Marcus Coates on "Reimagining Responsibility"

Hello and welcome everyone. My name is Henningros Rus Khan and we're here in another sort of session and discussion on the research group on private actor responsibility um at Cambridge University Faculty of Law. I'm here with Marcus Coats who is artist and resident at King's College Cambridge. and Marcus is doing an exciting really exciting project which we about two weeks ago had a discussion on in the context of our research group and I'm here now to discuss some elements of that project with you guys and to hear from Marcus about the project. So Marcus my understanding is the project evolves around individual personal responsibility for climate change. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that project is about? H um yeah I'm a I'm an artist um and I think the wider scope of that role I think is the idea of all the challenge of really understanding ourselves in our culture >> and I'm very interested in um responsibility particularly individual responsibility in the context of climate change um and particularly how the law treats that >> the possibilities and restrictions and limitations of the law. But the individual I think is very interesting because uh for so long we were bombarded with um carbon footprint and other measurements of individual guilt or or responsibility and I think we now have a sense of that being orchestrated by other other agents >> um in a way to put the put the focus on the individual. So there's been a move I think in the in in recent years away from the individual guild >> really focusing on institutions and and corporations and states but uh my feeling as an individual is that >> we still have a responsibility >> and I don't really want that responsibility to be um in a way taken away from me. I still want to retain agency within that. So my feeling is I want to approach particularly the law in this case but politics and and and wider areas to look at um how we can reclaim that responsibility. >> All right. Yeah. So, so you indicate rightly that at the moment uh or in last years debates about climate change, climate crisis have been about the major role of um institutions, what we can do globally, maybe in the UNFC cops and otherwise about addressing this sort of global problem. But of course in there that has also involved a lot of international negotiations potentially leading to international law particular types of rules. But you as you say you focus on the individual the and and link that to legal responsibility of the individual and not in terms of so say ecoside which might be a concept some of the listeners might be familiar with in terms of those who have committed major sins against the environment but you're looking at the everyday person and legal responsibility potentially even criminal legal responsibility of the everyday person. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? >> Yes, it's um it's it's it's almost um at a very very very root and branch level. So, it's it's really looking at ultimately your subjectivity. >> It's looking at your decision- making >> as a point of um activism, as a point of uh defining your responsibility in your society. And this is the point where you come in direct contact with the law in your thoughts. So uh as an artist I really like this idea of world making within your own subjectivity and how that is a mismatch or a disconnect with the systems and structures in society. M >> so this is really looking at how individual needs how they dis are disconnected with planetary needs and how the law in a way reflects that disconnection and even supports that disconnection. M so the law is part of that broader system perhaps which um reflects that disconnection as you say um those who might be involved in debates about climate change and the environment might say look yes maybe the individual somehow does contribute but the individual is kind of stuck in the broader system including the legal system but perhaps more economic systems, cultural systems, divides between the global north and the global south. So shouldn't we rather be focusing on the major emitters or maybe even states which say like the United States of America at the moment pull out of major agreements. So is the individual responsibility of a person like you and I still relevant in that context or and this is not like a legal question but like from your perspective in your project is is the responsibility of the individual still relevant in light of broader responsibilities and maybe well the existence of broader contributions of major emitters, global corporations, states and the like. I mean this is what I'm exploring >> but uh what I keep coming across I think is this idea that this idea of a a corporate body >> in a way uh the individual doesn't exist in a corporate body as the individual exists outside there's a there's a something called well like a corporate personhood >> in a way there's a there's a release in that sense of a responsibility a planetary responsibility >> so that becomes avoidable And in any institution, I think if you look at any institution, there's a either a pushing out of responsibility or um culpability um or there's a um looking down, looking up, always looking elsewhere. Where does responsibility always land? >> Yeah. >> And even in states, the responsibility inevitably lands on the individual. >> Right. >> So, in a way, this is what I'm really trying to get to grips with. and also the role of the individual across uh not just in your own um context in terms of proximity. >> Oh yeah. >> But also temporality across time. So not just about the past and the present but future generations. >> Yeah. >> Um so there are many aspects to responsibility that um it feels like the law just cannot hold. Yeah. and doesn't support or doesn't enable >> in terms of a a planetary um world view. >> Right. Yeah. Well, I mean the project is ongoing. It's something which we'll hope to sort of see I think more details on in maybe one or two two or three years. So Marcus, I know you can't probably disclose everything in terms of what it's going to be like also because it's ongoing work, but maybe as a concluding point, um, can you maybe give us a bit of a teaser in terms of what viewers might be expecting to be some sort of tangible output of of your project >> once you've been able to look at the the role of law and the sort of using law as a vehicle for potentially examining this individual responsibility. >> Um yeah, I mean very broadly um it's going to be a film hopefully. I'm not sure quite how long or what form it'll take, >> but the idea is for it to have as wide a reach as possible >> because this has a real intent behind it. This artwork, it really wants to >> um it's not really about changing minds. It's really about trying to understand ourselves >> and how we possibly well how we definitely need to to act to I suppose mitigate the worst effects of our behavior now >> and I don't think we can do that unless we understand the culture we are in and our own acculturation >> and law is a huge part of that >> right yeah no I definitely agree on that point law is a significant part of it and it's been amazing um two weeks ago to have that roundt discussion with Marcus and everyone else who came to sort of listen and hear about the project uh and also then to contribute from their own respective perspectives on what the law's role might be in this case. And so um for those who are watching now um watch out and perhaps um look out for this hopefully two or three years down the line um very interesting output which Marcus Coat is going to come up with possibly in form of a film. I very much look forward to seeing that Marcus and I thank you for joining us here. Um, thank you guys for listening and till next time, all the best from me, Henning, here at Private Actor Responsibility Research Group in Cambridge. Take care. Bye-bye. >> Goodbye.