Inflatables Illustrated

Ant Farm promotes their ideas for inflatable living and demonstrates how to construct inflatables using basic materials.

00:00Copy video clip URL This tape begins with a blue screen.

00:17Copy video clip URL Cut to footage of a person dancing in front of a mirror. This footage seems to have been overdubbed many years later.

00:35Copy video clip URL Cut to the intro for the program. Several children play with a large inflatable toy.

01:20Copy video clip URL We first see footage of a large inflatable before quickly cutting to the Ant Farm Media Kitchen where several people are working on an inflatable. Curtis Schreier takes the videomakers through the process of making a small inflatable using a garbage bag, a kitchen iron, a metal straight edge, a piece of teflon, and aluminum foil. This lasts for several minutes.

08:16Copy video clip URL Cut to projected footage of a completed inflatable, with voiceover by Ant Farm members watching the footage. A group of children playing on top of giant inflatable. One of the creators comments on the inflatable saying, “Oh it’s just fun. There’s nothing like it. It’s like floating as well as being on something as well as being swallowed up by something.” The kids’ smiles speak for themselves.

09:28Copy video clip URL Schreier and his cohorts use a hair dyer and air blower to inflate their inflatables. Schreier demonstrates the process and shows the viewing audience how to cut a hole into the inflatable without deflating it. This lasts for several minutes.

12:49Copy video clip URL Cut to footage of the inside of an inflatable beam. Doug Michels proposes the possibility of inflatable living quarters. We then see footage from inside of a gigantic inflatable, with toy figures playing inside. This is followed by projected footage of a completed inflatable, which is eerie and beautiful.

15:11Copy video clip URL Schreier explains the physics behind creating an inflatable. “In principle, it’s like making a tube of plastic and flattening one end in one direction and the other end in another direction.” This lasts for several minutes.

17:02Copy video clip URL Schreier grabs about ten feet worth of plastic for the purpose of making an inflatable. He then fashions a fan tunnel to inflate the plastic. This lasts for several minutes.

24:31Copy video clip URL Cut to projected footage of a large open field as an inflatable is filled with air. This quickly cuts back to Schreier and his fellow cohorts as they fashion the inflatable. A child shoots some hoops as he awaits playing with the inflatable.

27:50Copy video clip URL Schreier cuts a hole into the inflatable and the child steps in. We watch as the young boy moves around in the inflatable, eventually playing a little basketball with Schreier who busts the inflatable by throwing the child a hard pass. We watch this portion of the tape in slow motion.

31:02Copy video clip URL Chip Lord and Doug Michels share their thoughts about the inflatables. “It begins to give somebody the feeling that there’s other spaces you can be in that are very abstract…and inflatables allow a kind of a fourth dimension or a new dimension to take place where their are no rules.” The tape ends shortly afterward.

32:36Copy video clip URL Tape ends.