CUSHICLE (1966)
The Cushicle* is an invention that enables a man to carry a complete environment on his back. It inflates-out when needed. It is a complete nomadic unit – and it is fully serviced.
It enables an explorer, wanderer or other itinerant to have a high standard of comfort with minimum effort.
The illustrations show the main parts of the Cushicle unit as they expand out from their unpacked state to the domestic condition. One constituent part is the ‘armature’ or ‘spinal’ system. This forms the chassis and support for the appliances and other apparatus. The other major element is the enclosure part, which is basically an inflated envelope with extra skins as viewing screens. Both systems open out consecutively or can be used independently.
The Cushicle carries food, water supply, radio, miniature projection television and heating apparatus. The radio, TV, etc are contained in the helmet and the food and water supply are carried in pod attachments.
With the establishment of service nodes and additional optional apparatus, the autonomous Cushicle unit could develop to become part of a more widespread urban system of personalised enclosures.
* Cush(on Veh)icle
SUITALOON (1967)
Clothing for living in – or if it wasn’t for my Suitaloon* I would have to buy a house.
The space suit could be identified as a minimal house. In the previous Cushicle, the environment for the rider was provided by the Cushicle – a mechanism like a car. In this project the suit itself provides all the necessary services, the Cushicle being the source of (a) movement, (b) a larger envelope than the suit can provide, (c) power. Each suit has a plug serving a similar function to the key to your front door. You can plug into your friend and you will both be in one envelope, or you can plug into any envelope, stepping out of your suit which is left clipped on to the outside ready to step into when you leave. The plug also serves as a means of connecting envelopes together to form larger spaces.
Various models of Cushicle envelope and suit would of course be available, ranging from super sports to family models.
* Suit (b)aloon
When grazing in what was for us pastures1 new… specifically pastures of the tectonic kind…heedless in my own case of the fact that the nature of one’s explorations might just demand a graphic language at odds with the status quo ante…
Case in point: the superimposition of a grid on the Cushicle/Suitaloon drawings. OED definition of grid:
2 a network of lines, esp. of two series of lines crossing one another at right angles; spec. numbered to enable the precise location of a place [or] feature. E20.
But the essential characteristic of an inflatable is that there is no place or feature on its surface that stays put. The Suitaloon exists as a folded up package which opens out under the pressure of inflation. It quivers while in use, deforming slightly should you happen to fall against it.
If a grid line intersects with the precise location of a place on the surface of the inflatable it might be amusing to suggest that as that place moves it drags the grid line with it, so that the point of contact remains the same.
The drawing depicts, in five stages, the inflatable woman on her chaise longue, being pushed up just short of the vertical by the air cushion vehicle’s hydraulics. Extreme grid distortion accompanies this move to the extent of warping the drawing itself. In the oil painting, snapped as it were, before verticality is achieved, a soon to be gone sliver of white is still visible.
1 now we are just put out to.
