Responsivity and Responsibility in Responsive Environments: Art and Interactivity on a Rupturing Planet

The late 20th Century artform Responsive Environments comprised interrelations between artist, artwork and audience, wherein responsivity and responsibility to an other, be it the social and/or physical environment of the artwork, could be tangibly evoked. Currently, such self-other understanding has become existentially critical, as the ecological and climate crisis collide with a new dearth of understanding concerning human-ecology and human-human responsivities and responsibilities. This article considers how Responsive Environments offered a unique means for exploring responsivity and responsibility between artist, artwork and audience, and considers what the debates it once evoked might contribute to self-other relations in an age of human-induced planetary rupture, climate crisis, and mass extinction.