Representational Model Versus the Aesthetic Regime

The Representational Model Versus The Aesthetic Regime
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The representational model of art is based on the idea that art is a form of imitation or representation of reality, a principle also echoed in Plato’s Mimesis, and that its value and meaning depend on how well it conforms to specific rules, norms, and criteria of accuracy, beauty, and morality. According to this model, art has a fixed function: instruct, delight, or persuade the viewers and reflect the values and ideals of a given society, culture, or religion (Judith, 2021). Art is also seen as a separate and distinct domain from other forms of human activity, such as politics, science, or religion, and as a privileged source of knowledge, pleasure, and virtue. Knoos et al. (2023) indicate that the iconicity of representational art may give viewers an easy and high-level understanding. It coerces subjectivity from the viewer even without additional information.
The aesthetic regime of art is based on the idea that art is a form of expression or creation of sensible forms and that its value and meaning depend on how it challenges, transforms, or subverts the existing norms, categories, and hierarchies of perception, understanding, and judgment. Forged by Jacques Rancière, this regime purports that art has no predefined or fixed function but rather the potential to invent new ways of seeing, feeling, and thinking and to question the established order of things (Tanke, 2011). From the aesthetic perspective, modern art engages in self-purification processes through which art rids itself of elements borrowed from other