Entry 03
Known unknown matrix and singing.
Can you really know thyself?
One warm up exercise of today was 3 pitch major scale with lyrics “I don’t know” and “I know”.
(It was for the reason of practicing open voice with /n/ consonants for forward projection of the voice.)
But then ‘the Know’ led us to a quick sidetracked chat.
So I started speaking to my student:
In Christian bibles- there’s a phrase “So God created man in his own image..” (Genesis 1:27) .
There are several interpretations to the' ‘image’ - some say soul+body, some say ‘good heart’, some say intellectuality or ‘free will’.
For me these days - I’d like to think that this image would be most relevant to the ‘NEVER FULLY KNOWABLE’ therefore ‘EVER MORE DISCOVERABLE’ quality. The part that there always will be different things, and more things that we’d understand about ourselves as much there is about ‘GOD’.
The knowledge we have of ourselves, the knowledge others have on us, and the knowledge that we ‘think’ others have of us etc. When all these are combined - would that still measure up to the ‘wholeness’ of us?
Socrates once mentioned Know thyself. but can we ? really?
The moment we believe that we ‘know all’, such sense turns us into a state of arrogance, an exaggerated conviction in self. Knowing our senses, emotions, thoughts might not be ‘all of ourselves’ - allow us to maintain the attitude of openness.
Well after this bit drifted chat - the point that I was trying to make in the end (in connection of singing) was that:
We can accept the fact that, there might be some part of us or our voice hidden within us - but just not yet discovered and understood. And we shouldn’t be arrogant in our own judgement as though we know it all and all its limits.
So upon hearing my above mini ramble, my student introduced the known unknown matrix. Whether in design thinking, risk management, or seeking scientific knowledge - this is a great model to provide some guidance and locate possible blind spots.
Visit the source article to read in more details about each element. But just by reading the brief description - you’d be able to figure what each box means.
And now we can place ourselves, our knowledge of the world or us, our relationships into this picture as well.
There will always be
parts of us we know of ourselves and understand,
parts of us we are aware of ourselves but cannot explain/understand,
parts of us that derive ourselves as hidden intuition/ automated skills without our knowing
And what’s beyond - the part of us we don’t know and don’t understand. Complete new hidden land.
So how great is it that we can always stay hopeful and curious to ourselves, and be creative in ways to connect with these different parts within us and outside in world when singing, and when living.
Thank you for reading. 🙏
