by Crimethinc. Workers' Collective
Available in 284 free installments
Owner:
Blow up your inflatable by turning the fan on high. Once it is fioUy inflated, it is important to turn the fan to low. When your bear inflates for the flrst time, seams will pop open?^this is normal. Leave the bear inflated, and have one person get inside while the other remains outside. Do not try to pull the ripped seams back together to tape them. Simply add patches to the inflatable that are the shapes of the holes. Small holes are not necessarily a problem?^the fan will constanfly be pumping in air, and that air has to go somewhere. If you want to leave some holes, just reinforce them vnth tape. We found that the older our bear got, the stronger her seams became; maybe tape gets stickier with age.^
Your giant inflatable sculpture can roll up to an amazingly small size, and weighs very little. Recruit help to roll it?^the more people you have, the smaller your inflatable can be packed.
Become a secret agent^?stalk your city in disguise looking for lifeless spaces. They're everywhere: public parks, street comers, town squares, corporate campuses, municipal lobbies, schools, children's playgrounds ... Now pack up your giant teddy bear, fan, and extension cord, take it to your spot, and blow it up as if it were a bomb. This is poetic terrorism. Such transformation of the environment is a gift to yourself and everyone who bears witness: make it an occasion. Dress up. Claim credit under a false name. Be legendary. Make art that is an event, then steal away in the confusion. Hammer out reports, dispatch bulletins; you are a phantom, a heroine, a soldier, a pillar of your community.
With the right kind of wrench, you can open fire hydrants. Use them to make fountains on hot days, or smuggle some fire hose out of an emergency fire station in a stairwell, connect it to the hydrant, and run it in the front door of a fur boutique or corporate office.
72.5
Injlatables 325
Other Applications
Watch for heating vents on buildings and sidewalks, hand-dryers in bathrooms, and other pubhc sources of air that can be used to expand inflatables, which can be custom-made to fit these sites. One folk scientist made a series of inflatable tents that cotdd be attached to the outtake ducts of building ventilation systems to provide housing and warmth for their homeless occupants.
Account
You can blow up a social relationship!
Injiatables 326
We once made a full-size inflatable circus tent that could fit over two hundred people inside. It was floorless, a dome constructed from long panels of black plastic with a clear skylight at the apex, and weighted down around its circumference with chain taped into the plastic. We made our pattern for it from the skin of half an orange. Once it was inflated, people entered by lifting up one side and swiftly getting in. From without, it looked like a titanic trash bag, but inside the atmosphere was strangely transformed and the outside world seemed far away. It could be used to create a magical performance environment in any setting with a fiat, spacious area. Though it served us well on many occasions, we did encounter some challenges vnth it. On account of its great surface area, any amount of wind tended to buffet it or knock it over. On one occasion, we set it up atop a mountain in West Virginia, but the hundreds of feet of extension cord delivering the electricity to the fan diluted the power enough that we were barely able to inflate it. The acoustics inside were interesting?there was a central point in which an echo could be heard from all sides?but the noise of the fan made it necessary to speak loudly when addressing a group. Finally, it trapped heat, which could make it uncomfortable in the summer. All the same, it was incredibly cheap for a movable structure of its size, and demanded attention wherever we deployed it.
When we unfurled our circus tent at an anarchist convergence following a tour of the Midwest, our friends demanded to learn how to make their own inflatables. Some went
to scare up the necessary supplies, while others gathered around to discuss what we could make. The ideas came quickly:
"Something people can get inside of."
"A prop for a performance."
"Something to make a presence when we go into town for Food Not Bombs."
"An inflatable stage."
"An inflatable television..."
"... that we can get inside ..."
"... and be TV stars!"
