Entry 26: Happenings

I found the idea of happenings a very interesting subject. This is allowing the artwork to be the performance, not the documentation. Its something that we, as viewers actively participate in. In a way it connects art to life.

I like this idea, because it puts a new twist on art. Something that is needed in our constantly changing culture to keep people invested. It allows for a deeper understanding of the artwork, for the viewers are the ones that shape it.

Happenings incorporated a lot of change because anything could happen. Some examples of this include:

A Chair with a History George Brecht

Participants would sit down in this chair and record events in the book seated on the chair

The Thousand Symphonies Dick Higgins

This involved shooting a compositional paper with a machine gun. The bullet holes would be the notes that the orchestra plays.

Yard Allan Kaprow 

People were invited to climb all over a room filled with tires.



There are tons of happenings, some simple others extremely complex. It is easy to see how some of them are art but others seem to simple to be considered as such. It doesn't take a lot of skill to fill a room with tires or put a notebook on a chair. I think its the thinking process behind these and the goal they are trying to reach that allows them to be called art.