An environment is a large assemblage, usually to be physically entered, like a forest or a junk-yard. Those entering an environment may be encouraged to move its materials about, thus changing its composition. As more moves are encouraged, the environment becomes a happening. Normally, such an environment is thrown away after a time and its materials may be perishable like flowers or food.
Promotional text for Alan Kaprow
In German the term 'Raum Installation' (Room Installation) is often used to describe artworks that involve an enclosed space, i.e. including walls and a number of constituents. (q)
Terminology Workshop Inside Installations, 2006
An important part of Kaprow's agenda in turning to environmental installations was a desire for immediacy. Instead of representing objects through paint on canvas, artists should employ objects in the world directly.
Bishop, 2005, p. 23
[Lucas Samaras] wished to create a wholly immersive environment in which the space existed from the viewer to activate as an engaged and absorbed participant.
Bishop, 2005, p. 27
From about the late 1960s the term Environmental Art became applied specifically to art - often but not necessarily in the form of Installation - that addressed social and political issues relating to the natural and urban environment. One of the pioneers of this was the German artist Joseph Beuys and a notable more recent practitioner is Lothar Baumgarten. (Often closely related to Land Art.)
Tate's Website - Glossary
Contemporary works of art, usually outdoors and on a grand scale, that surround or involve the participation of the viewer and that especially exploit or incorporate aspects of their sites. For such works that specifically manipulate the land itself, use "earthworks (sculpture)." For indoor installations that create surroundings that can be entered by the viewer, use "environments (sculpture)." For sculpture that is designed to be placed outdoors but is not especially site-specific, use "outdoor sculpture." For art that utilizes natural physical forces, biological organisms and processes, and performance to illustrate, question, and explain ecological and environmental issues, use "ecological art."
Art & Architecture Thesaurus
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