Self Initiated : Sampling

The feelings I want to try and visualise are that of fear of falling/feeling unsafe when rock climbing as well as feeling heavy when trying to work your way up the wall.

In terms of sampling, I have begun by looking at emulating the different shapes of the holds, and playing with materials, thinking about wether i want them to have the same grippy feeling of the holds or to be unsupportive and use slippy materials. I began testing using leather, cotton and hessian. Three different textured materials.

These samples, although were useful in terms of seeing how the shapes can be constructed, and how different materials react to being held, they're not helping me in my aim to emulate the feeling i want to achieve.

I decided to move away from these samples and started working in delicate, airy breakable materials such as clay and sponge. The idea to use these materials came from the feeling that the holds won't support your weight and that you would just fall off. So, using these materials means that if any weight was applied they would tear, snap or come out of the wall.

I also incorporated hair curlers into these samples because of their sharp texture, meaning if they were grabbed you would not be able to hold on, causing you to lose your grip.

I quite like the shapes and textures achieved in these samples, however some of the colours are too different to the ones i have seen on the climbing walls. So, if i wanted to continue using spongey materials i would have to source better colours and bigger sizes as you can't cut into them too much before they become really small.

I then experimented with using both air drying and baked clay, creating both delicate and awkward to grip pieces. I also began adding elements of material into the clay pieces to add another level of fragility. 

These definitely feel like the most successful samples so far as they not only look really interesting and vibrant, but they successfully fill the function that i wanted my samples to do. I made the clay thin and delicate, so that any weight applied would snap the clay, or the textile elements would pull out of the clay when pulled on. 

I think after doing these samples, i want to create a non functioning climbing wall as in order for the samples to do what i intended, they need to be situated in the right context, which would be on a wall where people can interact with them and understand the feeling i wanted to portray.