#emojicon 2016: It’s Time for Emoji Karaoke!
Next weekend is the inaugural Emojicon, a community-based conference celebrating all things emoji.
As a long-time fan and current researcher of emoji, I consider myself lucky to be on the speakers roster for this event. I’ll be doing a talk on the importance of taking intersectionality into consideration when making design choices on Sunday morning, but the real reason I’m there is to host Emoji Karaoke.
Emoji Karaoke? What’s That?
I’m so glad you asked! Emoji Karaoke is a game that I created in 2014 for re:publica, an amazing digital culture and politics conference that takes place annually in Berlin.
Emoji Karaoke is a game where you translate famous song lyrics into emoji within a limited amount of time. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:
Now, of course, there are any number of ways that you could have interpreted those lyrics: “junkie” and “funky” in particular are up to creative interpretation. But that’s what makes Emoji Karaoke so great: it takes two of the best parts of emoji — creativity within a framework and humor — and combines them into one super fun activity.
Where Did You Come Up With This Awesome/Cockamamie Idea?
Starting in 2013, these amazing emoji translation videos were making the rounds, including the lyric video for Katy Perry’s “Roar”
…and the awesome work of Cara Rose DeFabio’s World Translation Foundation.
The emoji artworks above clearly took a lot of time and effort to create, and it got me thinking: what would happen if you asked people to translate things into emoji, but you gave them a limited amount of time to do it?
I am a big fan of games that require you to do some form of creative translation or interpretation within time constraints: Pictionary, Cranium (the clay round, especially), Heads’ Up, Charades. This is usually because what people come up with when they are under time pressure is pretty hilarious. Fortunately, this has proven to be true every time I’ve hosted Emoji Karaoke in the past.
So, How Do I Get In On This?
If you want to play Emoji Karaoke at Emojicon, you have to tweet using #emojicon and #emojikaraoke with an explanation as to why you think you’d be a great contestant. The more emoji you use the better, of course. Here’s an example:
If you haven’t registered for the conference, don’t worry! You can WIN a totally free Emojicon Play ticket just by being awesome on Twitter with your entry tweet (people who live in the Bay Area, get at it). We’ll notify you via Twitter ahead of time. If you’re selected as a contestant, you have the opportunity to win some really cool prizes, including Gomoji Bean Bags and Timberland gift certificates.
For those of you who don’t want to play but just want to watch, there’s a job for you, too: the Semi-Final rounds will be judged by audience applause, so we need you to come and cheer for your favorite translations!
This Is Going To Be Awesome, Isn’t It
Yes, it is. See you there!
