Student 75

The first object I chose is the story of the album Mother Earth’s Plantasia by Mort Garson. Released in 1976, it was composed of 10 songs made specifically for plants to listen to. Although the science behind that has been proven false, the one thing more interesting about Plantasia’s conception is how one could acquire it. The only way to own the album was to buy a house plant from Mother Earth on Melrose Ave in Los Angeles or to buy a Simmons mattress from a Sears outlet. In both cases the album would come with the main purchase free of charge. Because of this, the album was relatively unknown and very underground with only a minor cult following knowing of its existence. This cult following spread and spread through spoken word until in 2019 Sacred Bones Records announced that they would be reissuing the album both physically on vinyl and cassette and digitally on streaming services. However, because Sacred Bones is an indie record company the album still went relatively unknown. Surprisingly, in December 2019 the album reached peak popularity according to Google Trends because of social media such as TikTok.

The story of this album is quite interesting in terms of the prompt as the interactions with previous knowers of the album is the only way one could know of its existence for almost 30 years until 2009, and even then the popularity of it has only gotten to where it is because of people spreading the word about it on social media. Many people try to gatekeep this and insist that only original knowers of the album deserve to enjoy it. However many others welcome in the new knowers as many of the old knowers only have their knowledge because of even older knowers. In this case, the interaction between knowers and non-knowers is what has spread the knowledge of the album and is what will keep it spreading.

The second object I chose is the IB Physics data booklet that I use almost every day for studying. The equations and other forms of data in the booklet are not only the products of my teacher doing her job but the legacies of the scientists who synthesized the knowledge in the first place. In the beginning of the year my knowledge of physics was very fleeting, and as my interactions with my teacher grew through tutorials and overall class time my knowledge increased. The knowledge of physics grew proportionally both with my time in class and with my own notes in my booklet, and now at the end of the year my booklet, although a little beat-up, is full of other equations and notes that are extremely important.

This booklet is therefore included in my exhibition as my interaction with another knower, in this case my teacher, affected my knowledge, in this case physics. Without her my knowledge on the syllabus subjects would still be extremely small and I would not be as knowledgeable as I am now. Without the booklet I would not have been curious to understand how these formulas were originally synthesized and so I would not have conducted my own research in order to get a better understanding of our world. However, many could argue that my knowledge gained from my teacher is simply her knowledge gained from her teacher, and it would just keep going up the tree of knowledge. In that case, my knowledge is not only dependent on my teacher but all of my teacher’s teachers all the way back until the first scientist to discover said knowledge. The indirect interaction between the first scientist and myself is still what my knowledge depends on, no matter how far back you go.

The third object I chose is my private lesson notebook. This notebook houses all of my lesson plans going all the way back to my freshman year when I started taking clarinet lessons. All of my warmups, technique exercises, etudes, and excerpts are all stored in detail along with my teacher’s advice on how to improve. The notebook is like a timeline of my journey as a clarinetist and how my knowledge of the instrument has increased over the course of my highschool career. It documents the increase in tempo for my articulation exercises, my advancements through All-Region, and the overall increase of skill that has accumulated. All of these things are directly dependent on my lessons and my time in band class. For example I played on average 100 minutes a day during the fall semester between my class and my lessons, and I was placed into the TMEA All-Region band. This was directly related to my notebook as the measures I had to improve upon were scrutinizingly documented by my teacher and his knowledge of the techniques and musicality needed directly gave me the knowledge I needed in order to advance into the region.

The notebook itself was written and continues to be written by my lesson teacher, once again explicitly showing how my knowledge of both each individual lesson and my instrument are dependent on other knowers. What makes this interaction slightly different is that I have been playing clarinet since the 4th grade and so I already had a decent amount of knowledge prior to my lesson teacher. However, my knowledge up to starting my lessons was still entirely dependent on my band directors who taught me from day 1 how to become proficient in my instrument. In both cases it shows how my interactions with other knowers of the clarinet directly caused my own knowledge.