Defining Computer Art: Methods, Themes, and the Aesthetic Problematic

TL;DR

This paper explores the conceptual foundations of computer art, emphasizing thematic and situational logic to define its identity and address aesthetic and ontological questions.

Contribution

It proposes a thematic, situational approach to defining computer art, focusing on its relationship with technology, machine creation, and art ontology.

Findings

A triad of themes guides the definition of computer art.

The ontology of art is central to understanding computer art.

Computer art can be considered a legitimate art category.

Abstract

The application of computer technology in the field of art has given rise to novel modes of artistic practice, including media art, and it is a necessity to find a commensurable conceptual fundament. Therefore, computer art starting from the 1950s reenters the view. To clarify the definition, major methods for defining are reviewed, and it is argued that the thematic definition guided by situational logic provides a feasible approach. There is a triad of themes: the relationship between art and technology, the problem of machine creation, and the ontology of art. Consisted of primitive and mutually supportive questions, a logical space of questioning, i.e. a problematic, is formed as the basis for the identity of computer art. Among them, the problem of the ontology of art is located at the logical starting point of questioning, and this problematic is therefore an aesthetic one. The anticipation that computer art presents and responds to the above-mentioned aesthetic problematic suggests the plausibility of computer art being a legitimate category of art.