Graduation project
Chemical Affinities
Miguel Teodoro
The political history and impact of ammonia fertilisers on a region of Portugal, is entangled with the emergence of ammonia-based camera technology.
Chemical Affinities delves into the impact and history of ammonia fertiliszers in the south Portuguese region of Alentejo. Taking a visual anthropology approach, Miguel Teodoro uses moving images to investigate the material and territorial manifestations of related cultivation patterns, artefacts, and infrastructure. The project challenges the objective and operational gaze of the camera through juxtapositions of different materialities: high-resolution images of the landscape contrast with the coarse-grained Super 8 field recordings developed and toned using ammonia-based chemical processes. Through the lens of fertilisers, a 'chemical ethnography' emerges, entangling relationships between the chemical industry, soil fertility histories, energy production, and image-making technologies.