The Emoji Art & Design Show was the first-ever gallery presentation of emoji-inspired works. Produced by Forced Meme Productions in partnership with Eyebeam and ArtsTech, and sponsored by Mashable and GroupMe, the show and marketplace was visited by thousands of people over its short run and was covered by press including the New Yorker, Wired, and the Wall Street Journal for showcasing the artistic merit of the (then-nascent) emoji.
The Exhibition
An examination of the emoji zeitgeist, The Emoji Art & Design Show featured works of art and design selected through an open call. The works presented cover a wide range of mediums from digital prints, sculptures, video, and performance art, tackling themes such as emotional ambiguity, symbology, and visual communication. Works in the show explored ideas rooted in both pop and visual culture—appropriating and inserting emoji into the art history cannon, hypnotic moving images, emoji photo apps, inherent translation difficulties, and a desire for more emoji characters were represented in this exhibition.
Emoji Tracker by Matthew Rothenberg
Melroji Place by Cara Rose Defabio
IRL.LOL. by Liza Nelson
Emojinal 2 by Kthanksbye
Transiconmorphosis by Emilio Vavarella and Fito Segrera
Emoji Dick by Fred Benenson
Emojis by Kyle M.F. Williams
Shift Key by Maya Ben-Azer
Emoji Zine
In partnership with WOMANZINE, we produced a special Emoji Zine in conjunction with the Emoji Art & Design Show, edited by Mercedes Kraus, and featuring contributions from Roxane Gay, Jenna Wortham, Clive Thompson, Katie Heaney, Lindsey Weber, and more. A print edition was available to press and exhibition attendees.
The full digital edition is available to read here.
The full digital edition is available to read here.
The Marketplace
A pop-up marketplace was featured during the opening reception for the event, offering emoji artifacts and experiences for visitors.
Panel: I Have No Words
"I Have No Words: Emoji and the New Visual Vernacular" was a panel discussion hosted at Eyebeam on Saturday, December 14, 2013 as a part of the Emoji Art and Design Show presented by Forced Meme Productions, Eyebeam and GroupMe, with additional support from ArtsTech.
Panelists:
Fred Benenson, creator of Emoji Dick
Ramsey Nasser, computer scientist, artist, and Eyebeam alumnus
Zoë Salditch, communications director at Eyebeam
Jenna Wortham, technology reporter, The New York Times
Ramsey Nasser, computer scientist, artist, and Eyebeam alumnus
Zoë Salditch, communications director at Eyebeam
Jenna Wortham, technology reporter, The New York Times
Moderated by: Lindsey Weber, co-founder of Forced Meme Productions & former editor at New York Magazine's Vulture
Selected Press
"This was the Emoji Show, an art exhibition and bazaar in tribute to a new form of language that is, by turns, keenly expressive and cheerfully cryptic."
"Spanning mediums from video to composite posters, the works in the Emoji Art and Design Show treated our favorite smiling piles of poo and flying rocket ships with all the ambiguity they deserve."
"According to Zoë Salditch, one of the show’s curators, the digital icons have become an important part of art and design today. ‘Visual communication has been a part of human expression since the beginning of time, from hieroglyphics to cave paintings to religious iconology and you see that here too,’ Ms. Salditch said. ‘We wanted to bridge that gap."
"Emoji as art is an interesting idea, and one that feels slightly discordant given how most people use the graphics currently. But the show is less about celebrating emoji as a piece of art themselves than it is about using emoji as a material or tool."
"The exhibition explores this new form of communication by appropriating the characters as components of artwork. It’s an ‘examination of the emoji zeitgeist,’ as the online description states, that tears through the codification and emotional obscurity of contemporary society’s answer to cave paintings."
Additional media coverage: The Daily Mail, Dazed Digital, Fast Company, The New York Observer, Hyperallergic, Mashable, NY Daily News, Refinery29, Rookie
Credits:
Event Producers: Forced Meme Productions (Kelly Reeves, Andrea Rosen, Lindsey Weber) and the Eyebeam Art + Technology Center (production lead: Zoë Salditch)
Event Sponsors: GroupMe, Perrier, Brugal Rum, Dark Horse Wines
Media Partner: Mashable
Curatorial Committee: Fred Benenson, Julia Kaganskiy, Dale Kim, Mercedes Kraus, Zeshan Malik, Kelly Reeves, Andrea Rosen, Zoë Salditch, Lindsey Weber, Jenna Wortham, Will Zweigart
Emoji Zine: edited by Mercedes Kraus with Jenna Wortham and Lindsey Weber
Graphic Design: Jacob Cooper
Event Sponsors: GroupMe, Perrier, Brugal Rum, Dark Horse Wines
Media Partner: Mashable
Curatorial Committee: Fred Benenson, Julia Kaganskiy, Dale Kim, Mercedes Kraus, Zeshan Malik, Kelly Reeves, Andrea Rosen, Zoë Salditch, Lindsey Weber, Jenna Wortham, Will Zweigart
Emoji Zine: edited by Mercedes Kraus with Jenna Wortham and Lindsey Weber
Graphic Design: Jacob Cooper