Computer History Museum Emoji Wall Art

Computer History Museum “Little Emoji, Big Story” Wall Art & Emoji Panel Discussion Event

I partnered with the Computer History Museum to create a 30-foot tall “Little Emoji, Big Story” wall art to celebrate diversity, inclusion, and the International Women’s Month, in the Museum’s lobby, as a focal point for visitors to museum exhibitions and events. The wall will be displayed in the museum for a year, to challenge visitors to the Museum to think differently about the role of art and technology, specially their everyday use of Emoji and self expression, with particular emphasis on diversity and inclusion.

The wall design also told stories from the origin of emoji and the earliest set of emojis from Japanese telecom NTT DOCOMO in 1999.

The museum also chose to feature voices from six global emojis change makers:

– Katrina Parrott, founder & CEO of iDiversicons®, championed the five skin tones to break down racial barriers ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿.
– Paul D. Hunt, a typeface designer at Adobe championed gender-neutral or nonbinary emojis 🧒🏽.
– Rayouf Alhumedhi, a Stanford product design student, championed the hijab 🧕 emoji.
– Lumen Bigott, a graphic designer from Airbnb, designed the original Unicode 🫓 arepa emoji, a popular staple food or “bread” in Central & South America.
– Jennifer 8. Lee, a journalist and film producer, co-produced the documentary “The Emoji Story,” which tells the story of the evolution of the emoji.
– Yiying Lu, designed the original unicode food emojis 🥟🧋🥡🥠🥢 & animal emoji 🦚 to promote cultural inclusion & biodiversity.

I also worked directly with the museum’s Vice President, Collections & Exhibitions, Kirsten Tashev, to develop strategic discussions and brainstorming around the role of CHM and bringing forward the intersection of art and technology and how the museum can serve as a focal point over time to convene conversations and educational experiences, by providing insight and lending voice as a panelist at the March Emoji event, providing my unique perspective on the intersection of art and technology.

On Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 7 pm PT, Computer History Museum hosted a free in-person & virtual event with Jennifer 8. Lee, Rayouf Alhumedhi and myself in conversation with Sara Dean. We share our fascinating stories & insights and celebrate International Women’s day through art, technology & creativity through emojis:

Thanks team Computer History Museum, Marguerite, Kirsten, Russell for making this possible!
Photo Courtesy: Douglas Fairbairn