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.