ALLAN KAPROW'S 18 HAPPENINGS 6 PARTS
The floor plan for Theater Piece No. 1.
18 Happenings in 6 Parts: The view of Room 2 from Room 1 (top). A wheeled construction/record player called “the sandwich man” (bottom).
18 Happenings in 6 Parts
“Working from a carefully conceived and tightly scripted score, he created an interactive environment that manipulated the audience to a degree virtually unprecedented in 20th century art. The audience were given programs and three stapled cards, which provided instructions for their participation: ‹The performance is divided into six parts...Each part contains three happenings which occur at once. The beginning and end of each will be signaled by a bell. At the end of the performance two strokes of the bell will be heard...There will be no applause after each set, but you may applaud after the sixth set if you wish.› These instructions also stipulated when audience members were required to change seats and move to the next of the three rooms into which the gallery was divided.”
In my opinion Kaprow just about acted like a choreographer when conducting 18 Happenings in 6 Parts he made sure that there is a logical flow for this whole performance; even though there was a lot of improvisation involved, he still knew the general flow.
Making links between my work and Kaprow’s 18 Happenings in 6 parts, it may not obvious but In a way I think of Kaprow pretty much “programming” the whole program, he pre-choreographed the whole show so in theory, he knew the basis of the work but since he made the audience to do all the taks, there were room for the unexpected. Much like my work, I know how it’s meant to function, I know how the duration of the movements, I know when the motors will change directions, I know when they will slow down and speed up. I know all these because I programmed the motors and gave them specific commands, much like what Kaprow did before conducting 18 Happenings in 6 parts but In a more modern and technological approach.
Sources:
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/18-happenings-in-6-parts/
