SESSION 3
14.45 - 15.15
You will be participating in one of the exhibitions below. You have time to think about the one you would like to take part in.
You will be participating in one of the exhibitions below. You have time to think about the one you would like to take part in.
Prompt 30: What role does imagination play in producing knowledge about the world? (Venue 2nd Floor 6-A)
Margarete Kılıç
In this exhibition I explore the question “What role does imagination play in producing knowledge about the world?” through three objects that all deal with inner, often invisible, experiences. My drawing based on Gustave Courbet’s The Desperate Man shows how imagination in the arts
can turn an existing image into something personal. By adding a small detail—a nosebleed—to an almost identical copy, I made the character’s inner pain visible. This simple change reflects how my own emotions shape what I see and what I want others to feel, turning imitation into
new, emotional knowledge. The PET scan of a depressed brain and the Rorschach Inkblot Test come from the human sciences, but they also rely on imagination. A brain scan is just colored patterns until doctors imagine what they mean for the patient’s real life. Likewise, the Rorschach test depends on how both the patient and psychologist interpret the inkblots.
Prompt 15: What constraints are there on the pursuit of knowledge? (Venue: 2nd Floor 6-B)
This exhibition explores the question “What constraints are there on the pursuit of knowledge?” through three escalating types of limits. The Kamino cloning facility from Star Wars shows how social norms, fear, and legal taboos can block entire areas of research, even when the scientific research is possible. The aberration-corrected Transmission Electron Microscope illustrates that, beyond social factors, there are physical limits such as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle that restrict how precisely we can know the microscopic world. Finally, the “Brain in a Vat” thought experiment emphasizes a deeper skeptical question: if all our experiences could be simulated, there may be fundamental limits on whether we can ever be sure that our reality is genuine. Together, these objects suggest that knowledge is constrained by ethics, by the structure of nature, and by the fundamentals of human cognition.
Yasemin Küçük
This TOK Exhibition explores the constraints on the pursuit of knowledge ownership through three distinct objects: : The unpublished article “Birth of Twins After Genome Editing for HIV Resistance,Tesseract / 4D cube, The blue and black dress. By examining how knowledge pursuit was affected for producing knowledge regarding three of the objects. The exhibition is about constraints such as ethics, sensory organs and context.
Rayana Alahmed
Every attempt to create knowledge carries traces of the knower, making bias an unavoidable part of the process. This claim was investigated by analyzing objects that reflect scientific measurement, media framing, and the construction of historical narratives. The conclusion reached was that although bias can be minimized through rigorous methods and diverse viewpoints, it cannot be entirely removed, making it a fundamental part of how knowledge is created.
Some aspects of reality are fundamentally unknowable because the limits of evidence, observation, and subjective experience create boundaries that no inquiry can cross. This was investigated by examining a covered CCTV camera, the James Webb Deep Field image, and a microphone, each revealing different forms of epistemic and ontological restriction. The conclusion reached was that unknowability is not accidental but built into the practical, cosmic, and conscious structures of the world.
Prompt 34: In what ways do our values affect our acquisition of knowledge? (Venue 2nd Floor 7-A)
Suad Albaqawi
Our values shape what knowledge we notice, trust, and prioritize. This was investigated by analysing objects that reveal how cultural identity, personal experience, and societal concerns influence the methods through which knowledge is acquired. The conclusion was that values act as a filter: they direct attention, define credibility, and ultimately determine the form and depth of knowledge each knower is able to access.
Prompt 33: How is current knowledge shaped by its historical development?
(Venue 2nd Floor 7-B)
Knowledge is shaped and changed depending on how we interpret the development of it historically. This claim was investigated by examining objects that show scientific evolution in the medical field, correcting false assumptions made in the past, and the development of photography techniques. The conclusion was that our current knowledge is limited by the preservation of historical knowledge, and understanding how it has developed overtime, while looking at multiple sources to avoid bias.
Yasmeen Alhokail
Values influence the production of knowledge by shaping the questions researchers prioritize and the methods they deem acceptable. This was investigated by considering how ethical norms, cultural perspectives, and institutional priorities guide inquiry across disciplines.
The conclusion reached was that values both enable and constrain knowledge creation, determining what is pursued, validated, and shared in many fields today worldwide research.