Luna Maurer & Roel Wouters: Emoticons Don’t Have Wrinkles

Digital technology has long pursued the goal of eliminating friction, striving for seamlessness while trying to predict our behaviour. Instead of using our whole hand to interact, we now often use our fingertips to swipe screens or interact with air. Unpredictability, human messiness, and unforeseen actions are all to be eliminated. We no longer buy the promise of a frictionless world. In this zine, Luna Maurer and Roel Wouters state: ‘Friction is what makes us human! Friction is all we have!’ Luna Maurer and Roel Wouters are an Amsterdam based artist duo working across the worlds of design and digital culture. They co-founded Moniker, a studio for interactive design, in 2012 – it ran until 2023, when they closed its doors to pursue projects individually, and collaboratively.