If the aesthetic is seen in contrast to the anaesthetic - or numbness, it can be understood more correctly as ‘enlivened being’. Reclaiming the aesthetic in this way enables us to understand the link between the aesthetic and responsibility: response-ability not as a moral imperative, but as the ability to respond. - Shelley Sacks at the UN Summit on Culture and Development, Stockholm 1998, as cited by the University of the Trees. (via m-e-t-a-f-o-r-e-s)