A Study on Emoji Usage in Contemporary Art with an Approach to Linda Hutcheon’s Opinions on Parody

 
Introduction: The term "emoji" is an anglicized adaptation of the Japanese words "e" (meaning "picture") and "moji" (meaning "letter" or "character").  So, the definition of emoji is, simply, a “picture-word” accurately encapsulating its essence.. The primary function of an emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from typed conversation. Emoji exist in various genres, including facial expressions, common objects, places, types of weather, and animals. Emojis are standardized pictographs used to emphasize the emotional tone of the message, indicate emotions, open conversations, and convey the mental state of the message sender While emojis are a cornerstone of social network interactions, their influence extends to other domains, such as culture and commerce..Nowadays, emojis are used in commercial ads, consumer goods, cultural productions, computer games, animations, etc. Therefore, they have a much broader application scope besides social networks. The global obsession with these images, their recurrent use in everyday life, and their positive role in communication have turned these symbols into common and familiar tools for everyone. Emojis have also been applied to contemporary art. The incorporation of these images in visual arts might be explained by recent inclinations of contemporary art and the use of clichés in works of art (especially in pop and neo-pop art). Thus, if we take the “emoji lexicon” on social networks as a “cultural-visual” text, then the use of emojis in other areas might be considered a form of (direct or indirect) imitation from this lexicon.
This study seeks to investigate the incorporation of emojis in contemporary art and explore the possibility of creating parodies using Linda Hutcheon's framework on parody. Specifically, it aims to address the following questions:
How are emojis integrated into contemporary art?
How do artists imitate emojis within the realm of visual arts?
Can the adaptation of emojis from their cultural context into the realm of art, along with their imitation, give rise to an ironic situation or parody?The objective of the present study is to analyze the application of emojis to contemporary art to create parodies using Linda Hutcheon’s “A Theory of Parody”. The present study was done with the objective of fundamental research using the descriptive-analytic method. Qualitative data analysis was used in conducting the research. Data were collected using library and digital resources. The research population consisted of works of art that used emojis. Eight out of ten works of art were selected as samples. Linda Hutcheon’s “A Theory of Parody” was used to analyze the works of art.
Linda Hutcheon is known as one of the most prominent postmodern researchers and theoreticians. The postmodernism of Hutcheon is deeply linked with intertextuality and parody. Parody is considered one of the oldest forms or sub-forms of art which entails intertextuality. Postmodernism pays special attention to parody. Parody is defined as making (conscious) or ironic use of another (often, not necessarily) art pattern. In semiotics, parody is defined as a humorous representation of a literary text or a work of art. In other words, it is the representation of a “modelled reality” that is itself a representation of an “original” reality. In her book “A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of the Twentieth Century Art Forms”, Hutcheon defines parody and its function, its similarity to other (literary and art) genres, coding and decoding, the importance of the codes embedded in the text and their interpretation by the reader.
According to Hutcheon, parody is repetition, but repetition with a difference, imitation with critical ironic distance. Parody uses irony as the main tool to signify or even create contrast. Therefore, exploring whether imitation contains an ironic situation or not is an important marker in identifying parody (from Hutcheon’s point of view). Thus, the first element to analyze in a work of art is its ironic edge. As mentioned before, it is the ironic edge of a parody that helps create distance from the original text and imitation alone does not create a difference. Hutcheon also argues that to understand what a parody is. we should consider the entire act of enunciation, production, and context of reception about a text. She uses the word “ethos” to explain this concept. According to Hutcheon, ethos is a feeling conveyed to the decoder by the encoder. The ethos of a parody might range from respectful, neutral, or playful to mocking and ridiculing. Therefore, the degree to which an (artistic) text is parodic might depend on the extension (intensity) of its ironic edge. According to Hutcheon, parody is not just a humorous imitation, but  a broad range of ethos. Thus, the intensity of the parody is another element to analyze in a work of art to recognize how each work alters the original cultural text (emojis). The third element to consider in Hutcheon’s theory is the importance of encoding and decoding a parody. Hutcheon refers to the importance of encoding the signs embedded in the text and interpreting them. In encoding a text as a parody, the author (encoder/artist) should consider a group of shared cultural and linguistic codes and the reader’s familiarity with the parodied original text. Just like irony, parody demands embedding a certain group of aesthetic and social (ideological) values in the text to enable comprehension. Thus, to analyze a work of art, one must pay attention to the author’s encoding and the codes they place in the work (in a text with a familiar culture, codes might be embedded in social and cultural discourses and even emojis) and also the reader’s decoding based on their cultural and artistic background and familiarity with the codes embedded in the text.
Regarding the objective of the present study and essential elements used in creating a parody from Hutcheon’s point of view, eight visual works of art that applied emojis were analyzed. The results of the study showed that conveying emojis from the cultural context of the “emoji lexicon” into the work of art and altering its sign system and medium could itself create an ironic edge since emojis are used to open conversations and convey the sender’s message tone, feelings, and mental state. Although emojis are humorous and playful, they lack an ironic or critical edge and often refer to what they signify. Therefore, they lose their communicational function by moving to another medium , they can refer to what they signify but they lose their previous function. In the artistic setting, they both legitimize the original cultural text and include critical distancing. In addition to this, each work uses a special method to create an ironic situation. The second point in Hutcheon’s theory is the function, ethos, and intensity of the parody which is directly linked to the ironic edge and ranges from respectful, neutral, and playful ethos to a ridiculing one. The parody created from the analyzed works of art has a double relationship with the original text. This relationship is humorous, amusing, neutral, or playful, but not ridiculing or destructive at all. However, the parody keeps its ironic distance from the original text. Finally, the encoding and decoding of each work of art were analyzed. From Hutcheon’s point of view, the first condition is the reader’s familiarity with the original text. She believes the encoder (artist) embeds a group of aesthetic, cultural, social, and ideological codes in his/her work and the decoder can only understand the parody by identifying them. The three main elements in Hutcheon’s theory apply to these works and the artists have used different methods to create parody. The results showed that the artworks had ironic elements,a prerequisite to parody in Linda Hutcheon’s views, and the resulting parodies have a double-edged relationship . They have an affirmative tone while maintaining an ironic distance. Also, it would seem that due to the diverse encoding methods applied to the artworks, most of them have recognizable pictures and socio-cultural elements that the common people can easily understand which makes the decoding process much easier.