Sommer Schneller Individual Project

The final project was an opportunity to truly explore an interest of mine. I chose to look at the form and qualities of air dancers, the inflatable tubes found typically outside car stores. Initially, I thought the form was simple: air entered a tube and the weight of the top made it fall over and reassert itself once pressure rebuilt. However, I came to learn how complicated this form was, and all the factors involved in replicating the motion. After much trial and error, I decided to downscale the project to make fabrication and testing much easier. Once I did this, there was already a different quality to the inflatables. At the size, the tubes were much more sporadic, flailing, and agitated which lends to a very different experience than the large ones. I then explored several ways to modify the original shape. I tried making a round base, splitting the top, and splitting the bottom. Each one had very different behaviors reflected by the air flows. Overall, I learned a lot of about the material, air, and the relationship between that material and air.