20 March 2011

Initial ideas after first tutorial

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Dung_beetle

Given their name, it should come as no surprise that dung beetles feed on faeces, which makes them useful recyclers. There are three main types of dung beetles: rollers, tunnellers and dwellers. The dwellers actually live in the dung. Typical dung beetle appearance is a grooved shield, large, strong front limbs for digging and fighting and elongated back legs for holding on to dung balls whilst rolling them along. Long flying wings are folded under hard wing covers. Some of the well known families in the dung beetle superfamily are the stag, bess and scarab beetles. Dung beetles can be found on every continent except Antarctica.

The reason I looked into these insects is because of this quote from the book

“Come here for a bit, old dung beetle!”

Taking the description of the insect in the first paragraph perhaps evidence of sharp marking around the room and on furniture may add to the mood. Also the strong front limbs could dent any walls or the door. Perhaps the wings could have knocked something over. Also the way in which the dung beetle rolls faeces could be interpreted by having a ball of rubbish or waste from around the room, maybe dust collected and in a corner of the room.

When reading I got a feeling of the 70’s era and could imagine the large geometric shapes within the room where he slept in shades of green.

I like the idea of his bed being a cocoon like shape, or echoes of this as this is where he changed. The whole room could also have a terrarium type feel to it. I liked John’s ideas also about the wallpaper having a dirty gunk like substance underneath it. I could visualise this both in the 70’s type wallpaper and also as it is set at the time it was written. Emily’s ideas about having a Victorian paper underneath a more 1915 style would also look really good with the dirt showing. This would symbolise the wealth of the family, being that they are trying to keep it nice but it still has a couple of decade’s age to the decor.



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