Interest
Museum of Modern Art Acquires Original 176 Emoji
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) announced on Wednesday that it has acquired the original set of 176 emoji for its permanent collection. The emoji will appear in MoMA's lobby beginning in December.
Shigetake Kurita, creator of the original pictographs, confirmed the announcement on his Twitter page. Kurita created the emoji set for Japan's mobile carrier NTT Docomo, and they made their debut on mobile devices in 1999.
Kurita noted on his Twitter account that he created the original emoji so that there could be as many as possible and people could use them universally. Kurita said:
I thought when I made them that I wanted them to be not pictures but extended lines from characters [of the Japanese language]. That's because there are likes and dislikes with pictures. The iPhone unfortunately made [emoji] into pictures, haha. But even so, people becoming able to use [emoji] around the world is a happy thing [for me].
Kurita probably never imagined how emoji would take off in our modern era of smartphone communication. It is probably safe to say that his legacy will continue to thrive as people create more emoji and new ways to have conversations with them.
Emoji will soon advance to the big screen as Sony Pictures Animation's emoji film debuts next August 11. Anthony Leondis (Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters) is directing off a script he co-wrote with Eric Siegel.
The film's story follows Gene (T. J. Miller), the only emoji in Textopolis with the capability of expressing multiple emotions. Desperate to become normal like the other emojis, he enlists the help of his best friend Hi-5 (James Corden) and the Code Breaker emoji Jailbreak (Ilana Glazer).
[Via Kai-You, Live Science]
