Improvisation Inflatables- Stephanie Smid

I approached this assignment with a mixture of improvisation and logic. By establishing basic guidelines at the start of each form, I was able to have a strong enough foundation to keep me from getting too lost but also maintain the freedom of making design decisions in the moment.

In my first inflatable attempt I used a repeating dart-like form. Their lengths are all the same, but the purple pieces are thinner than the silver ones. An unexpected result of this inflatable is how the different sizes affect the inflatable’s form. When deflated, the silver darts fold in. Upon inflation, the silver darts expand and the purple ones fold instead.

After cutting the darts for my first inflatable I had a whole pile of small triangle off-cuts. Seeing them all piled up made me think of textures like fur or leaves, so instead of taping them side by side I tried to keep that same textural experience. To prevent the inflatable from becoming too overly complicated, I created a basic cube for all of the triangle pieces to dangle from.

I enjoyed using the off-cuts of my first inflatable to create the second. While saving material, I think this approach also allowed me to be more innovative and experimental with my inflatables. For my third inflatable I used the corners of bags to make use of the fact that they were already conical in shape. By overlapping them inside one another I thought the form might inflate in stages, but I think my connection points were too wide to restrict the airflow. My fourth inflatable used the leftover bags from the third. Instead of overlapping the shapes I pulled the openings of the bags apart and attached their edges to one another. I’m most interested in how this iteration’s form can deflate to become almost like pages in a book, yet inflate into four distinct chambers.

For a change of pace in my final inflatable I decided to switch to a different material. I had a lot of Target shopping bags, so I used only the red targets to create a continuously flowing textile-like pattern. I intentionally made my tape seams visible so it would be evident how the individual pieces come together.