The Best Objects Are Specific, Real, and Connected to You or a Clear Knowledge Context
- When selecting an object for your TOK exhibition, aim for something specific, real, and connected to either you or a clear knowledge context.
- This approach ensures your object is authentic and provides a rich foundation for exploring TOK concepts.
Specificity and authenticity are key to making your object stand out.
Avoid Generic or Symbolic Items with No Depth
- Generic or symbolic items often lack the depth needed for a strong TOK exhibition.
- These objects can feel detached from real-world knowledge and may not provide enough material for meaningful reflection.
- A blank notebook or a Statue of Liberty keychain doesn’t work because they aren’t tied to any real knowledge system.
- The whole point is for you to use your object to show how knowledge is produced, tested, or contested.
- Vague symbols like this could mean almost anything, so your commentary ends up generic (“creativity matters,” “freedom is important”).
- To make an object work, it needs a concrete context: a sketchbook filled with drafts shows how creative knowledge develops through practice, while a photo of the Statue of Liberty at a protest reveals how symbols are used in political struggles over meaning.
- The object must anchor you in a knowledge system, not float free of it.
