Inflatable Air-tube Men: Dancing ambassadors from Trinidad
January 24, 2016 3:52 PM   Subscribe

They're nearly ubiquitous - plastic tubes with "arms" and painted faces, writhing around from the air blown up from below. You could imagine a number of origins for these advertising .. things - innovative leaf blower who started with plastic bags, a bounce-house designer who wanted to branch out. But the real story involves two artists, one from Trinidad & Tobago, the other from Israel, and the 1996 Olympics. For the short version, here's the Tale of Tall Boy: The Origin of the Inflatable Man (1:32). For a longer take, 99% Invisible got an interview with Peter Minshall, and a piece for re:form.
posted by filthy light thief (23 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
Such a great story. Worth it for Peter Minshall's voice on 99PI alone.
posted by DangerIsMyMiddleName at 4:35 PM on January 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


Twitchy, ugly, up-close noisy, only purpose advertising, an aesthetic violation - I hate them.
posted by Rash at 4:40 PM on January 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


Such a great story. Worth it for Peter Minshall's voice on 99PI alone.

Yes, and for more from Peter, here's an hour long one-on-one program where he shares his views on various topics. It's rather quiet, but fun to put a person with the voice.

I hate them.

I did, too, until I heard Peter Minshall say he was happy to see them and viewed them as Caribbean ambassadors of dance. For some appropriate music, see adamvasco's post on Carnival music, which also touches on Minshall's costume design.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:46 PM on January 24, 2016


There's also a great video that utilizes these wacky wild wind dancers. Unfortunately, all I can remember is that it was from a Ninja Tune artist about 4-5 years ago. Sadly, I couldn't find it from the Ninja Tune Vimeo account, and their YouTube account has a lot more than videos, so I gave up going through those.

Regarding their obnoxiousness, they're also great at scaring away birds, so there's that (mostly for farmers).
posted by filthy light thief at 5:04 PM on January 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


I hate them.
I did, too, until I heard Peter Minshall say he was happy to see them and viewed them as Caribbean ambassadors of dance.
If Caribbean ambassadors of dance did nothing but flap and whine all day outside my shop 7 days a week I'd hate them too…
posted by Pinback at 5:16 PM on January 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


Twitchy, ugly, up-close noisy, only purpose advertising, an aesthetic violation

Speaking of Family Guy...
posted by Ian A.T. at 5:18 PM on January 24, 2016 [3 favorites]




After the Olympics, Doron Gazit applied for a patent for “apparatus and method for providing inflated undulating figures,” in 2001.
How the heck does some one get a patent on something with five years of pretty well publicized prior art?
posted by Mitheral at 6:06 PM on January 24, 2016


Everytime I drive home from the airport, we pass by a car dealership that is behind the sound wall, with three HUGE inflatable men. Their joyless jerking and large red presence against a sunny blue sky does not inspire good feelings. The last time, I remember thinking, "Does MeFi have a post on this yet? Because I NEED to figure out why these exists and why they're such a visual, visceral assault." Thank you!
posted by yueliang at 6:12 PM on January 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


Related: Toobs, by Susan Robb
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 6:32 PM on January 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


A Wedding Story
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:54 PM on January 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


"Using only tape and garbage bags, Harris creates giant inflatable animals that become animated when fastened to a sidewalk subway grate." Youtube link.
posted by jjj606 at 7:32 PM on January 24, 2016 [7 favorites]


I’d find them less obnoxious if they weren’t wasting power on fans running all day.
posted by D.C. at 8:11 PM on January 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


I actually love the tube guys because they're great dance teachers.
posted by Spathe Cadet at 10:05 PM on January 24, 2016


This looks like a job for Emergency Pope!
posted by redsparkler at 10:32 PM on January 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


Obligatory Axis of Awesome
posted by flabdablet at 11:36 PM on January 24, 2016


You know what's even worse? Trees. No clean aesthetic lines, and every time the wind blows they twitch and jerk around with a senseless swaying, making that massively obnoxious rustling sound. Why can't everywhere be like downtown Los Angeles?
posted by happyroach at 6:52 AM on January 25, 2016 [3 favorites]


jjj606: Using only tape and garbage bags, Harris creates giant inflatable animals that become animated when fastened to a sidewalk subway grate

The inflatable art of Joshua Allen Harris previously
posted by filthy light thief at 6:58 AM on January 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


Am I going nuts? Haven't these been around since at least the early 80's when I was a kid?
posted by deadwax at 1:39 PM on January 25, 2016


I had the same thought. There is a vacuum sales place in town that had one out in front for as long as I can remember (up until a year or so ago when they moved to a new location). But this is the sort of memory that is really easy to shift.

I've been checking a bunch of old car dealer pictures I have and so far haven't seen any that predate the Olympics.
posted by Mitheral at 4:06 PM on January 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


Do we want to know why you collect car-dealership pictures? Other than the obvious ones, of course.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:31 PM on January 25, 2016


Used car lot pictures are a big source of pictures of cars "in the wild" as it were. So if I see one containing a car I'm interested in it gets saved to my hard drive. And it comes in handy for these sort of history dives.

It's also one of the reasons I take pictures of mundane things now. Man hole covers, parking lots, non-special buildings, interchanges, street signs, gas stations, auto wrecking yards, advertising and billboards, etc. I find being able to look back on what say, a Dairy Queen, looked like 20 years ago fascinating.

EG: these guys were just going about their business but now this photo is a fascinating look into how things were done a ~100 years ago.
posted by Mitheral at 9:57 PM on January 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


Mitheral, that's awesome!

Also, you've inspired me to embrace my love of capturing random images, and pushed me to sort my digital archives better. It's fun to be able to browse a personal history of the world around you.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:14 AM on January 27, 2016


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