Convention. The word stirs up images of wildly specific interest groups (
#cosplayers,
gamers,
hobos), and somewhat strange gatherings of intensely passionate people. A convention is
the antithesis of mass appeal. But what if there were a convention based around something that everyone has, at one point or another, experimented with?
Enter Emojicon.
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| buzzfeed.com |
The event will make everyone who has ever used an emoji question their
sanity before checking for live streams of the event. After all,
what could they possibly be doing there?
What new emoji will manifest itself in pillow form? Will there be
exclusive emojis handed out to attendees? Brace yourself California,
because Emojicon is hitting the College of the Arts campus on November
4-6.
According to the official website, con-goers will, "See emoji art. Watch
emoji films. Discuss emoji policy. Get your picture taken in an emoji
booth. Eat emoji-themed food. Discuss emoji with members of the
Unicode Emoji Subcommittee,"
although, on their site, the message has a much less serious tone
seeing as it's punctuated by emojis representative of each activity. For
time spent at the convention,
attendees can expect a plethora of emoji-related activities to engage in, from
hackathons to
film festivals and an
opening night party serving only food that can be represented in emoji form.
Organized by Jeanne Brooks, Jennifer Lee, and Yiying Lu, the convention
will span multiple days and feature a handful of "emoji figures"
including members of the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee, the founder of
Emojipedia,
and the digital curator from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
Discussion is of the utmost importance at this convention, especially
concerning the
predominately white male field that reigns over emoji-dom. The organisers of the convention are also the founders of
Emojination,
a campaign which began with proposing a dumpling emoji and blossomed
into a way to help people craft emoji proposals for the Unicode
Consortium.
According to
BuzzFeed News,
Brooks and co. put together Emojicon to "open up the conversation and
create a home to celebrate emoji. We'll be exploring a range of
discussions from technical aspects of emoji production and the emoji
approval process, to cultural implications and impact."
Tickets are limited and divided into a few categories dependent on
interest: all-access, panel and interactive, activity, film, and a VIP
ticket (limited to just 20).
Get your tickets here until 1 Nov.
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