The Onto-Aesthetics of Code: Art, Technology and the Question of the Real

Abstract

The rapid expansion of algorithmic systems, artificial intelligence, and immersive media has fundamentally reconfigured the relationship between art, technology, and reality. This article develops the concept of the onto-aesthetics of code to examine how digital systems no longer merely mediate artistic production but actively constitute the conditions of aesthetic experience and being. Drawing on the philosophical frameworks of Heidegger, Baudrillard, and Stiegler, the author argues that code operates as an ontological structure that reshapes perception, authorship, and materiality in contemporary culture. Through a critical analysis of generative art, virtual reality, and AI-generated imagery, this research demonstrates how digital aesthetics displace traditional categories such as aura, originality, and embodiment, replacing them with processual, recursive, and interactive forms of engagement. Rather than marking the end of aesthetic philosophy, these developments demand its renewal and transformation. The article concludes that digital art inaugurates a new ontological regime in which simulation, affect, algorithmic processes, and computational environments redefine the nature of the real and expand the possibilities of artistic creation today.