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Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, from digital media to types of streams. "There is no single definition of ephemerality". With respect to unique performances, for example, it has been noted that " hemerality is a quality caused by the ebb and flow of the crowd's concentration on the performance and a reflection of the nostalgic character of specific performances". Because different people may value the passage of time differently, ephemerality may be a relative, perceptual concept: "In brief, what is short-lived may not be the object itself, but the attention we afford it".Ronald Beiner, ''Political Philosophy: What It Is and Why It Matters'' (2014), p. 10.


Ephemerality and nature


Geographical features

An ephemeral stream is that which only exists following precipitation. They are not the same as intermittent or seasonal waterbodies, which exist for longer periods, but not all year round. Ephemeral streams can be difficult to "conceptually defin ; those that are discontinuous, due to altering between aggradation or degradation, have the appearance of continual change. Furthermore, the characteristics of terrain and rainfall are profound in affecting ephemeral streams. Ephemeral waterbodies experience formative change upon the end of a hydroperiod. "Due to lack of continuous hydrology data, the designation of sites as ephemeral or intermittent is necessarily tenuous". Ephemeral streams feature a low degree of hydrological connectivity. Small wetlands are often ephemeral and ephemeral ecosystems are often aquatic; ephemeral wetlands, streams and ponds are a varied and global occurrence. In northeastern United States, ephemeral freshwater systems are abundant and are "critical to the maintenance of forest biodiversity". Hydroperiod, predation, competition and food availability are among the "highly heterogeneous" elements of these features. In tropical biomes,
amphibian Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arborea ...
s often reside in ephemeral habitats during dry seasons; opportunistic species utilise similar and ephemeral habitats for food, sleep or mating. Environments akin to ephemeral ponds can be very significant sites of reproduction for amphibians; many other organism make use of ephemeral ponds, pools and streams to breed. Those which do utilise these sites are significantly constrained by time thus they mature, reproduce or disperse before evaporation. Ephemeral pools lasting only days or weeks are exclusively used for breeding by
Fletcher's frog Fletcher's frog (''Platyplectrum fletcheri''), commonly known as the sandpaper frog or black-soled frog, is a species of nocturnal, terrestrial frog native to eastern Australia. It is primarily found in wet sclerophyll forests along mountain ran ...
regardless of the precarious survival of offspring. Fletcher's frogs use these sites to exploit them, by-passing predation and competition. Tadpoles, however, are hindered by ephemeral streams, as can surrounding systems. Limited and unpredictable food availability means ephemeral waterbodies may be rife with
cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, bo ...
. Specific adaptions to ephemeral pools are abundant. Human alterations to the habitats of ephemeral nectar that
flying foxes ''Pteropus'' (suborder Yinpterochiroptera) is a genus of megabats which are among the largest bats in the world. They are commonly known as fruit bats or flying foxes, among other colloquial names. They live in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Austr ...
consume has led to urban migration. Climate change significantly affects ephemeral freshwater systems and changes in climates may be precisely identified by the ecosystems of ephemeral pools. Ephemeral habitat patches have repeatedly been assessed as detrimental to
metapopulation A metapopulation consists of a group of spatially separated populations of the same species which interact at some level. The term metapopulation was coined by Richard Levins in 1969 to describe a model of population dynamics of insect pests in ...
persistence, although metapopulations aren't always negatively affected by ephemeral landscapes. These patches occur as a result of the habitat's turnover. Ephemeral streams have, relative to their perennial counterparts, lower species richness; the streams are "potentially demanding" for inhabitants, although some species do reside. The ephemerality of a river network is a particularly significant element in the
hydrological Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...
transmission of waterborne diseases, via a direct and indirect presence in the transmission cycle – the nature of the disease and area covered are important factors as well. Diseases like malaria,
dengue fever Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms typically begin three to fourteen days after infection. These may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic ...
, chikungunya,
zika Zika fever, also known as Zika virus disease or simply Zika, is an infectious disease caused by the Zika virus. Most cases have no symptoms, but when present they are usually mild and can resemble dengue fever. Symptoms may include fever, red ...
and
