have you heard of squid game?

Described on news outlets as Netflix’s most-watched and critically acclaimed show with over 111 million views worldwide, ‘Squid Game’ has taken over social media with its fresh yet daunting narrative about money hunger and raw human nature. In addition to its great storytelling, the use of Korean children's games in the show played a much bigger role in the show’s massive success with people of all ages taking a turn in playing these games in real life.

As part of a Computation module in school, I was tasked to visualise, contextualise and interpret a dataset in the world of my choosing and create my very own interpretation of this data through code visualisation on p5js.

With that being said, I was fascinated with the idea of diving into the pop culture surrounding the Netflix show ‘Squid Game’. With ‘Squid Game’ becoming one of the most watched series of all time, it is no surprise that it has taken a permanent space on all platforms of social media within the month of its release. The phenomenon of ‘Squid Game’ shook the entertainment industry worldwide, creating a spot in mainstream culture.

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November 2021

From my data visualisation, it is interesting to conclude how the entertainment industry plays such a vital role in providing asian representation and popularising known cultures in mainstream media. ‘Squid Game’ is a prime example of this.

Through the portrayal of local Korean childhood activities in a popular Netflix show streamed across the world, it educates the public about the rich culture of Korea and provides viewers a chance to try these games for themselves, bringing these activities overseas and worldwide as well.

My artefact focuses on the main visual of Squid Games that is shown to the contestants, three primary shapes which are the important elements in creating the gamefloor for the popular children game. These primary shapes have become a prominent symbol and brand of the show, known by the masses. I decided to utilise these shapes and create a rippling effect where it starts small before growing massive in size. This relates back to my conclusion on my data, on how the release of Squid Games has led to a worldwide phenomenon on social media, where people of all ages would come together to participate in the children games played in the show.

The colours I have chosen for each primary shape relates back to the colours I picked for my data visualisation, which represents the three most popular games from the show. In addition, what users would notice when they move their mouse slowly across the screen, is the evolving of colours to a sinister red, which I utilised to depict the terrifying nature of the show's plot where contestants would lose their lives in return for taking part in these games.