Improvisation Inflatables Documentation – Sue Lee

My starting inspiration was naturally Anne Hepler’s inflatable figures. In my head, when making my first inflatable (Inflatable 1), I imagined that I would easily be able to create a large, round balloon. However, as I tried to embrace improvisation by cutting out pieces as I taped them together, I quickly realized that the relatively round overall shape was hard to maintain. I thought by cutting and taping as I went along, I would be able to think of new shapes that might fill or complicate the gaps left by the existing inflatable.

For the materials, I stuck with the plastic bags and packing tape that was provided. I experimented with the different colors, by color-coding the shapes in my second inflatable (Inflatable 2), and also played with the flap in the plastic bag to create an inflatable with 2 compartments for my third inflatable (Inflatable 3).

For the last two inflatables (Inflatable 4 and 5), I tried creating two or three separate pieces and then attached them together to create a single piece. After the first inflatable turned out narrower than I had planned, for the later inflatables, when I saw that the opening was shrinking, I attached round edges to straight edges in order to widen the opening. Also, whether I had cut out the pieces initially or not, I found that I often had to cut out a carefully shaped “lid” when it came time to close the inflatable so that the opening would be adequately closed.

In this project, I learned that the process of hands-on improvisation can lead to a lot of discovery about a broad task and the materials involved with it. Although I began with the image of Anne Hepler’s spherical inflatables, I came away having made a variety of different shapes and styles of inflatables. Seeing what my classmates made in the critiques was even more fascinating (especially the inflatables which had surprising features and resemblances).

In the critique, the professor made an interesting observation that I seemed to have progressed from experimenting with 2D shapes to 3D shapes from my second inflatable to my last. While making my inflatables, I had never made this connection and I found this subconscious train of thought to be insightful. My classmates also found more value in my multi-compartment inflatable (3) than I had seen when they suggested this concept could be used in making an inflatable which required a team of people to inflate.

To continue this improvised inflatable experimentation, I would like to try making a multi-compartment inflatable more geared towards a collaborative inflation process. I am also intrigued by inflatables which look like a clash of contrasting pieces. I would also like to try and make inflatables which have a surprising component appear during the inflation process, such as a tube shooting out from the side. In my next inflatables, I would use thicker pieces of tape so that tape is less likely to fall off.