This body of work continues with my exploration of the written language, which has been the theme for many of my works (see the Color Alphabet and Shredded Paper series). This new work will be focused on the emoji as an essential paralinguistic element in our modern form of computer mediated communication (CMC).
I will be creating works that bring these digital emojis into a physical form using my crayon-pixel technique. Moving these visual icons outside of the computer where they serve a purely functional role and recasting them into a sculptural art form gives viewers a chance to reflect on the emojis’ use in our society. The low-res pixelation inherent in my technique is an ideal conduit for representing emojis due to the sparsity of visual information in these symbols.
I find the contemporary use of the emoji fascinating, as these “picture-letters” enable a glimpse of the evolution of language in today’s popular culture1. Each emoji contains many meanings and is used to supplement our written words with the non-verbal cues and expressions which are often lacking in abbreviated text-based communications. These new “words”2 also transcend their use as a purely para-language element and can stand on their own acting as a form of universal visual language.
Through proximity with other emojis, the individual symbols can be used to create a variety of new meanings. Their interpretations are fluid depending on cultural or national usages which create a shared mode of communication that is specific to a time, place, or group of individuals.
The speed at which the emojis can evolve in meaning and how they are used in written communication renders them one of the more dynamic features of our modern language. This large array of icons deserves its own area of study. Hopefully, this new body of work will encourage viewers to ponder these and other aspects of the little emoji. 🤗
- 🫃 Pregnant Man: A pregnant man holding his round stomach. Sometimes used in jest to represent feeling too full after overeating, as in a “food baby.”
- 🤣 Face with tears of joy Oxford Dictionaries announced this week that the 2015 Word of the Year is not a word at all but an emoji — more specifically the “face with tears of joy” emoji. This is the first time since the tradition began in 2004 that a pictograph was chosen.Nov 17, 2015
