A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events.
Happenings emphasize the organic connection between art and its environment. Kaprow supports that “happenings invite us to cast aside for a moment these proper manners and partake wholly in the real nature of the art and life. It is a rough and sudden act, where one often feels “dirty”, and dirt, we might begin to realize, is also organic and fertile, and everything including the visitors can grow a little into such circumstances.” Happenings have no plot or philosophy, but rather is materialized in an improvisatory fashion. There is no direction thus the outcome is unpredictable. “It is generated in action by a headful of ideas…and it frequently has words but they may or may not make literal sense. If they do, their meaning is not representational of what the whole element conveys. Hence they carry a brief, detached quality. If they do not make sense, then they are acknowledgement of the sound of the word rather than the meaning conveyed by it.”[This quote needs a citation]
Due to the convention’s nature, there is no such term as “failure” which can be applied. “For when something goes “wrong”, something far more “right”, more revelatory may emerge. This sort of sudden near-miracle presently is made more likely by chance procedures.” As a conclusion, a happening is fresh while it lasts and cannot be reproduced