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TOK Exhibition
IA prompt: What role does imagination play in
producing knowledge about the world?
TOK Theme: Knowledge and the knower.

Word count: 950

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In this exhibition, I will broadly explore “imagination“ as the crucial concept

to produce knowledge. The term “role” is also used broadly, encompassing
both notions of imagination being the fundamental reason to produce
knowledge and the knower using the imagination to support the production
of knowledge.

My first object is a Sketchbook which I use to guide my knowledge

acquisition in several subjects, especially chemistry. My sketches enabled
me to figure out how atoms would be configured. In real-life, Sketchbooks
can study various techniques, create colour palettes, design patterns, and
keep a set of visuals that inspire. Used by artists for drawing or painting,
sketchbooks are elements essential in the creative process of exploring
different techniques. As humans, we are fascinated by imagination as a
base to produce knowledge, which influences the way we think and create,
therefore, it can permeate our existence.

This object links to the IA prompt because Sketchbooks serves as a tool

for promoting knowledge, recording or documenting. Da Vinci’s
sketchbooks carried detailed anatomical studies and sketches for a flying
machine. Nancy Bialler recorded ancient Roman ruins. Darwin Imagined
how birds would be overseas regarding different environments, and he
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used his sketchbook to document and support his thesis. In this case the
acquisition of knowledge refers to how each individual perceives their
surroundings differently, and by representing it, new knowledge is created.

I have included this object in the exhibition because it shows the role of
imagination in acquiring knowledge. This object contributes to the exhibition
because it shows clearly how the imagination is explored to promote
knowledge. The sketchbook allows us to reflect our own imagination and
develop knowledge. Drafts created in the sketchbook will help to
understand concepts that come from imagination. Therefore, the
sketchbook would be where the knowledge is manifested, imagined and
understand by the knower. In other words, sketchbooks work as a tool of
imagination allowing the knowledge in the knowers to be expressed.

Object 2. Saxophone

In 1846 Adolphe Sax applied for 14 instrument patents. My second object

is my saxophone, used for music lessons and make me express better my
emotions. The saxophone is a complex musical instrument used in a wide
variety of musical styles. Created by the Belgium Adolphe Sax in the 40s.
Adolphe Sax was an instrumentalist, flautist and clarinettist. That used his
imagination and creativity to create an instrument that combines the best of
a woodwind instrument with the best of a brass instrument.

This object links to the prompt because it is explicit the presence of

Imagination to produce knowledge. As Einstein defined, "Imagination is
more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination
encircles the world." In my opinion, this is a critical piece of evidence that
supports the importance of imagination in creating new knowledge —linking
back to my prompt, Sax imagination was a fundamental base to create a
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new concept that revolutionised music. Knowledge cannot be created

without Imagination.

This object was included in the exhibition because it shows how the
imagination let the production of knowledge be free, without limitations.
The saxophone contributes to the exhibition as an object and as a real-life
example of the role of imagination. In most music pieces that use
saxophone, the musicians use imagination to produce the best of
improvisation. Therefore, imagination helps knowledge to be improved,
making an alternative source of knowledge. Looking back on how
imagination changes knowledge, I Included the civil rights movements and
black music in the 60s. Music served as a tool to enable the afro American
community to express their thoughts. In the processes of the right
revolution, the way we understand and perceive jazz music and black rights
changed, making the saxophone a symbol of resistance, revolution and
creating new knowledge through imagination about the black culture, jazz
music and equal rights.

Object 3. Primrose plant

My last object is my Primrose plant that I planted in my garden. Flowers

have several uses and symbols; for example, indigenous and medical
knowledge used many plants and herbs to develop. In the past, plants had
several meanings and had a lot of symbology. All that knowledge was
generated using imagination—our imagination enables us to portray things
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that happen in our surroundings. As well, Philosophers such as Plato used

imagination instead of logic to develop theories and non-empirical
knowledge. Further on, this collection of theories developed essential areas
of knowledge in natural science and mathematics.

This object links to the prompt because imagination produces personal

knowledge through the lens that imagination clarifies things beyond our
senses (instinct). The flower combines our senses and imagination
supports and develops our empirical knowledge. Suggesting that
imagination has a role in creating knowledge, combining old knowledge to
create new knowledge. As a knower, we should question ourselves about
how others’ imagination produces knowledge and the effects of areas of
knowledge and ways of knowing in our personal way of generating
knowledge. When I looked at the plant, I imagined some sequences and
patterns related to the number of leaves.

This object was included in the exhibition due to this shared connection
with mathematics and how our imagination has shaped knowledge in
different ways. Mathematics is strong support for the acquisition and
production of knowledge by the imagination since there is a debate
whenever mathematics was discovered or invented. Even today, the
proportion and harmony of the numbers seem to be perfect as the flowers
are. Different cultures had discovered, created and imagined those
numbers, using them in different ways. Suggesting that imagination will
produce knowledge, but our perspective as individual knowers will shape
differently the knowledge produced. It also opens to a puzzle of whether
humanity shares the same imagination or logical process of assimilating
things.
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Bibliography
01. Guillona, Thomas, et al. “A New Mathematical Framework for Modelling the

Biomechanics of Growing Trees with Rod Theory.” ScienceDirect, Université

Montpellier II, 1 May 2012,

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0895717711007874. Last

accessed: November 2021

02. Lexington, Trek. “A Brief History of Sketchbooks - The Blue Review.” Medium,

The Escritoire, 12 Feb. 2019, thebluereview.net/a-brief-history-of-

sketchbooks-79d88825f10b. Last accessed: October 2021

03. The origins of the Saxophone:The birth of the saxophone - musical instrument

Guide - yamaha Corporation. Yamaha. from

https://www.yamaha.com/en/musical_instrument_guide/saxophone/structure/

Last accessed: October 2021

04. Morrison Nick (2010, January 18). Songs Of The civil rights movement. Take

Five: A Jazz Sampler.

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https://choice.npr.org/index.html?origin=https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/9931

5652/songs-of-the-civil-rights-movement Last accessed: October 2021