Smilies

In the beginning there was the Smiley . According to a Wikipedia article, the smiley may have been born as early as 1963 (and somebody typed :) to symbolize a smile ten years earlier). It did not conquer the world, though, until the 1970s, when it found its way into business. The rest is history...

I like smiles. I think smilies are minimal art. It's a very special kind of art, since you have such a limited space in which to create expression. (To be sure, there are big smilies out there - I think that's cheating. )

I love the way you can endlessly find new variations on the smilie theme. I love the way talented smilie-makers can say so much with so little.

So, here's an enumeration of some of my favourite smilies, presented in a fake (?, don't ask me, I have no idea!) history of smilie development.

An early, quite logical variation is the sad smilie (the saddie?):

There are plenty of other "basic expressions" around, such as:

glare	"innocent"	annoyed
sneaky	err...	grin

Sometimes there are variations on the "same" expression:

mad ...

... and mad

Then there are smilies depicting all kinds of professions and roles:

headphones	glasses	graduate	pope
doctor	nurse	police	rambo
sailor	snorkle	pirate	fish
cowboy	indian	mask	"ninja"
queen	king	knight	fool

This versatility of the smilie is in itself amazing. But, with the addition of gif animations, smilies can be brought to yet another level of expression, sometimes merely expanding the expression of a static smilie, sometimes actually needing animation, or they would not be expressive. A few of them are indeed little expressive mini-stories already.

blink!	unsure	wub	tease
hug	whistle...	sorry	rant

There are smilies for all occasions, depicting everyday life experiences, moral dilemmas, some presumably less common experiences, and some quite violent ones, too. I use only the milder ones here .

the way PCs behave	taking a bath	doing the laundry	watching TV
reading	searching...	camping	good or bad?
beating sense into somebody?	slapping, indeed	russian roulette	taking care of the injured
being abducted by aliens

Some smilies actually do tell little stories. I would say that these pose a special challenge to the smilie-maker, since the animation has to be repeated infinitely. The story has to end as it began.

shooting frogs...

won't share...

in the sandbox...

tumbleweed

There are a few things that can not be said in plain pictures, though. Smilies will carry words, when they have to, such as and...
.

That last smilie could say something about the life of smilies on the net, too. That sign is pretty pointless in relation to smilies, if taken as a protest against copying and using others' smilies. I have seen a few sites where people claim copyright for the smilies they have made. I understand the sentiment. One single smilie may take a lot of work and creativity. But, smilies simply are regarded as free for all to use. They get copied and used, soon losing their connection to their maker. It may be unfortunate that the original creator can't at least get credit for her/his work, though. I'll get back to that in a later post.