A Study on the Happening and the Culture of Hippies

Happening 과 Hippies 문화에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study was to approach to the internal meanings included in the Happening and the culture of hippies, by analysing the basic mental conditions in the process of the Happening. And this study was composed of the concept and the development of Happening, the characteristics of the hippies that related in the midst of the happening's background, and the formativeness between these factors and hippies'fashion. Since the happening a genre of fine arts expression attended the New School for social research in New York in 1954, Allan Kaprow direct-influenced by John Cage used the word 'Hapening'first, practicing '18 Happenings in 6 parts'at the Rueben gallery in 1959. Kaprow's 18 Happenings was one of the earliest opportunities for a wider public to attend the live events that several artists had performed more privately for various friends. Despite the very different sensibilities and structures of artist's works, artists were all thrown together by the press under the general heading of 'Happening', following Kaprow's 18 Happenings. Being considered as the root of the Happening 'Expression of Sound'of John Cage was the discovery of the exisiting thing- the Happening. Most artists were to be deeply influenced by Cage's theories and attitudes-that is, his sympathy for Zen Buddihism and oriental philosophy-and by reports of the Black Mountain events. These events would directly reflect contemporary painting and stemmed from the Futurists, Dadaists and Surrealists. And Happening's development background was based on the culture of hippies. Swinging London had been under the sway of psychedelic drugs and utopian visions of 'hippie'wave sweeping in from Califonia. This wave, which affected solid middle-class youth first and formost, began in Haight Ashbury in San Francisco. Without dwelling on the hippie movement here, it is worth nothing that it resulted from the convergence of several undercurrents : consciousness-expending drugs, the anti-Vietnam war developments, the impact of English pop groups on American music and the rise of protest songs, and finally the beatnik tradition of non-conformism. Hippie culture and its pursuit of love, peace and psychedelia was the antitheses of 1960s main street fashion. The media gave everyone with long hair the label of 'hippie', but it was always a very loose collage of attitudes and styles. The rejection of sexual taboos was conveyed by the hippie's refusal to wear. Although the bold exposure of body raised controversies because it went against the existing moral values, it has a significant implications. Psychedelics brought mind-expansion and the possibillity that modern technology (light show, synthesized electronic sounds), new fabrics or colors, and LSD could be utilized to provide an escape route from the dreariness of modern life. During the 1960s, traditional costumes, many of which had never been seen outside their native regions, became sought after and adopted in the West, initially by the young, who wanted to demonstrate their solidarity with cultures uncontaminated by mass industry. The most ardent proponents of such folk costumes were the hippies. Hippies dress was sometimes decribed as 'anti-fashion', produced by a patchwork of ragged cast-offs and flamboyant accessories, of outmoded Western dress and time-honored ethnic garments all combined, modified and permutated into variety of personal statements. 'Flower Power'became a reality. From the results of this study, we can see the expanding trend of the influence and the concept of the sew art genre 'Happening'in the formativeness as well as the fine arts field.