Abstract:

This communication begins by reflecting on the most recent phase of the Bioimages project, which aims to produce sustainable images from low-tech devices, also dialoguing with high-tech dynamics. This project operates essentially on two exploratory lines: the first aims to develop sustainable image capture and production processes, which translates into technological development, applied research and collaborative work; the second intends to develop pedagogical and mediation dynamics that extend and reflect the first line of research. The project looks for more sustainable alternatives for the production of images; it represents an implicating movement and struggles for a new environmental awareness through artistic techniques.
In this phase of the project, the Caffenol development formula was adapted to the new Ilford photographic papers and analyses were carried out on the fixative formula developed from a solution of salt and onion. At this level, we began to realize the need to adapt biochemical development formulas to the technological evolution of manufacturers. From this point, we began to try to understand the conflict between ecological low-techs and high-tech industrial production.
Following the design of auxiliary devices for producing more sustainable images, in PBV-Bioimages Artistic Residencies, a mobile photographic laboratory was developed based on ecological principles to disseminate these new image production techniques. As in previous phases of the project, in which prototypes of objects such as pinholes were developed through 3D modeling and printing, the project seems to assume a dynamic that reverses some assumptions of industrial prototyping. While prototyping is usually planned for the execution of a final model to be reproduced by mass production, the prototypes in this project, which focuses on pedagogical dynamics, seek prototyping for a DIY that can be adapted to different contingencies. We thus have on another level, the use of high-tech processes to produce in low-tech the objects that we call ecobjects. Thus, we focus attention and reflection on making, creating a bridge between manual making and digital making. Using technologies such as Rhino and Grasshopper, a model of a mobile photographic laboratory was developed through simulation, which could be developed on cardboard using handcrafted paper folding techniques. The model was developed and tested in the two artistic residencies, and together with previous actions, the project now allows reflection on future pedagogical dynamics. These divisions of supposed "high" and "low" technologies between digital and analog, perhaps do not make sense when discussing a Maker culture. On the contrary, maker culture challenges these and other hierarchies. In addition to de-hierarchization, we interrupt the arrow of development from a low to a high state; we establish spaces for experimentation, deceleration, autonomy, and collectivity. This communication ends with a reflection on a possible circular pedagogy that seeks to de-hierarchize technology and its actors, allowing for a different way of thinking that, in turn, enhances new actions capable of building new awareness on sustainable resource management and the production of sustainable images and technologies.

Keywords:

Sustainability, image, arts education, maker, high tech, low tech, digital, analog, 3d, prototyping.