S01: Growing the Universal Language of Emoji with Niki Selken

Right After Breakfast

Niki Selken is the founder of Emoji Foundation and the creator of the Emoji Dictionary and VR game EmojiFlower VR. Her work focuses around storytelling, games and interaction design. She is a resident artist and creative code teacher at in the Gray Area where she is researching VR and AR. Niki attributes her intuitive understanding of the translation and meaning of Emoji to her extensive Japanese stationery collection and study of Japanese Butoh and Noh theater. When she is not expanding her Emoji Empire she enjoys designing and playing games, Karaoke and of course, texting Emoji.

Niki has taught interaction design, creative coding, and game design at Parsons School of Design, St. Joseph's College in Brooklyn, University of San Francisco, and Bay Area Video Collective. Before delving into design, she founded experimental theater company, Ko Labs, and a technology consultancy, Big Treehouse. Afterwards she moved to Brooklyn and attended Parsons MFA Design and Technology program where she was awarded design fellowships with Ms. Foundation for Women and PETlab as well as Girls Write Now. In 2013 she founded the World Translation Foundation with Cara Rose DeFabio as a way to promote, explore, and translate the written word into the pictorial alphabet of Emoji. Her latest Emoji project, The Emoji Dictionary, debuted in New York City at The Proof is in the Processor art show and was featured at Currents New Media Art Festival 2015 in Santa Fe. In 2014 she won New York NASA Space Apps and placed as a global finalist for wearable tech project, Senti8. Her game, Find Maria Rivera was exhibited and selected as an Award Finalist at Indiecade 2015. In 2016 she was selected as a Kill Screen game design scholar and Parsons E-Lab fellow for her Augmented Reality platform, Wayscape. Niki's design and Emoji work has been featured by Yahoo Tech, Adafruit, Buzzfeed and Make Magazine among others.

Find Niki Online:

Website - http://www.nikiselken.com/

Facebook - @nikiselken

Instagram - @nikistyxx

Twitter - @nikistyxx

Some Questions I Ask:

• What gets you out of bed every morning?
• What was that first idea of creation for emoji?
• What is emoji to you?
• Is there a negative side to the growth of emoji?
• How have you discovered ways to make a difference through your work?

In This Episode, You Will Learn About:

• What it takes to find the recognition you want
• Creating something around your unique interest
• The evolution people mediating technology
• Accountability of social media platforms
• The progress of globalization via emoji

Music Composed by John Zarcone