In today’s tech-driven world, art has taken a whole different meaning. You’ve got selfies to commemorate the legitimacy of mobile (self) photography, memes to enjoy trends on a whole different level, and animated GIFs to capture memorable media moments. Now there’s a new art form that wants to be properly recognized for its visual merits: The emoji.
Forced Meme and Eyebeam are collaborating to orchestrate Emoji Art & Design Show, scheduled to take place from December 12 – 14, 2013 at the Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in New York City. In case you didn’t already know how popular emojis are, here’s how the organizers explained their reasons for putting up the exhibit:
In today’s visually oriented culture, which increasingly communicates through images rather than text, emoji comprise a kind of “visual vernacular,” a language that conveys humor, ambiguity and personality as well as meaning.
This visual form of communication isn’t necessarily new—from cave paintings, to hieroglyphics, to religious and mythological symbols encoded in traditional painting and sculpture, we’ve been communicating through images since the dawn of mankind—but its dominance in culture today, especially among millennials, seems to indicate a greater shift in our approach to self-expression.
The show’s organizers are currently accepting submissions from any artist or designer who can come up with emoticon-based artwork using a myriad of mediums, including digital painting, traditional painting, sculpture, video, and even performance (although it’s unclear how submissions for the latter can be sent in … a link to a video sample, perhaps? You can ask the organizers). Participants have until November 8 to submit their entries to the exhibit.
Since the deadline hasn’t elapsed, we can only guess what kind of entries are being sent in. One thing’s for sure – if the contest is indeed “looking for a diverse array of interpretations and appropriations of the emoji that exist both on and offline,” then here’s to hoping that the pieces that make it into the show are along the lines of these awesome examples of emoji art we’ve culled from the Web:
1. Movies effectively summarized through emoji
That way, you don’t have to sit watching a flick for two hours.
https://www.instagram.com/p/T5LQ3owueG/
2. Famous people emojified
There’s actually an app for that (and the rules don’t say you can’t use it).
3. Famous paintings emojified
3. Famous paintings emojifiedBecause the concept is utterly hilarious. More from this Tumblr blog.
4. Straight up original emoji art
Put your imagination and Photoshop skills to good use.
5. Real-life emoji interpretation
Try to be less douchey than this guy, though.
6. Emoji dance choreography
Or something like it.
