Put down your calamari! While squid is a beautiful sea creature and a common appetizer, it's perhaps less commonly known for its ink. That's the substance with which a squid can colour the water to make a quick escape, and it's also sought after to colour and flavour dishes like pasta and risotto. It's not cheap, either — a squid contains only a small amount of the liquid.

Earlier this year, CBC Arts went to Toronto's Action Potential Lab to film our story about Christian Bök and his journey to encode a bacterium with poetry. The Lab is the first of its kind in Toronto — a space dedicated to the intersection between art and science. When the Lab's director and founder Lisa Carrie Goldberg told us she holds a class in squid dissection and ink extraction to make art, we had to find out everything we could about the process. In this segment, Goldberg takes us through all the steps from squid to squid ink art.

Former Exhibitionist in Residence Carolyn Tripp took up the challenge of exploring the possibilities of artmaking with squid ink — the results were mesmerizing, and you can see them at the end of this video. You can also find out more about classes and events at Action Potential Lab here.