Holy Emojis! Artist Seeks $25,000 to Translate Bible into Emojis

Sample translated emoji bible verses on Kamran Kastle's Kickstarter page. kickstarter.com

Emojis are making waves in the art world once again (See Multi- Ethnic Emojis Update is About to Up Your Emoji Art Game). USC graduate and artist Kamran Kastle has taken to Kickstarter to raise $25,000, the funds he requires to translate the entire Bible—both Old and New Testament— into, yep, you guessed it, emojis.

In a comical video on the project’s kickstarter page video, Kastle stopped pedestrians on the street to ask their thoughts on the project. One bro-ish participant explained the reason the good book has lost popularity in recent years is because “they probably think it’s boring… If it was in emojis I promise you 99% of you would read it and be into it. It’s like you’re seeing pictures or something.”… Indeed.

Upon receiving the entirety of $25,000 Kastle will design 5,000 more emojis to illustrate the 800,000-word text. Anyone who donates to the cause will gain access to the bevy of texting symbols— the possibilities of emoji art (and literature!) would be endless.

In an interview with Vice, Kamaran said “I imagine one day a lot of classic texts will receive the emoji treatment.” While some may not be able to imagine that an emoji bible is a valuable use of a graduate degree, it appears the project is part of a larger phenomenon of millennial hybrid literature, combining viral memes, frivolous corners of the internet, and prolific tomes. Moby Dick has been reworked twice, once by Amazon Turks into emojis—aptly named Emoji Dick— and again by Janet Potter who replaces lines of novels with click-bait headlines— Moby Dick was retitled They Told Him White Whales Were Impossible to Hunt. That’s When He Went Literally Crazy and J.R.R. Tolken’s Lord of The Rings was renamed Watch How Complicated This Guy’s Road Trip Gets When He Lets A Group of Dwarves Plan It.


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