schistosomiasis Schistosomiasis, also known as snail fever, bilharzia, and Katayama fever, is a disease caused by parasitic flatworms called schistosomes. The urinary tract or the intestines may be infected. Symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloody ...
are found in ephemeral waterbodies due to their vectors relation and/or reliance. Examples of ephemeral streams are the Luni river in Rajasthan, India,
Ugab River The Ugab River is an ephemeral river in north-western Namibia. Its lower section forms the border between Kunene Region and Erongo Region but its catchment area extends well into the Otjozondjupa Region. Ugab's source is near Otavi. From there ...
in Southern Africa, and a number of small ephemeral watercourses that drain Talak in northern Niger. Other notable ephemeral rivers include the
Todd River The Todd River ( Arrernte: ''Lhere Mparntwe'') is an ephemeral river in the southern Northern Territory, central Australia. The origins of the Todd River are in the MacDonnell Ranges, where it flows past the Telegraph Station, almost through ...
and
Sandover River The Sandover River is an ephemeral river in the Northern Territory of Australia located in northeast Central Australia. It is the only major tributary of the Georgina River that does not rise in western Queensland. Instead it flows from the eas ...
in
Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and ...
as well as the
Son River Son River ( hi, सोन नदी, also spelt Sone River) is a perennial river located in central India. It originates near Amarkantak Hill in Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi district of Chhattisgarh and finally merges with the Ganges River near Pa ...
,
Batha River The Batha River is an ephemeral river in Chad. As with any rivers or lakes in this region, its existence depends on the amount of rainfall. The river's delta is at Lake Fitri in Chad. Batha River carries water west from Ouaddaï highlands Ouadda ...
and the
Trabancos River The Trabancos is a river in Spain that flows between the Zapardiel and the Guareña rivers, and is a tributary of the Duero river. The source of the Trabancos is in Moraña, a region in the north of the province of Ávila, near Blascomillán. The ...
. Any endorheic basin, or closed basin, that contains a playa (dry lake) at its drainage lowpoint can become an ephemeral lake. Examples include
Lake Carnegie Lake Carnegie is a reservoir that is formed from a dam on the Millstone River, in the far northeastern corner of Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey. The Delaware and Raritan Canal and its associated tow path are situated along the eastern shor ...
in Western Australia,
Lake Cowal Lake Cowal is the largest inland lake in New South Wales, Australia. The lake is ephemeral, being fed by the small Bland Creek and by the occasional flooding of the Lachlan River. Despite this, it retains a considerable amount of water in abou ...
in New South Wales, Mystic Lake and Rogers Lake in California, and
Sevier Lake Sevier Lake is an intermittent and endorheic lake which lies in the lowest part of the Sevier Desert, Millard County, Utah. Like Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake, it is a remnant of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville. Sevier Lake is fed primarily by the ...
in Utah. Even the driest and lowest place in North America,
Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the hottest place on Earth. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the point of lowest elevation in Nort ...
(more specifically
Badwater Basin Badwater Basin is an endorheic basin in Death Valley National Park, Death Valley, Inyo County, California, noted as the lowest point in North America and the United States, with a depth of below sea level. Mount Whitney, the highest point in ...
), became flooded with a short-lived ephemeral lake in the spring of 2005. Costelloe et al. (2009) describes salt lakes found in the
arid A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most a ...
zone of Australia as profoundly ephemeral. There are also ephemeral islands such as
Banua Wuhu Banua Wuhu is a submarine volcano that rises more than from the sea floor in the Sangihe Islands of Indonesia. Historical records show that several ephemeral islands were formed and disappeared. A high island was formed in 1835, but then dwindle ...
and
Home Reef Home Reef is a volcanic island atop a submarine volcano in Tonga. It is located southwest of Vava'u, between the islands of Kao and Late along the Tofua volcanic arc. The island is ephemeral, and has been repeatedly built and eroded by succe ...
. These islands appear when volcanic activity increases their height above sea level, but disappear over several years due to wave erosion. Bassas da India, on the other hand, is a near-sea level island that appears only at low tide. On account of changing demarcation, shores exist as ephemeral. Only a small amount of southern Costa Rica's
secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...
s reach maturity, indicating that they may be "generally ephemeral". Deciduous forests, via the seasonal change of leaves, are subject to natural ephemeral changes. Ephemeral pools located in forests are commonly known as "vernal pools", often lasting in a seasonal manner. Landscapes feature ephemeral changes of both natural and man-made origin.
Furrows A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...
, haystacks and sheaves are ephemeral aspects of a landscape.


