Book Description
Ever since the first hot-air balloons sailed over the French countryside in the eighteenth century, both delighting and terrifying those watching below, the world has had ambivalent feelings towards air-filled forms. This first up-to-date history explores the fear and wonder evoked by inflatable technologies in all aspects of life: from children ’s toys to military craft and everything in between.
Publisher comments
Inflatable forms have been around for centuries, but scientists, architects, artists, and manufacturers keep rediscovering this deceptively simple technology. Some of its first applications were extreme environments, where it appealed to scientists and the military. But in the 1960s artists such as Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, and design collectives such as Utopia and Archigram, used pneumatic forms to challenge conventional assumptions about the role of materials in art and architecture. Contemporary designers such as Verner Panton and Issey Miyake have incorporated blow-ups into their work, and today inflatables have entered the mainstream market in such diverse structures as toys, furniture, and walk-through environments. This unique work brings the technological and philosophical history of pneumatics into the present, beautifully illustrating its countless uses as it reveals how inflatable objects still evoke the sense of optimism and escape that inspired the first designers in this field.
