This thesis examines the links between air and participation in Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Vicious Circular Breathing. Created in 2013, Vicious Circular Breathing is a large-scale, participatory artwork that constantly recycles participants’ breath. The ever-increasing carbon dioxide levels inside the work ultimately create an unhospitable environment for participants, however. The thesis argues that this toxicity creates a unique participatory condition where participation directly impacts air quality, which in turn acts as a repellant to participants. 

Using an interdisciplinary approach, the thesis is separated into two sections. The first section looks at participatory art and the underlying democratic promises attached to this artistic practice.  Looking at scholars who have contributed extensively to the field (Bishop, Kester, Manovich), the author establishes the parameters and limitations regarding participatory art. Ultimately, the air encapsulated inside Vicious Circular Breathing can be equated to the collective experience of sharing the public sphere. Participation thus has the potential to be democratic and idealistic, but it can quickly lead to a toxic social environment.

The thesis then turns to multiple readings of air as seen through the disciplines of new materialism and ecology (Irigaray, Bennett, Horn.) This scholarship implies that air is anything but static, and so it can be envisioned as a medium. By being trapped inside the same, but constantly-shifting structure, viewers and participants are reminded that air is a crucial element for life and biodiversity on Earth.