Biological processes

Plants whose life cycle is significantly less than the time of a growing season are deemed ephemeral. Winter annuals,
Epilobium ''Epilobium'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Onagraceae, containing about 197 species. The genus has a worldwide distribution. It is most prevalent in the subarctic, temperate and subantarctic regions, whereas in the subtropics and ...
and Senecio vulgaris are examples of ephemeral plants. The conditions for ephemeral plants are markedly present in deserts. Animals can be ephemeral, with
brine shrimp ''Artemia'' is a genus of aquatic crustaceans also known as brine shrimp. It is the only genus in the family Artemiidae. The first historical record of the existence of ''Artemia'' dates back to the first half of the 10th century AD from Urmia L ...
and the mayfly being examples. The placenta is considered an ephemeral organ present during gestation and pregnancy. Ephemerality is a component of
olfaction The sense of smell, or olfaction, is the special sense through which smells (or odors) are perceived. The sense of smell has many functions, including detecting desirable foods, hazards, and pheromones, and plays a role in taste. In humans, it ...
, breathing, speech and memory, aligned with permanency in the latter. With regards to witnessing an artwork in a museum, limited research indicates that the ephemerality of solely gazing at the artwork results in greater remembrance compared to the resulting memory from taking a photograph. Psychologists have studied why ephemerality may improve memory retention; social psychologist Karl E. Scheibe, conversely, suggested that ephemeral images are only memorable if repeated. The ephemerality of memory leads objects to assume the function of begeting remembrance on account of their greater stability.


Ephemerality and society


Ephemeral objects

Objects which are ephemeral, per one perspective, are those whose compositional material experience chemical or physical changes and are thus permanently altered; this process occurs in a matter of decades. Furthermore, ephemerality can be perceived as defiance of value or duability; common uses of the term indicate a "complicated relationship between temporality and value". Ephemerality is a matter of varying scale and can affect the entire spectrum of literature, from a "finely bound" Bible to a "hastily printed" handbill: "Paper is the medium of permanence and ephemerality at once". Due to often outlasting their expressed purpose, these objects can be perceived as temporal and ontological oddities; ephemerality has been described as constitutionally liminal. Ephemerality has been seen as indicative of epochs like the Printing Revolution, a greater expansion thereof, the
Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including th ...
era, the Victorian era, the
Georgian era The Georgian era was a period in British history from 1714 to , named after the Hanoverian Kings George I, George II, George III and George IV. The definition of the Georgian era is often extended to include the relatively short reign of Will ...
,
modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the " Age of Reaso ...
, or the "emergent post-print age". The likes of food, clothes, novels, zines, illnesses, breath, regimes, persons, glass, ash and ephemera have been said to illustrate and/or be affected by ephemerality. The
new media New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...
of the 20th century conditioned perceptions of ephemerality in the 21st century—the advent of the
telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
, camera, and film projector instilled an understanding of ephemeral media. Scholars such as
Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...
,
Georg Simmel Georg Simmel (; ; 1 March 1858 – 26 September 1918) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic. Simmel was influential in the field of sociology. Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approach l ...
, and
Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish my ...
saw the distinctly and intentionally ephemeral practice of fashion as emblematic of modernity. Ephemerality is affixed to the present, with the latter considering reality ephemeral, seeing it bound to a present that is contigent. Baudelaire, who considered
aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...
to be centered around an interplay of the perennial and the ephemeral, defined the artistic component of modernity by its ephemeral quality. Sarah Kofman posited that art is utilised to abate the "intolerable nature of all ephemeral things". Ephemerality has been relevant to a considerable amount of art; various artists have drawn upon the matter to explore time, memory, politics, emotions, spirituality and death. The
Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...
, Fluxus, Surreal, and Futurist movements all incorporated ephemerality as have Kuba, Mono-ha, and '' ukiyo-e'' Installation and Ritual artists. Perceptions of ephemerality vary between cultures, from melancholy and mitigation to embrace. Performance art has frequently been described as ephemeral in nature; with regards to historical performances, the traces: playbills, scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and material artifacts are themselves ephemeral. Literature is ephemeral, including definitions and "all printed texts". ''Ephemeral'' was first used colloquially in reference to printed matters. By 1750, an "expansion of all kinds of ephemeral print" had occurred. Hazlitt contended that such ephemerality was the result of widespread
aestheticism Aestheticism (also the Aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century which privileged the aesthetic value of literature, music and the arts over their socio-political functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be pro ...
, thus the creations were subject to being abruptly disregarded due to the cascading "gaze of fashion". Wallace Stevens adjusted his poetic standards due to a "perception of ephemerality" that living in New York City instigated.
Art Spiegelman Art Spiegelman (; born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman on February 15, 1948) is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel ''Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines ''Arcade'' and '' Raw ...
asserted that the format of comics, even during degradation, defies ephemerality, although they have been deemed as such. Women's writing, the likes of diaries and political pamphlets, have amassed a status as long being ephemeral, acknowledged by some affected in the then-present. The ubiquity of digital media has spurred the opinion that print material is comparatively less ephemeral. Elisa New and
Anna Akhmatova Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; uk, А́нна Андрі́ївна Горе́нко, Ánna Andríyivn ...
varyingly opined that poetry is a means of repealing mortal ephemerality, with Akhamatova invoking the aphorism ("skillfulness takes time and life is short"). Ephemeral objects chiefly disappear; when preserved it is often knowingly, having been "rescued from ephemerality", though this practice is still fraught with uncertainty and an object's ephemerality may only be suspended, thus still capable of being transitory. The legacy of ephemerality often manifests as "traces, glimmers, residues, and specks of things". Literature may contest, document or approximate ephemerality although the immateral nature means that there can only be an approximation: "In other words, there must always be an ephemeral beyond the ephemeral". Film has been used to document and combat ephemeral aspects of human development. Digital media's encompassing archival process means that information of varying importance can either be affixed or ephemeral, the former seen as the more generally common outcome. Digital personas, on account of precariousness and whim, can be entirely ephemeral, without any record. Grey literature has prove particularly vulnerable to the internet's ephemerality. ''Ephemeral'' acquired its common meaning of short-living in the mid-19th century and has connotations of passing time, fragility, change, disappearance, transformation, and the "philosophically ultimate vision of our own existence". Sarah Kofman questioned if "the beauty that conceals the evanescent nature of all things were itself ephemeral". Rather than melancholic, Sigmund Freud and Walter Pater viewed ephemerality as valuable; awareness and acceptance were to Freud commendable.


