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Description

This photo essay explores the role of metaphor in the transfer of knowledge, by drawing on theories from the philosophy of language, environmental ethics, and cognitive psychology, as well as Indigenous narratives and Okanagan traditions. Through this project, I have come to understand that metaphors arise from lived experience and are shaped by reflection and personal insight, which makes it difficult to replicate through statistical pattern recognition or predictive algorithms alone. While machine learning and artificial intelligence can generate metaphor-like expressions, they do so through statistical prediction rather than deliberation or insight. Thus, metaphors remain uniquely human because they necessitate a shared reference point and encourage the formation of what Carl Rogers termed an “inner hypothesis,” a subjective way of knowing that is tested through reflection and lived experience.