The main ideas surrounding happenings seem to escape traditional categorization. To me, these happenings seem to be nothing more than outlandish and strange experiments involving light, sound, or human action. Happenings are constantly evolving, presently existing forms of art that comment on any particular theme. In class, we learned of the happening that involved a bed, an eye motion scanner, and a large loom. The happening spoke to the connection between sleep as we usually see it, and sleep in the digitally metered sense.
In Kaprow’s interview he speaks about the role of the spectator in happenings. Typically, in art, the audience is more of a passive spectator while in happenings, interesting dynamics can be achieved when utilizing active audience participation. With happenings though, there is no fear that audience participation may bring about error, or failure. While audience participation in any standard art medium, (theatre, painting) audience participation is a dangerous variable as it may not fall in line with the artist’s intent. With happenings, however, the actual actions that go into the making of a happening are all part of the art. There is no way a happening could fail.
One of the happenings depicted in the textbook that caught my attention was the happening that related sound to light. In it, a microphone was placed on a tennis racket and two individuals began to play a game. The sound created by the rackets in turn controlled the level of light in the room. When the lights went completely out, infra-red camera’s captured the action and the audience, watching on monitors were able to actually see the actions taking place right in front of them despite the room being pitch black. It’s happenings like this that tie together such artistic elements as movement, sound, and light into one artistic presentation.
