Shawyer dissertation May 2008 final version - The University of ...

that contrasted visual peaceful protest with violent aural protest. They set loose largehelium balloons with banners calling for peace attached in the cavernous main hall. Thena tape recorder, hidden somewhere nearby, began a raucous screeching, representing the“sounds of death.” The demonstrators fled, leaving behind them the gently floatingballoons and the terrible noise (Jezer, “A Happening” 10).In both these Happenings spectators are incidental to the action, but become a partof the event by witnessing it, reporting it, and even recording it. Jezer reported on thepeace event for the alternative newspaper WIN: Peace and Freedom through NonviolentAction. Photographic documentation from Calling reveals a crowd of curious spectatorssurrounding the information booth and watching the wrapped performers. One passer-byeven takes a photo (Kaprow, “Calling” 205). Because these events took place in the verypublic space of the train station, an audience was inevitable. And by setting the Yip-In atthe terminal, the Yippies not only guaranteed themselves an audience, but also followedin the footsteps of other Happenings and performance events that had taken place in thecavernous main hall.Setting the Yip-In in the main concourse of Grand Central Terminal, whereprevious Happenings had occurred, legitimized the event as a Happening (rather thananother kind of performance) for participants and audience members who might haveremembered previous Happenings in the space. In The Haunted Stage: The Theatre asMemory Machine (2001) performance theorist and historian Marvin Carlson calls thisprocess of memory “ghosting.” Ghosting refers to the inherent citations in performances:whether it be the body of a well-known actor, or the presentation of a familiar narrative,127