Micrometer-sized particles made from responsive polymer networks (that is, responsive microgel colloids) are of high potential for the design of functional soft materials due to their adaptive compressibility and stimuli-triggered volume transition. In this talk, I will discuss models and theoretical approaches, such as Langevin simulations and classical (dynamic) density functional theory (DFT), to describe the structural and dynamical behavior of dispersions of these responsive colloids in and out of equilibrium. Moreover, I will argue that chemical fueling and the inclusion of chemomechanical feedback loops may lead to excitable and oscillatory dynamics of the active colloids, establishing first steps to a well-controlled design of artificial cells and their emergent behavior.