World Emoji Day with NTT

Invented by NTT in 1999, emojis allow everyone to express their feelings quickly and effectively.

In celebration of World Emoji Day and Emoji’s impact on diversity, equity, and inclusion, I collaborated with NTT Experience Center in San Francisco for an evening of drinks, an emoji show, and participating in a conversation examining the intersection of art, technology, and communications, on July 17 📅 from 5-7 pm at NTT Experience Center (690 Folsom Street, San Francisco, includes an emoji art show and a fireside chat with Rika Nakazawa, Group Vice President, New Ventures & Innovation, Head of Americas Sustainability, NTT, moderated by Marguerite Gong Hancock, Vice President, Innovation & Programming and Director, Exponential Center of Computer History Museum.

Rika and I discussed how emojis changed how we communicate and how art & technology work together to positively impact diversity, equity, and inclusion within global communications. You can watch our discussion here:

The event also showcased an emoji art gallery with my “Emoji Masterpiece Remix”, where I integrated public domain classic fine art masterpieces, such as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa and Henri Matisse’s The Dance with modern-day emojis, to commemorate and celebrate World Emoji Day 🎉.

These artworks were shown as an immersive 360-degree interactive exhibit at the NTT Experience Center (XC) to engage with the local San Francisco tech and art community.

I have also made limited edition prints of each artwork and had an exciting raffle drawing where everyone who attended the event could win one of the ten signed and dated art pieces. It was a fun engagement and incentivized people towards the end of the event to receive a present 🎁 being present 😉.

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