Abstract: Resemblance is certainly not the be all and end all of representation. Even when representation is not purely symbolic, distortion and unlikeness can play a crucial role in how the representing is achieved. When resemblance is in fact the vehicle of representation, the representation relation derives from selective resemblance and selective non-resemblance, and just what the relevant selections are must be highlighted in such a way as to convey their role. If the selection or the highlighting is indicated by signs placed in the artifact itself, these need to be meaningful in order to play their role, and so the task of identification is pushed back but reappears as essentially unchanged. Thus, what determines the representation relationship can at best be a relation of what is in the artifact to factors neither in the artifact itself nor in what is being represented.

Keywords: phenomena, appearances, resemblance, non-resemblance, artifact, distortion, unlikeness, selective resemblance, embedding,