In all his following books, Max Bense retained this formula but completed it by considerations from the general information theory. Birkhoff's main idea, that in every work of art there are certain elements in a special order, is a very old thought, but he was the first to bring it in a mathematical relation. In the same way as Birkhoff, Max Bense analyzes the works of art as such, not their effects on observers nor their role in history, or their trading value. Now, he reaches a new and clearer understanding of the semiotical state of the works of art. They are the elements of complexity distinguished by Birkhoff.
Redundance is obviously the same as order by which the elements are connected.
The simplest redundance is, by the way, symmetry. Obviously, these conceptions are borrowed from modern physics. By all these considerations, Max Bense proceeds from metaphysical aesthetics through mathematical aesthetics to informational or statistical aesthetics. The discussion of text, metatext, and context leads to the classification of texts of all kinds. Sign connections and the system of ten sign classes are extensively analyzed, and founded on Peirce's universal categories of Firstness, Secondness and Thirdness, and on his particular catergories of Firstness of Firstness, Firstness of Secondness, and so on.