Happenings & Knowledge Promenades: Working Cross Discipline 17 December 2013 HEA funded workshop Co-facilitator Dr. Gordon Ramsay School of English University of Nottingham

Allan Kaprow, Some Recent Happenings, Great Bear Press, 1966 Definition A Happening is an assemblage of events performed or perceived in more than one time and place. Its material environments may be constructed, taken over directly from what is available, or altered slightly; just as its activities may be invented or commonplace. A Happening, unlike a stage play, may occur at a supermarket, driving along a highway, under a pile of rags, and in a friends kitchen, either at once or sequentially. If sequentially, time may extend to more than a year. The Happening is performed according to plan but without rehearsal, audience, or repetition. It is art but seems closer to life. Definition A Happening is an assemblage of events performed or perceived in more than one time and place. Its material environments may be constructed, taken over directly from what is available, or altered slightly; just as its activities may be invented or commonplace. A Happening, unlike a stage play, may occur at a supermarket, driving along a highway, under a pile of rags, and in a friends kitchen, either at once or sequentially. If sequentially, time may extend to more than a year. The Happening is performed according to plan but without rehearsal, audience, or repetition. It is art but seems closer to life.

Characteristics Simultaneity Indeterminacy Lack of script Lack of rehearsal (Plan) Mobile audience

Spectrum of variations Live football match phone interview [ Live Q and A with director of Dolls House] Students acting out / Flamenco intervention/Lecturer intervention 1 Installation step round Student intervention Lecturer intervention 2

Seminar by occasion Walking seminar The lecture and work in progress Performance as instructive game Spectrum of variations Continued...

Forthcoming Flash byte lectures Coachtour (lecture, installation, performance)