It's Nice to Meet You!

The inflatable I eventually had made was my exact height (5'-7" tall) and proportions (36" chest, 29" waist and 41" hips). I hired a caricature artist I found on the internet to draw my face, and asked the manufacturer to make my "clothes" match the ones that I was wearing the day I took the pictures that I sent to them for reference. It was just a normal outfit of t-shirt and jeans that I happened to wear to my studio that day. Other than that, I really had no idea what this thing would look like until it arrived in the mail. The experience was overall AMAZING, because it turns out it's a lot of fun to get strangers to show you what you look like to the rest of the world... as an inflatable! The best part is how big they decided to make my head!

I think the next step for the project is going to involve motion sensors.  I would like to have the inflatable turn on only when people are close to it.  So when a viewer walks up it jumps up and acts excited, and when the viewer walks away it deflates and fall back to the floor.  I think it will be an interesting comment on human interaction and closeness.  I would call the installation "It's nice to meet you".