影像本体论, AIGC, 索引性, 审美契约,

The advent of AIGC has precipitated a profound crisis

for traditional image ontology and critical paradigms founded on

indexicality. Historical examination of cinematic mechanisms

and spectatorship reveals that the ‘sense of reality’ in images

has always been a meticulously constructed illusion. While

various ‘technical traces’ in image history have undergone

aestheticization, AIGC’s distinctive ‘algorithmic traces’ trigger

an aesthetic crisis by exposing ‘non-human logic.’ To address

this crisis, a paradigm shift becomes necessary: from ‘technical

ontology,’ which traces physical origins, to ‘aesthetic ontology,’

which analyzes viewing protocols, with ‘aesthetic contract’ as

the core analytical tool. This framework redirects critical focus

from unknowable and insufficient origins to experientially

accessible and analytically tractable viewing relationships,

transforming the challenges of the AI era into opportunities for

theoretical innovation.