The age of the Anthropocene, driven by diverse technologies, has manifested new and challenging relationships to environments and the materials we source from them. In parallel, the literal and conceptual distancing from ‘the source’ or ‘origin’ of products, taking place as a consequence of globalisation, is developing a suite of new rubrics for ‘responsibility’. In this context, Vella’s investigations have often introduced new methodologies for comprehending individual agency in specific relation to capitalist enterprise, public space, and private practice.