The Noteworthy Project asked different artists to reinterpret emoticons in their own inimitable style. The process and final pieces were documented on film and directed by Oscar-nominated and Sundance-winning filmmaker Jessica Sanders. Below are those films and the final artworks.
:( by Tim Biskup:
“My goal was to present a midpoint between the :( emoticon’s abstraction of sadness and the literal representation of it in the photo of my daughter, thus inserting my own expression into the equation.” - Tim Biskup
Tim Biskup's final piece:
:-) by AJ Fosik:
“I decided to transform the devious emoticon into an idol, taking a digital [way of conveying] emotion and meaning and merging it with a traditional physical one, subverting both to create something new.” - AJ Fosik
AJ. Fosik's final piece:
LOL by Megan Whitmarsh:
“I wanted to create a LOL that radiates optimism, using a handcrafted, analog, pop vision to capture its warmth and cheerfulness.” - Megan Whitmarsh
Megan Whitmarsh's final piece:
OMG by Reza Ali:
“OMG invites its audience to interact by speaking to it. Besides surprise, it can represent joy, sadness, anger, excitement, fear, shock, and relief. OMG changes in real-time to reflect that variation.” - Reza Ali
Reza Ali's final piece:
;) by Craig + Karl:
“The ;) emoticon depicts our dynamic: a closed eye dreaming, forming ideas; an open eye, developing them. A smile links us.” - Craig and Karl
Craig Redmond + Karl Maier's final piece:
About The Noteworthy Project:
Our potential for human expression is huge, but at some point technology started getting in the way of our passion. We’ve been so busy tweeting and texting, we may have accidentally left behind what makes us human.
The Noteworthy Project documents a series of projects that examine what happens when communication is made by hand.
Noteworthyproject.com