Fixtures and Fittings || Angry Squid!

When tracing my sketches and photographs, my favourite result was by far the angry looking squid. It emerged from tracing only the shadowed areas of my tall tubular polypropylene structure. I like it the best because it's totally different from the initial form - squids are organic, live organisms. It was interesting, however, that I also got an image of a skyscraper from the same sketch which couldn't be more different from a squid! Following this, I decided to research squids; the way they move, the different types, and a little more about their anatomy. I would like to make a model of a squid, so these were important things to find out about. I also looked into the fear associated with the legends of giant squids, fuelled by ancient tales of the 'Kraken' and such like. Films have been made about these giant deep water beasts and their attacks on ships and people. This works well with my squid's angry appearance. I considered making a model for a film of my own. I watched a film called 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea from 1954. It was good to watch an older film, as everything was made for real, by hand, as CGI did not exist yet. The squid was really quite impressive, and upon reading up about how it was made I was given some ideas about what materials to use (even though my squid will be about a hundredth of the size!).

I want my squid to be mouldable and movable, so I looked for materials that could bring about these characteristics. I found many flexible items such as wire, plastic tubing, paper, cardboard, latex and tape. I also found some eyelets that could work well as suckers. I was really encouraged by this material research as it enabled me to really envisage my idea coming to life. It helped me to begin really considering how I was going to make my model, and plan a prototype.

From today's work I have decided I need to experiment with the materials I have found and work out how I can use them and whether they are entirely suitable. I have a clearer idea of how I will use them and what my squid might look like.