The new visual culture: An enquiry on ontology of visual objects produced with new technology

The relationship between image and technology has existed throughout history. From the first known image production that is cave paintings to the images produced by digital methods in this age, the techniques of producing the image, the audience and the producer have changed. This change has been theorized by Walter Benjamin as the aura of the image and the loss of this aura due to replication when the possibilities came after the invention of photography and the possibilities of reproduction techniques. In this thesis, after examining the historical ontological change of the images' status and examining the theoretical studies in the field; the relationship between digital reproduction and digital media after the digital revolution and the existence of the image is examined through asking the same questions that Benjamin asked in his own era. After these examinations made under the titles of painting, photography and digital image, the image produced with artificial intelligence was re-examined under a new main title and examples such as Deep Dream, The Next Rembrandt and Obvious Collective and it is observed that the image produced by artificial intelligence has a process that completely eliminates the human subject from the production, which is completely a divergent from the image production technologies that preceded it. It has been observed that these images have a new ontological status which has never been seen in history before. This analysis of the ontology of the image has led to the analysis of the status of the image in the contemporary visual culture and its relationship with art. Keywords: Visual culture, ontology of the image, artificial intelligence, dijital revolution, aura