This paper develops the concept of structural surplus as the necessary ontological condition for distinguishing artistic events from ordinary functional reorganizations within open relational systems. Moving beyond anthropocentric frameworks of authorship and consciousness, it proposes a relational ontology of art in which artistic events emerge through persistent reorganizations of interpretive horizons rather than through subjective intention alone. The article situates this framework within the post-Benjaminian tradition of philosophical reflection on art under technical conditions and argues that structural surplus cannot be reduced to neighboring concepts such as Bataille’s dépense, Adorno’s negativity, Luhmannian systems differentiation, Latourian actor-networks, or Whiteheadian concrescence. The paper develops an operative four-question protocol for identifying structural surplus, tests the criterion against canonical and contemporary artistic cases (Duchamp, Refik Anadol, Riefenstahl), and further examines its analytical reach through the empirical literature on emergent communication between artificial systems. The study ultimately reframes the debate on AI and art by shifting the question from authorship toward the ontological conditions under which artistic events can occur within human and non-human relational systems.
Juan A. Esteban (Sun,) studied this question.