“We are developers too. Not only because we set the conditions for the process but because we are a resource inside it. Urine can be used. The body carries iron in its blood, the same iron that shifts between states in the tank. And after death, burned to ashes, we could still activate a developer. The chemistry does not stop at the boundary of the living body. It continues through it and beyond it.I do not introduce these ideas in a workshop without time and personal dialogue first. They need a different kind of readiness. Not technical readiness. Personal readiness. The willingness to place yourself inside the process not as the author but as a material participant.

That is what the mentoring with Julie is exploring. And the approach is the same as the one used with the film. I am not telling Julie what to do. I am not setting a method to follow. I am reading the conditions Julie brings, the way of working, the hesitations, what Julie reaches for and what is avoided, and letting the process adapt to where Julie is rather than asking Julie to adapt to where the process expects. The conditions emerge. My role is to recognize them when they appear and create enough space for Julie to recognize them too.

That is also a form of co-authorship. The mentoring does not produce a copy of the practice. It produces something that belongs to Julie and carries what Julie brought to it. The way the garden finishes the developer without being told how”.

Andrés Pardo, Curiosolab.

Mentorship kindly supported by Cavan Arts Office and Lough an Leagh Heritage Trust.