The work translated in this presentation is part of a pedagogical and action-research project named Bioimages. This project focuses on the research of biodegradable alternative processes in the development of photosensitive film, in various formats of photography and cinema. As well as in the application of these processes, as pedagogical practice in artistic teaching. Such research is focus on innovative processes and technologies that drastically reduce the use of toxic chemicals present in the methods commonly used in conventional laboratories. The design and construction of these innovative and accessible technologies serves to assist the biodegradable processes of photosensitive film development, moreover, their applications may be multiple. More specifically, this presentation focuses on the contribution of 3D modeling and ecological printing technology to this Project.

Concentrating on the intersection of chemistry with art and art education, this project shows a political link. Such interaction is made by using ecological issues and environmental sustainability. Therefore, it is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set by the United Nations. This political bond emerges as a conscious gesture of resistance to processes stemming from an era of heavy industry. An era of harboring practices and technologies, that are highly toxic and harmful to a planet that is increasingly overloaded and incapable of regeneration.  In this way, art and artistic work is linked to a relationship of intervention and development of society. Resulting in a positioning and practices with important impact and in the same direction of the major societal challenges, that have been posed by the main international agencies and organizations.

Furthermore, the Project was born of sustainable and environmental awareness, along with a willingness to explore new processes of producing images. These processes, today, must be critical of the force that the flow and proliferation of images has hit with the digital age [1]. Therefore, the creation of biological images and technology, created from 3D printing at the pedagogical level [2], is important to encourage students to think of images as means for new possibilities and new future realities.

After the first experiences with the "Photographic Garden", its alternative with ecological processes of revelation and the course held at Junior University about 3d modelling, an interdisciplinarity between the production of more sustainable analog images and the 3D printing was developed. In this direction, it is tried that devices that go from the capture to the impression of the images can be produced from the technology of 3D impression, with biodegradable substances. As an example: Polylactic Acid (PLA). In our Bioimages ecosystem can be printed in 3D, what we call ecobjects: pinhole cameras; pots for plants (vertical garden); revelation tanks etc.  Other workshops were held at the Soares dos Reis Art School, providing the contact between secondary school students and arts teachers. The eco-photographic kit and the alternative ecological development processes were presented at this school. 

The methodology applied in the present study was an action-research methodology, where students, professors and researchers integrate the research dynamics. This research is composed by experimentation and qualitative data collection, both, on the ecobjects and images produces (on a technical and aesthetic side). Moreover, on a pedagogical and relational processes developed. Due to the understanding of the possibilities of joining 3D modelling and printing technology to the Bioimages Project, it will be organized a new project based on 2 Points: i) field intervention, constituting research teams from the practice; ii) systematization of research and development of innovative pedagogical practices in art education. i. Field intervention The development and implementation of “Photographic gardens”, courses for the production and development of images and courses for the design and 3D printing of ecobjects, was used to understand the possible applications of alternative processes for biodegradable development in the field of artistic education. The 'photographic garden' is composed by plants, fruits, flowers and seeds, which may be used in the process of developing photosensitive film (e.g. coffee, beetroot, mint, thyme). Once again, the methodology of action-research is assumed. Where students, teachers and researchers integrate the dynamics of the research. Nonetheless, this research is made by experimentation and a collection of qualitative data for tested formulas, on the ecobjects and images produced (on the technical and aesthetic level), and on the pedagogical and relational processes developed. ii. Research systematization and development of innovative pedagogical practices: The students' involvement in their own research is in itself a pedagogical act. However, another objective will be the systematization of research and pedagogical practices, in order to be integrated into the artistic teaching. More specifically, from the developed work and the data gathered in the field, we look for: • To develop alternative biodegradable processes in the development of photosensitive film; • To develop pedagogical practices in artistic teaching using biodegradable alternative processes in the development of photosensitive film; • To develop and produce devices for capturing and aiding the production and development of images using biodegradable materials in 3D printing; • To improve and adapt spaces, lab equipment and technologies for sustainable and ecological pedagogical practices; • To integrate sustainable and ecological pedagogical practices in art education courses; • To develop a pedagogical kit of sustainable and ecological practices in the scope of the image, in order to disseminate these practices in the artistic teaching.

Consumer society uses the means of communication. The rapid and generalized communication of images, to induce Pavlovian reflexes useful to the market, and certainly not to civilized life [3]. How to break this vicious cycle? The school, as a privileged institution in the development of consciences, should provide a territory of reflection before this reality. In the midst of this audio-visual abundance, which alienates and displaces more than it informs, perhaps Education is the main instrument capable of counteracting this diffuse effect [3]. This power of images is connected to the devices that create and reproduce them. The devices are inscribed in a relation of power [4]. They are complex structures constituted by grammars programmed for a certain purpose. To what extent are we not being carried by them instead of them being carried away by us? [5] Perhaps from the construction of such devices, we can understand their structures, thus gaining greater control over them, in order to seek new solutions to the problems of communities and society. As we can verify, this action / research extends beyond the course applied at University Junior, having previous roots in the project Photographic Garden. Its complexity – due, in part, to the present and intended interdisciplinarity –, can be given a common term: circularity. It is in circularity that are found and established the various transforming connections of reality, promoting a sustainable vision of it. This circularity is present in the connection between disciplines (chemistry, drawing, photography or printing) and in the process of creating objects from PLA, which can later be reused for new versions of it. It is also present in the students' awareness of environmental and sustainability issues, that can have an impact in the future, due to reinforcing and spreading this awareness and concern among them.

[1]N. B. Júnior, “De onde vem o poder das imagens que invadem nossas casas e nossos corpos?,” in ECOLOGIA DA IMAGEM E DOS MEDIA Arte e tecnologia: práticas e estéticas, C. Giannetti, Ed. Évora: Editora Licorne, 2017, pp. 55–64. [2]Paulo Blikstein, “Digital Fabrication and ‘Making’ in Education: The Democratization of Invention,” FabLabs Mach. Makers Invent., pp. 1–21, 2013. [3]L. Maffei, Elogio da Lentidão. Edições 70, 2018. [4]G. Agamben, O que é o contemporâneo? E outros ensaios. Argos, 2009. [5]V. Flusser, Towards a philosophy of photography. Glasgow: Reaktion Books, 2000.