ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the intersection of theories of documentation and three key terms in environmental theory— environment, nature and climate—to identify a tentative framework based on the “environment of the work,” which may help to understand how best to deal with these complex works and could constitute a useful boundary object to build a new understanding not only of the documentation of environmental works but also of what constitutes performance more widely. Essential to this is an understanding of the environment of performance being located in both nature and culture. In this context, the position and role of the audience, the context of the work and the care for the evolution of the work over time, including its decay, form key elements of the framework that need to be documented to ensure that the work can continue to be curated during the next decades, in which the world will witness unprecedented climate change.
