The Crisis of the Unique Opus in the Age of Digital Alienation: From the "End of the Time of Composers" to Radical Realism

This article identifies a tectonic rupture in the ontological status of the unique opus – the work of art as a singular object embodying irreducible human expenditure (time, body, skill, risk) – under conditions of total digital alienation, algorithmic generativity, and mass customization. The author deconstructs the theoretical impasse between Vladimir Martynov's eschatology (retreat into faceless ritual), Nastasia Khrushcheva's metamodern oscillation (vulnerability as refuge), and Dorian Vale's post-interpretive witness (restraint without production). All three are shown to be insufficient: the first surrenders to algorithmic management, the second aestheticizes its own irrelevance, the third clears the ground without building. Drawing on the methodological suspension of interpretation proposed by Post-Interpretive Criticism while departing from its non-productive passivity, the author articulates a fourth position: Radical Realism (New Titanism). The central thesis is that the uniqueness and authenticity of the opus today are determined not by the novelty of the semiotic code but exclusively by the density of irreversible expenditure – physical, engineering, or intellectual. The article presents concrete cases (Kara Walker, Fernando Botero, Ryoji Ikeda) and articulates the paradox of purely digital art, where the absence of traditional material demands an even greater intensity of engineering and conceptual labor. The conclusion is structural: the unique opus survives where the cost of the work exceeds the threshold of algorithmic simulation.