  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.
