Talk:Happening

Past tense
This article was recently changed (by Clarisse) to refer to happenings in the past tense (“a happening was ...” rather than “a happening is ...”). Does this really make sense? Aren’t happenings still happening? — Daniel Brockman 02:55, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Hi Daniel ... Mmm. I did a lot of graduate work on happenings. It was very much my conclusion that the term 'happenings' ... certainly in the Kaprowesque sense ... was really only useful if it could be given both stylistic and chronological boundaries ... It seemed to me that once the principal makers of such work were swept up in the excitement around pop art in the early-mid 1960s (which made it impossible for them to make work with the intimacy that seemed essential to their earlier pieces) then it stopped making much sense to continue using the word happening ... and in fact very few of them did ... Moreover, I am still very active on the international performance art scene, and to be honest, I don't know anyone who would use the word 'happening' except ironically ... Hope that helps Clarisse 01:26, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

Okay, I guess that makes sense. It would probably be useful to fold some of that reasoning into the article. — Daniel Brockman 02:43, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

John Lennon
I remember seeing something on TV about how John Lennon went to musical "Happenings" where tape loops of sound were played backwards and this is how he got inspiration for all the backwards sounds he put into Beatles music. Maybe someone could do a bit of research about this and add it into the article? I'd be grateful. Sheepee 15:38, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm not in the least bit surprised that this vague lead has so far drawn no response. --JerzyA (talk) 10:02, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: Not moved Mike Cline (talk) 14:34, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

– While the art topic seems more prominent than the others on the dab page, given that this title has a disambiguation page, the primary topic should be an event or occurrence in general. relisted--Mike Cline (talk) 19:54, 17 February 2012 (UTC) Pnm (talk) 00:51, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Happening → Happening (art)
 * Happenings (disambiguation) → Happening
 * That sounds less like a primary topic than a dictionary definition.  Skomorokh   00:58, 9 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Support a happening is an event, and we have articles for that (see event, where it is listed as being in the article phenomenon, amongst others). I suggest the two disambiguation pages be merged into a new disambiguation page, instead of moving one or the other. 70.24.247.54 (talk) 03:48, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm inclined to oppose. There is no real evidence of problems here or that the art topic is not the primary topic. older ≠ wiser 12:43, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Oppose. There's articles for "The Happening" and "Happenings", but these are already disambiguated. This is the only topic for "Happening". The nominator should read WP:PRECISION. "Primary topic" is what people are most likely to be looking for when they type in a search term, which is not necessarily the same as its definition. Kauffner (talk) 01:23, 10 February 2012 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

External links modified
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I have just modified 3 external links on Happening. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100709225423/http://www.comm.unt.edu/histofperf/BeckyWalker/Becky_Descriptions.htm to http://www.comm.unt.edu/histofperf/BeckyWalker/Becky_Descriptions.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20170712085033/http://www.jazzvisiontrion.info/ to http://www.jazzvisiontrion.info/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061210162139/http://www.mailartist.com/johnheldjr/InterviewWithAlanKaprow.html to http://www.mailartist.com/johnheldjr/InterviewWithAlanKaprow.html

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Origin of Term
Article says the term was first coined in 1959 but then gives references to it being published in print in 1958. Both can't be correct.

(first paragraph of "Origins") Cqexbesd (talk) 07:51, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

Connection to hippies
I noticed that this article is in Category:Hippie movement and Template:Hippies, yet doesn't mention hippies in the body of the article. Happenings are mentioned in the article Hippie and further in Diggers (theater). Perhaps content from those articles should be added to this one. Perhaps other sources should be found to describe the connection between the practice of happenings and the hippie movement. Daask (talk) 13:22, 30 June 2023 (UTC)