Student 49

One of my most prized possessions, my acoustic guitar, is an object that shows how personal experiences affect knowledge. My guitar characterizes the relationship between personal experience and knowledge in many ways.

First off, the guitar is an instrument I have been learning to play for 5-6 years now. Ever since I lived in Australia, I’ve been learning the basics of the instrument and how to make it sound good and wholesome when I play. Over the years, I have owned and played many electric guitars on a variety of different amplifiers, but my very first Fender acoustic guitar has always stuck with me in the process of moving from country to country. It has suffered a significant amount of wear and tear along the way, but somehow, still produces a sound as magical as the day I first played it.

My very first guitar helped me understand the value and importance of anything regardless of its age and condition. Even though it's dusty and beat up, the quality of its sound has barely been affected and if anything, sounds just as pure and raw as when it first became mine. Through my time with the guitar, I learned a lot more about music and sounds as a whole. What sounds good in what type of setting, how to effectively engage an audience with music, what songs are best for what type of environment. As my experience with the guitar grew, I was able to grow as a musician.

All in all, my guitar was able to help me realize how things always maintain some type of value, regardless of age and condition. Just like how elders in society always have words of wisdom and different perspectives on various subject matters, so did my very first acoustic guitar, which always produced the same sound regardless of its appearance and physical quality at the time, which is why this ties to the key concept of values.

My next object is a sketch of the cityscape of Melbourne, Australia. From 2012-2015, my family and I lived in Australia, and we had moved there from Shanghai, China. Adapting to the new environment was a challenge at first as it was a complete cultural shift, and getting acclimated to the climate was tough as well. But living in Australia opened my mind further to new places and new experiences.

One of my most memorable experiences from my time there came during my trip to Melbourne, during which I got to see and feel snow for the first time in my life. Although Shanghai was definitely a place where it snowed, especially due to the extreme climate change because of all the pollution in the atmosphere due to carbon dioxide emissions from factories, I was unlucky enough to never get to see snow during my 2 years of life there. And before that, I lived in India where I was born and raised and of course no snowfall happens there. So seeing snow for the first time was a magical experience. All of these memories of mine were encapsulated in the sketch of the Melbourne cityscape which we purchased from a roadside artist during our stay. The artist had perfectly captured the emotion of the cityscape and with utmost precision drawn the many buildings present.

That night when we returned to our hotel, I remember standing on the balcony and looking outside, comparing the sketch to the actual cityscape. It is one of the most vivid memories of my life, and something I will never forget as the whole city was lit up for Christmas eve. To this day, looking back at the sketch reminds me of my stay in Melbourne and my first time with snow, which is why the sketch relates to the key concept of perspectives as through the sketch of Melbourne, I can relive the experience of seeing snow for the first time.

Here, I’ll be analyzing a traditional boomerang which we purchased in Australia as well. A few weeks after returning from Melbourne, we visited Circular Quay to see the magnificent and world-renowned Sydney Opera House. It was certainly a sight to behold, as it commanded respect and radiated regality and influence. Unfortunately we were unable to go inside as there were closed rehearsals being conducted that day but the outside views themselves were spectacular enough.

Following our visit to the fantastic architectural marvel, we roamed around some of the neighborhoods and historic locations near Circular Quay. It was here that we happened upon some Aborigines basically inhabiting a small section of an inroad within a historic center. They were throwing and catching boomerangs for leisure and the movement of the item completely mesmerized me. Especially its gravity defying curves which made it return back to the thrower. Eventually, one of them noticed me and asked me if I wanted to give it a go, and of course I obliged. I tried throwing the boomerang a couple of times and failed terribly. But eventually, almost 20 minutes later, I finally got the boomerang to curve backwards. As a reward, they granted me the boomerang for free.

The boomerang is a perfect object for this IA exhibition as it portrays how even simple tools can create experiences that will stay in one’s memory for life, and can help one understand how there is beauty even in simplicity. It relates to the optional theme of knowledge and indiginous societies as a result as through my experience with the Aborigines, I gained knowledge on a valuable tool significant to their culture and the history of Australia as a whole.