Experiments in the Environment: The Halprin Workshops 1966–1971
Graham Foundation
Madlener House, 4 West Burton Place, Chicago
Through December 13
Experiments in the Environment revives the wild allure of an iconic laboratory of art and design at its bohemian zenith. Through life-size color photos and intimate ephemera, the Graham Foundation showcases the widely influential late-60s workshops on creative collaboration lead by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and pioneering choreographer Anna Halprin.
“Go upstairs first,” implored one visitor in the foyer. Despite the bustle of Open House Chicago tour groups in the Madlener House, the austere ground floor galleries were nearly empty when I entered. However, the quiet works on paper at the entrance to the exhibit gently introduce the radical mentality of the Halprins and their mentees.
The applications from prospective participants introduce visitors to the rich blend of personalities who arrived in San Francisco to embark on their month-long immersion with the Halprins. Handwritten in five colors of ink on hotel stationary, one winning letter of recommendation reads:
LARRY— just returned from ‘the great road trip of 1968.’ very exciting time. this letter is to recommend charles lord for your summer workshop. very INVOLVED OPEN HONEST REAL PERSON. Tulane grad.
–Doug
This former student, Chip Lord, recently lead a conversation at the Graham Foundation about the deep influence of the Halprins on his work—after participating in a workshop, he founded Art Farm, the renowned architectural collective of troublemakers. The programs accompanying Experiments in the Environment promise to bring a taste of the original workshops into live action. The Seldoms, a Chicago dance company, will be exploring the intersection of rock and roll and citizenship through movement and dialogue. Experimental sound art collective Lucky Dragons will be visiting from LA to premiere a new work inspired by “RSVP Cycles,” the Halprins’ creative process method. The Graham Foundation’s programming, free of charge, continues to raise the bar for small museums internationally.
The Halprins’ pedagogy for their “kinetic learning” workshops rejected static curriculum in favor of loose, illustrated “scores”: Stand, Rise, Look East, Rotate. Walk down a hill blindfolded. Buy a birthday present for a seventeen-year-old boy.
Upstairs, the vibrancy of the workshops is electrifying. Kodachrome candids of the students at work are projected at a life-size scale, inviting visitors to place themselves on the northern Californian coast as fellow architects of ephemeral driftwood cities. Experimental films from 1971 reveal artists pushing against the boundaries of technology. By meticulously documenting their process, the Halprins were capable of disseminating their powerful new methodology of making.
Trailblazers in design today still value the dynamism in crossing unlikely industry lines, in keeping with the Halprins’ ethos. Group collaboration is a different landscape however: multi-party emails and cloud servers have become essential platforms for collective production. An immersive three-week collaborative studio in nature seems indulgent, even hedonistic, more of an artist’s retreat than an architecture workshop. Yet, the Halprins intentionally made introspection an objective of their sessions. They challenged students to expand awareness of their creative selves, rather than focus their attention on the concrete application of ideas.
Experiments in the Environment is not for the cynic. It is a love letter. The methodology on view is a freewheeling, sensory approach to design and performance. Architects will delight in the reminder to loosen up, be receptive of chance encounters, and investigate every space physiologically, experientially, and emotionally.