For a technological system to respond to a body, the body must first become perceptible to it.

This condition sits at the centre of responsive technology. Sensors detect movement, location, proximity, sound or other signals so that a system can modify its behaviour accordingly. Responsiveness is often presented as a form of technological sensitivity: the more accurately a system perceives its users, the more appropriately it can respond. Yet perception is never neutral. To become perceptible to a technological system is also to become legible within its terms.

Breathing Room makes this process deliberately limited. A person crossing the entrance becomes detectable through an interrupted beam and operational as a change in occupancy. The system does not need to know who that person is, why they entered, how they feel, or what relationship they have to the other people in the room. It requires only enough information for their presence to become consequential.

How much does a system need to know about a body in order to respond to it?

I like it when things respond to me.

The door opens.
The screen wakes up.
The light turns on.