Feb 05, 2019 Getting Emojitional

By Erika Church

How many of you have really read Moby Dick? I mean who reads anymore anyway? Who even talks on their phone? Who even has time for any of it?! Ok, ok, maybe I am getting a little

The truth is we communicate in a lot of different ways and one is the emoji. Emoji first appeared on cell phones in Japan in the late 1990’s. These days they are a staple of communication…even my septuagenarian dad sends me messages littered with emoji

So why am I getting so emojitional?

A few years ago, say 2010, so nine years ago Fred Beneson completed a project that brought together the evolving landscape of technology, communication, and a classic tale of a

Emoji Dick: or, The Whale is an emoji translation of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. It took over eight hundred people 3,795,980 seconds of work to create the translation. And while the Library has over 126 items about the great white whale there is only one with this kind of emojition.

Erika Church | Design & Technology Specialist
Creativity & Innovation Services / Creative Spaces
erika.church@utah.edu