Degree
Doctor of Design (DDes)
Department
College of Art & Design
Document Type
Dissertation
Abstract
Pictograms have been in greater or lesser use for millennia. Today, thousands of icons and emoji mediate online navigation and humanize digital interaction. Is there a continuous lineage from prehistoric petroglyphs to the Ancient Egyptian script and contemporary digital pictography or are these a series of independent reinventions? As an epistemological outlier, at the intersection of art, language, and communication, pictography demands a cross‑disciplinary approach. This project aims to contribute to the existing literature by foregrounding pictography as an art form.
Following both the online and offline lives of pictograms, I document exhibitions that present instances of pictography as art and emoji-inspired artwork. Finally, as an alternative research method, I record the process that produced my own emoji-inspired artworks.
Date
5-15-2026
Recommended Citation
Kalaitzidis, Thrasyvoulos Ioannis, "Emoji as Images: Digital Pictography in Terms of Art" (2026). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 7092.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/7092
Committee Chair
Michael Desmond
LSU Acknowledgement
1
LSU Accessibility Acknowledgment
1
Included in
Aesthetics Commons, Art Practice Commons, Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Graphic Communications Commons, Graphic Design Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, Painting Commons, Performance Studies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons