representation
a creation that is a visual or tangible rendering of someone or something
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise a visual or tangible representation, assess what it renders and how reliably, and decide how it may be interpreted, displayed, compared or altered.
A human-made object or image produced so that its optical or spatial form depicts a recognisable person, place, thing or event, as distinct from that referent and from the shared visual prototype that copies, casts and digital surrogates may carry.
It can be Identify or propose the rendered subject while retaining competing interpretations and their evidence; Inspect visual or tangible features and relate them to specific features of the subject; Compare representations of the same subject by viewpoint, selection, scale and transformation; Assess whether a proposed identification, measurement or explanation is supported by the rendering; Display or describe the representation with qualifications that prevent unsupported inferences; Propose annotation, restoration or adaptation and identify how it would change the represented meaning.
Distinguishing features
An identifiable created artifact renders someone or something; merely being visible or tangible does not establish representation.
The artifact can be distinguished from its subject: a portrait is a rendering of a person, while the person is its referent.
A representational relationship is supported by perceptible correspondence, an established convention, contextual evidence or an attributed intention; resemblance alone may be inconclusive.
A rendering may selectively distort, simplify or invent features and still represent a subject; exact duplication is not required.
A functional replica, symbol or decorative object qualifies only insofar as a rendering role can be established alongside its other roles.
Scope
+ Identification of the artifact and the someone or something it renders, including imagined or unidentified subjects
+ Visual and tangible features through which the subject is represented
+ Selection, abstraction, scale, viewpoint and other transformations of the subject
+ Evidence for attribution, intended meaning and the relationship to a referent
+ Legibility, misleading appearances and suitability for a proposed representational use
+ Changes to the artifact that preserve or alter what it represents
- The represented person's identity, biography or current condition
- The represented object's own composition, operation or lifecycle
- The full production workflow, tools and materials supply chain
- General ownership, licensing and contractual records, which this model only references when they constrain use
- Purely functional objects or decorative patterns with no established representational role
- Abstract propositions and symbolic systems considered independently of a visual or tangible rendering
Characteristics
- Referent resolution
- identified individual; identified class; imagined subject; disputed; unresolved Determines whether the agent can name a subject or must preserve uncertainty about what is represented.
- Rendering modality
- visual; tangible; both Determines which perceptual access and inspection methods can reveal the representation.
- Representational role evidence
- Links to creator statements, labels, commissions, conventions or documented interpretations Separates an evidenced rendering relationship from an observer's unsupported association.
- Subject correspondence
- Feature-level mappings between rendered elements and subject features, with evidence and limitations Supports comparison without reducing accuracy to a single unsupported fidelity score.
- Representational transformation
- Examples include cropping, simplification, exaggeration, idealisation, compositing and reconstruction; multiple values allowed Identifies how the rendering changes or selects the subject and which inferences those changes permit.
- Declared linear scale
- Dimensionless artifact-to-subject length ratio, qualified by feature or region; variable, unknown or not applicable Determines whether dimensions can be inferred from a representation and prevents treating perspective or stylisation as uniform scale.
- Representational legibility
- assessable; partially obscured; unassessable; untested, qualified by audience and viewing or touch conditions Distinguishes loss of readable subject information from damage that does not affect the rendering.
- Use-specific adequacy
- Assessment linking a proposed use to supported features, missing information and required qualifications A representation adequate for recognition may be inadequate for measurement, instruction or evidentiary use.
Analytical facets
- substance
- material
- origin
- manufactured
- agency
- inert
- mobility
- portable
- scale
- handheld
- affordances
- graspable
Also called
+114
Where this came from
oewn:2024 · CC BY 4.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 28 questions.
Subject and rendering role Establish what is being rendered and why this artifact is treated as a representation.
An agent must distinguish an evidenced representation from incidental resemblance and avoid confusing the rendering with its subject.
Referent identification
Identify the subject at the specificity justified by available evidence.
Supported subject identification
Record whether the subject is a particular entity, a class, an imagined entity or unresolved, preserving disputed identifications.
- Who or what does the artifact render, and at what level of specificity can that subject be identified? definition
- Which inscription, creator statement, contextual record or perceptible feature supports each proposed identification? provenance
Representational status
Establish the rendering role and separate it from other roles the artifact may have.
Basis for rendering role
Record the evidence that the artifact functions as a rendering, including cases where functional, decorative or symbolic roles coexist.
- What establishes a rendering relationship rather than an accidental resemblance or an unsupported viewer association? boundary
- Does the artifact also function as a tool, replica, symbol or decoration, and which features specifically support its representational role? definition
Perceptible rendering Describe how the subject becomes available through visible or tangible form.
Recognition depends on perceptible features and access conditions, not solely on a title or subject label.
Rendering features
Identify the surfaces, marks, shapes and spatial arrangements that carry subject information.
Subject-bearing elements
Distinguish elements that render the subject from supports, frames, captions and incidental material features.
- Which contours, colours, textures, volumes or spatial relationships make the subject recognisable? definition
- Which parts render the subject directly, and which merely support, frame or explain that rendering? boundary
Perceptual access
Identify the conditions under which the rendering can be perceived and inspected.
Access-dependent legibility
Record how viewing position, lighting, distance, tactile access or obstruction affect access to subject information.
- Under which viewing or touch conditions are the features needed for recognition accessible? measurement
- What inspection or presentation change would reveal currently inaccessible subject features without damaging the artifact? action
Correspondence and transformation Make explicit what the rendering preserves, changes and leaves out.
An agent needs feature-specific limits to judge what can be inferred from a representation.
Feature correspondence
Relate rendered features to subject features through an explicit comparison basis.
Comparison basis and scale
Record the reference evidence, relevant subject state and any scale or spatial mapping used to assess correspondence.
- Against which observation, reference artifact or documented subject state can the rendered features be compared? provenance
- Where is scale or spatial correspondence established, and where do perspective, deformation or missing dimensions prevent measurement? measurement
Selection and alteration
Identify departures from the subject and the limits introduced by selection.
Rendering transformations
Record supported instances of omission, emphasis, stylisation, compositing or reconstruction without assuming the creator's motive.
- Which subject features are omitted, exaggerated, simplified, combined or reconstructed, and what evidence supports that assessment? provenance
- Which conclusions about the subject become unsupported because of those transformations? boundary
Interpretation and use Connect interpretations and proposed uses to the evidence the rendering actually supplies.
The same representation can support recognition while failing to support identification, measurement or factual claims.
Interpretive context
Separate observable content, attributed intention and audience interpretation.
Qualified interpretation
Record how labels, conventions and audience knowledge influence interpretation, with attribution for claims about intended meaning.
- Which interpretations follow from perceptible features, and which depend on a caption, convention or contextual account? definition
- Who attributes an intended meaning to the representation, and what evidence supports that attribution? provenance
Use adequacy
Assess a concrete proposed use against the representation's supported content and limitations.
Supported use and qualifications
Record which aspects of a proposed use are supported and what contextual or external constraints govern proceeding.
- For the proposed use, which required subject features are supported, missing, ambiguous or transformed? boundary
- What qualifications, additional verification or referenced permission constraints must the agent address before using or displaying this representation? action
Representational change Track changes that affect the readable subject, apparent correspondence or attributed meaning.
Material damage, restoration and adaptation can change what a representation communicates even when its physical identity remains continuous.
Meaning-bearing condition
Assess condition in terms of the subject information that survives or has changed.
Loss or change of subject information
Record which representational features are obscured, missing or altered and distinguish observed condition from inferred original appearance.
- Which identifying or interpretively important features are currently missing, obscured or altered? measurement
- What prior image, examination or treatment record establishes that these features changed rather than being absent from the original rendering? provenance
Intervention and derivation
Assess how proposed modifications or derived renderings affect representational continuity.
Effect of proposed intervention
Identify whether annotation, restoration, cropping, recolouring or reproduction preserves, changes or speculatively adds subject information.
- What subject information would the proposed intervention preserve, remove, alter or add without direct evidence? action
- Would the result remain a changed instance of this artifact or require recognition as a distinct derived representation, and what criterion supports that decision? boundary
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Pictorial depiction (painting, drawing, print)
- Photograph
- Sculpture (statue, bust, relief, authorised cast)
- Scale model or maquette
- Portrait or other likeness of a particular sitter
- Cartographic work (map, plan, view)
- Replica or facsimile of an existing object
- Digital surrogate (faithful scan or photograph of a work)
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of representation this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Getty AAT - 300248231 - Concept depictions (visual works); preferred English term, with Spanish representaciones / representación visual.
- Getty AAT - 300015642 - replicas: precise reproductions, usually same dimensions as the original.
- CIDOC CRM class - E36 - Visual Item: the immaterial prototype shown by one or more physical works.
- CIDOC CRM property - P138 / P62 / P65 - P138 represents (visual item to entity); P65 shows visual item (physical thing to E36); P62 depicts is the shortcut.
- Wikidata property - P180 - depicts: entity visually shown in the work; aliases include represents and portrays.
- Wikidata property - P1257 - depicts Iconclass notation; formatter http://iconclass.org/$1.
- Wikidata property - P6243 - digital representation of: used when a file is a faithful 2D surrogate of a work.
- Wikidata item (kind) - Q860861 - sculpture as three-dimensional work of art; OpenStreetMap artwork_type=sculpture.
- Wikidata item (kind) - Q1232589 - replica / reproduction.
- Iconclass - hierarchical alphanumeric notation (e.g. 47I22311) - Subject of the representation, not the physical object identifier; maintained with RKD.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of representation this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (E36, P62, P65, P138, P138.1 mode of representation) - ICOM CIDOC
- Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA), including depicted subject and related visual documentation - Getty Research Institute
- Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus, Objects Facet / Visual Works - Getty Research Institute
- Iconclass iconographic classification - RKD (Netherlands Institute for Art History)
- U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101, pictorial, graphic and sculptural works; Copyright Office Compendium Chapter 900 - U.S. Copyright Office
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of representation this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Museum and collection cataloguing records what an object depicts (portrait, landscape, still life, cartographic view) separately from what the object is.
- Copyright registration of pictorial, graphic and sculptural works, using photographs only as identifying material for three-dimensional pieces.
- Exhibition, loan and conservation of paintings, sculptures, models and maps as physical carriers of a depiction.
- Digital surrogates: museum photography, scanning and 3D capture used as stand-ins for the work in catalogues and Wikimedia Commons.
- Authorised casts and print editions treated as multiple physical representations of one visual work (e.g. Rodin bronzes).
- Scale models used in architecture, engineering and display to render a building or device at reduced size.
- Automatic retrieval and naming of public sculpture from query photographs.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of representation this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Overall height, width and depth of the physical work - millimetres (miniatures, coins, small prints) to tens of metres (monumental sculpture, panoramas) - mm
- Linear scale of a model or replica to its referent - 1:1 for life-size casts and same-dimension replicas; reduced for architectural and exhibition models - dimensionless ratio
- Relative position of a depicted feature on a two-dimensional work - 0-100 on each axis - % of height or width
- Number of authorised copies, casts or prints of the same visual item - 1 for a unique work; tens to hundreds for an edition (CIDOC cites more than 20 Thinker casts of varying size) - count
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of representation this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Treating a photograph or digital file of a work as if it were the work itself (a known copyright-registration and cataloguing error).
- Treating a replica, cast or later copy as the unique original, or conversely treating authorised multiples as unrelated objects.
- Misidentifying the depicted subject; sculpture-from-photo naming is error-prone even in controlled datasets.
- Physical damage to the carrier (fading, abrasion, bronze corrosion) that degrades or destroys the depiction while the referent is unaffected.
- Mode of representation that misleads (caricature, anamorphosis, heavily retouched photograph) while still counting as a depiction.
- Loss of the link between copies and the shared visual prototype, so identical images or casts are catalogued as unrelated.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of representation this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Getty AAT labels the same class depictions in English, voorstellingen in Dutch, Darstellungen/Abbildung in German, and representaciones/representación visual in Spanish.
- Iconclass subject coding is strongest in European (especially Dutch) museum practice; North American cataloguing more often uses CDWA/AAT depicted-subject terms.
- Sculpture and print editions are sometimes modelled with FRBR-like work/manifestation splits (e.g. Smithsonian Wikidata practice) and sometimes as one unique object per accession.
- OpenStreetMap uses both artwork_type=sculpture and artwork:type=sculpture for public three-dimensional representations.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of representation this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Depicted subject (the referent) - The representation depicts that entity (CIDOC P62 / Wikidata P180); the subject is not itself the made object.
- Visual item / immaterial prototype (CIDOC E36) - E36 is the shared appearance; the PHY.OBJ entry is one physical embodiment that shows that item (P65).
- Photograph or digital file of a work - A surrogate records the work; it is a representation of the work only when the file is a faithful 2D capture (Commons P6243), not whenever a work appears in a picture.
- Replica versus original - A replica is made as a copy of another object, usually same dimensions (AAT 300015642); the original is the source, not a copy.
- Mark, logo or inscription (CIDOC E37) - A mark identifies or signals by convention; a depiction is recognisable as a rendering of a visible entity.
- Non-representational or abstract work - AAT depictions must be recognisable as representations of visible entities; abstract works need not depict.
- Legal or political representation - Agency to act for a person or group, not a visual or tangible rendering.
- Specimen or sample - A specimen is a piece of the thing itself; a representation is made to stand for it by form.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of representation this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- E36 Visual Item (CIDOC CRM, including P138 represents / P62 depicts) - Separates the physical carrier, the immaterial visual item, and the depicted entity; defines representation as a visual relation with an optional mode.
- Visual Item 3D (CIDOC CRM Issue 522) - Extends visual items to shared surface shape of sculptures (Rodin Le Penseur: many casts of different size as one visual item).
- depictions (visual works), AAT 300248231 - Getty definition of depictions as images recognisable as representations of visible entities, with Dutch/German/Spanish equivalents.
- Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA) - Museum cataloguing of depicted subject, related visual documentation, and image measurements as distinct from the work itself.
- Depicted Subject, Iconography Authority (Getty Vocabulary Editorial Guidelines) - Practice of indexing what a work depicts versus what it is about; ofness versus aboutness and isness.
- Wikidata:WikiProject Visual arts/Item structure - How individual representations are typed (painting, sculpture, print) and linked to subjects via depicts (P180) and Iconclass (P1257).
- Commons:Structured data/Modeling/Depiction - Distinguishes a digital file, a faithful digital representation of a 2D work (P6243), and the depicted artwork.
- replica (Q1232589) - Replica as an object created as a copy; AAT 300015642 scope note on same-dimension reproductions versus facsimiles and versions.
- Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Chapter 900 (Visual Art Works) - Legal class of pictorial, graphic and sculptural works, and the hazard of registering a photograph of a sculpture as if it were the sculpture.
- Adapting Aspects of FRBR for Artworks in Wikidata - How museums treat print and sculpture editions as related instantiations of one work rather than wholly unique objects.
What the second pass must settle
- Does the PHY / PHY.OBJ registry entry include digitally displayed, projected or transient renderings, or only artifacts with a persistent physical embodiment?
- What minimum evidence establishes representational status for found objects, natural casts, ambiguous abstractions and resemblance adopted after creation?
- Where do existing Vercy models place overlaps with photographs, diagrams, maps, symbols, replicas and scale models, and which model should own their shared representational facts?
- What evidence and audience-specific criteria should support legibility and use-adequacy assessments without implying universal recognition or fidelity scores?
- Which identity rules distinguish restoration of one representation from production of a derivative, particularly when missing subject features are reconstructed?