the titles after a while!
robin mchugh
June 20, 2020 — 10:34 pm
Hi Jamie!
I’m glad to hear you’ve made it home safe! I love that you shared this personal experience on your blog this week.
I think your emoji story is Friends… but I’ve never been great at guessing anything related to pop culture! ????
Talk to you soon!
Robin
Jamie Ashton
June 21, 2020 — 2:36 am
Thanks for saying that! I was worried about throwing personal life into the school life mix
Talk soon indeed
carla pretorius
June 21, 2020 — 12:23 am
Hmmm…. You have me stumped Jamie but it’s probably because I haven’t seen this show or film yet. My interpretation of the emoji plot is that there are a group of people (three girls and three guys) living together in a house/ residential dwelling of some sort (emojis can make it difficult to be sure, haha) in NYC. The massive amounts of coffee first had me thinking it could be Friends but I couldn’t quite place the calendars with the 17 on it (I haven’t watched Friends much so this could have been a reference though). Then I thought the hair color of the girl emojis might be off and this threw me a bit (again it could be the limited amount of emojis available that influenced the character representation and this indeed is Friends). I then started thinking about Sex and the City as a candidate but that also didn’t work. Good job on keeping me guessing!
This is my new favorite way to play charades.
Jamie Ashton
June 21, 2020 — 2:35 am
This is my new fav way to play charades too! Even works long distance.
So your point about hair colours is SUPER important, because I was actually missing a hair colour and then I ended up doing research and found this great article https://theweek.com/articles/822203/why-need-brunette-white-person-emoji-no-really
It is interesting to see how these visual representations for text are evolving into conversations about race and representation in the real world, and how misusing an emoji in textual/technological spaces can be seen as a transgression that has impact on daily lives.
Ryan Dorey
June 25, 2020 — 7:10 pm
I agree Jamie,
I have spent years using the brown thumb instead of the yellow thumb only because it appears in my ‘recently used’ emojis. My friends have asked me why I use it and I never had a good reason. I finally fell upon the hidden “diversity” in emojis during the creation of Task 6 when I clicked and held my finger on one for a second or two. This revelation of a “hidden group of emojis that I did not notice hit me like a ton of bricks as an oblivious white person.
Ryan Dorey
June 25, 2020 — 7:12 pm
Oh yah,
That is most definitely Friends. The dino boy gave it away. That and the ten seasons.