BOOM0601 04 Hartig 12..23

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/6/1/12/398152/boom_2016_6_1_12.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021

Driftwood Village—Community, Sea Ranch, California. Experiments in Environment Workshop, July 6, 1968. COURTESY LAWRENCE HALPRIN COLLECTION, THE ARCHITECTURAL ARCHIVES, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. anthea m. hartig Experiments in Re-Encoding Environment

Remembering Lawrence and Anna Halprin Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/6/1/12/398152/boom_2016_6_1_12.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021

n the summer of 1966, dance pioneer Anna Halprin and her husband, landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, embarked on a series of experimental, experiential, I cross-disciplinary workshops in northern California that blurred the boundaries of architecture, choreography, ecology, music, cinematography, and being itself. That summer, and again in 1968 and 1971, these ‘‘Experiments in Environment’’ brought together artists, dancers, musicians, filmmakers, architects, and environmental designers in provocative, pioneering experiences. The Halprins organized these avant-garde workshops around ‘‘scores,’’ or graphic instructions, that specified when and where—but not how—to perform exercises designed to sensitize and encode participants with a new environmental awareness. They codified this creative process in a method of movement notation they originated called ‘‘motation’’ and in a system for creative collaboration laid out in their 1969 book called the RSVP Cycles (R¼Resources, S¼Scores, V¼Valuaction, P¼Performance). In City Choreographer: Lawrence Halprin in Urban Renewal America, Alison Bick Hirsch notes that the ‘‘artistic symbiosis’’ between Larry and Anna flourished in a period when moves to liberate ‘‘the spectator from observer to active participant’’ were storming the visual and performance arts, at the same time as broader efforts were underway to open up more participatory civic processes. Today, the Halprins’ approach stands as a historical example, perhaps an inspiration, for ways to experience, decode, and then re- encode the processes and participants involved in creating community. These images are selected from Experiments in Environment: The Halprin Workshops, 1966–1971, an exhibition at the California Historical Society, organized by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. The exhibition showcases the Halprins’ creative inno- vations with archival material—including original photographs, films, drawings, and scores—from workshops staged in the streets of San Francisco, on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais, and on the shores and cliffs of Sea Ranch, a coastal community designed by Lawrence. B

BOOM: The Journal of California, Vol. 6, Number 1, pps 12–23, ISSN 2153-8018, electronic ISSN 2153-764X. © 2016 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Reprints and Permissions web page, http://www.ucpress.edu/journals.php?p¼reprints. DOI: 10.1525/boom.2016.6.1.12.

BOOM | SPRING 2016 13 Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/6/1/12/398152/boom_2016_6_1_12.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021

Driftwood City, Sea Ranch, California. Experiments in Environment Workshop, July 4, 1966. Pictured: (left to right) Lawrence Halprin, Anna Halprin, and Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/6/1/12/398152/boom_2016_6_1_12.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021

Driftwood City, Sea Ranch, California. Experiments in Environment Workshop, July 4, 1966. Pictured: (left to right) Lawrence Halprin, Anna Halprin, and architect Charles Moore. COURTESY LAWRENCE HALPRIN COLLECTION, THE ARCHITECTURAL ARCHIVES, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/6/1/12/398152/boom_2016_6_1_12.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021

Ecoscore, 1962. Lawrence Halprin & Associates. Tom Curtis, delineator. Marker, Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/6/1/12/398152/boom_2016_6_1_12.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021

Ecoscore, 1962. Lawrence Halprin & Associates. Tom Curtis, delineator. Marker, ink, and pencil on paper. COURTESY LAWRENCE HALPRIN COLLECTION, THE ARCHITECTURAL ARCHIVES, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/6/1/12/398152/boom_2016_6_1_12.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021

Driftwood City, Sea Ranch, California. Experiments in Environmen Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/6/1/12/398152/boom_2016_6_1_12.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021

Driftwood City, Sea Ranch, California. Experiments in Environment Workshop, July 4, 1966. COURTESY LAWRENCE HALPRIN COLLECTION, THE ARCHITECTURAL ARCHIVES, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/6/1/12/398152/boom_2016_6_1_12.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021

Ritual Group Drawing, Sea Ranch, California. Experiments in Environmen Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/6/1/12/398152/boom_2016_6_1_12.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021

Ritual Group Drawing, Sea Ranch, California. Experiments in Environment Workshop, July 8, 1968. COURTESY LAWRENCE HALPRIN COLLECTION, THE ARCHITECTURAL ARCHIVES, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/6/1/12/398152/boom_2016_6_1_12.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021

Driftwood City Discussion, Sea Ranch, California. Experiments in Environmen Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/6/1/12/398152/boom_2016_6_1_12.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021

Driftwood City Discussion, Sea Ranch, California. Experiments in Environment Workshop, July 5, 1966. COURTESY LAWRENCE HALPRIN COLLECTION, THE ARCHITECTURAL ARCHIVES, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.