Chemicals used by the photographic and film industry are extremely toxic and difficult to access. Therefore, one way to contribute to the accessibility, innovation and continuity of these film developing practices is investigating about safer and simpler processes. In the beginning of this study it was realized that a series of plants, flowers, fruits and seeds exist that can be used in photographic processing. The study is taking place at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto.
The FBAUP, as an artistic territory, with a line of research around art and obsolescence, fundamental to question contemporary art education, hosts the project and expands through the relationship to a Quilombola community in Brazil, with which establishes intercultural activities for over 10 years.
The presentation will take place in two parts. One, reflecting upon the political implications of this project in education, within the contemporary debates in arts education, and its travelling to foreign communities. The other consisting on a critical analysis of a summer workshop with teenagers aged 15 to 17 years old, from secondary education, in the metropolitan area of Porto, taking place in 2015 at the Faculty of Fine Arts - University of Porto (FBAUP). This workshop combines botanical and organic chemistry with simple and innovative technologies in photochemical processes, through laboratory exploration and artistic experimentation and aims at opening a discussion and reflection upon its results.
It is in the gardens of the Faculty of Fine Arts that a 'photographic garden' will be installed, consisting of plants, fruits, flowers and seeds that can be used in the photosensitive film developing processes.
The workshop will be used to understand possible applications of alternative processes of biodegradable film developing in arts education. Also, one of the goals is to enable the construction of pedagogical portable kits for photosensitive film development, using simple elements (collecting rainwater, planting and harvesting plants and fruits that when prepared can fulfil the same functions as other synthetic and toxic reagents).
The project assumes convergence as a new 21st century paradigm, involving not only the instruments transfer from a science to another, but rather a cross-pollination of various scientific and artistic fields specific knowledge. Thus, the project takes place at the intersection of chemistry with art and art education, maintaining a political connection with ecological order issues. This political connection is a natural evolution of an heavy industry era that inscribes highly toxic and harmful practices and technologies to a planet increasingly overwhelmed and unable to regenerate.
