Happenings

"The simplest new form of scoring for interaction between the environment, people, and other elements is the environmental  event or 'happening,' where a score is devised which establishes certain preconditions and then allows for freedom in the process. The happening as an environmental art form is based on the scoring idea that that the process is an essential ingredient in the making of environments. The process is usually loosely delineated and consists of activities, not how they are carried out. 

In its earliest forms the happening has inevitable connections to abstract expressionist painting, in which the action formed the painting but then went out into the environment to include the outside world and objective (as well as subjective) elements. In the happening, simple directions are given, a place is chosen for the event, and (sometimes) props are used. What transpires, however, is largely the result of the participants' own input and interaction, since the event is, in most instances, not overly structured. This is not to imply, however, that no structure exists. It does. The organizer of the happening has outlined certain parameters, he has established an environment, he has (by choosing location, time, and very often establishing attitudes) guided the resultant form into an organized work. The designer of a happening catalyses actions in certain directions, but does not determine what precisely emerges. Happenings are not chaos - they may appear chaotic, but when carefully thought out and programmed they can result in superb works: scored but not completely controlled. The event becomes a kind of instant symbiosis between the participants and their environment." - Lawrence Halprin, The RSVP Cycles: Creative Processes in the Human Environment, 1969.

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The Fluxus movement in conceptual art

Gordon Matta-Clark

Lucy Lippard

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