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[Best of 2013] The Year In Emojis

From wallpaper to full novels, 2013 was the year of the emoji.

In a year filled with eye-catching GIFs, stop-motion shorts, and interactive music videos, the emoji-cons--those delightful little Japanese "metacommunicative pictorial representation of a facial expression"--still managed to somehow hold their place in the spotlight. Diffusing a range of human emotions into bite-sized icons, the emoji says all the things we wish we could but can't (whimsical sigh).

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So in celebration of our tiny, cartoon friends we present: The Best of the Year in Emojis.

Emoji Art History

The folks at #EmojiArtHistory know their stuff--and they aren't afraid of taking it to the text level. From Damian Hirst to Ai WeiWei (above) the creators of the social media handle turned some of the most buzzworthy pieces of the last decade into the most sharable content.

via Wired

Emoji Dick

Just as the name suggests, a crowd sourced (and crowd funded) version of the Herman Melville classic was recently translated into these delightful characters. Translated a (borderline obsessive) three times by an Amazon Mechanical Turk worker, the results were then voted upon--with over eight hundred people spending roughly 3,795,980 seconds to bring it to fruition. We'll spare you the whale puns, but this was indeed a truly massive undertaking. However, this year Emoji Dick finally got the recognition it deserved with an induction into Library of Congress, providing future emoji fun for bored visiting school children for years to come.

To purchase your own Emoji Dick copy you can click here.

Emoji Wallpaper

Sick of traditional English countrysides and stereotypical florals? For new home decor ideas check out Zoe Burnett, an artist who has turned dozens of emojis into unique patterns--able to be printed at home.

via Amusement.net

Emoji Art For iPhones

Using ASCII art, Emojify allows users to take or pull phoptos from their smartphone and replace the pixels with emoji. As the image above demonstrates, you can now turn great works of art into great emoji works of art--along with family photos, Facebook pics, and anything else your heart desires.

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via The Verge

Emoji Today Show

This year the Today Show cast turned into emojis--and while the Al Roker emoji is pretty funny it does raise the question of diversity among our current emoji selection.

via Today.com

Emoji Miley Cyrus True Life Story

Pretty self-explanatory, the young singer goes from humble southern upbringing to blinging wrecking ball in one short text.

via Buzzfeed

While these were some of our favorite emojis of 2013,  if you're curious here is a fun piece on the evolution of emojis. Please check full timeline below: (via 5loom)

If you're in New York City this week and want to catch some emoji high art IRL, stop by the Emoji Art and Design Show at Eyebeam, featuring works by Jeanette Hayes, Zoe Burnett, and Fred Benenson.

December 12th-14th, 2013 12PM-6PM

Eyebeam Arts Center 
540 W 21st St, New York, NY 10011

Did we miss your favorite emoji of 2013? Drop us a line with your tips in the comments section.