Ephemerality as a human condition

Multiple scholars have viewed ephemerality as intrinsic to the
human condition The human condition is all of the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered and analyzed ...
, a phenomenon of physicality. A significant amounts of living is ephemeral, considered by some as a component of everyday life: "we might best understand the ephemeral as a routine and constant force...that establishes the presence of the everyday". Ephemeral aspects are evident in communication, of both digitial and physical origin. In the digital realm, online interactions straddle permanency and ephemerality, new posts proliferate such that participants adopt a social norm that "the discourse will pass and be forgotten as the past". Ephemerality is a technologically and socially reliant concept – relative and historically changing. The rudimentary technology of early radio led to the media broadcast being ephemeral and for a substantial amount of time spoken communication was ephemeral. Written communication, historically and presently, has been influenced by ephemerality. The emergence of new digital media and technology develops what we deem ephemeral, to the point that ephemerality is perhaps an "outdated concept". Within the context of modern media dissemination, YouTube videos, viral emails and photos have been identified as ephemeral; as have means of advertising, both physical and digital and the internet collectively. ''Ephemeral media'' has been described as that which is brief in duration and/or circulation, adjacent to "the primary texts of contemporary entertainment culture". YouTube has "become a hugely successful aggregator of ephemeral media". In 2009, Ian Christie considered that a substantial amount of modern media, aligned with "rapid proliferati n, "may prove much more ephemeral than the
flip-book A flip book, flipbook, flicker book, or kineograph is a booklet with a series of images that very gradually change from one page to the next, so that when the pages are viewed in quick succession, the images appear to animate by simulating moti ...
". Wang Tao, Stevens and Rubem Fonseca evoked ephemerality via female characters;
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...
used the rainbow as a symbol whereas grass occupies a similar role in the Bible; F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Keats elicited melancholic ephemerality in showcases of
consumption Consumption may refer to: *Resource consumption *Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically * Consumption (ecology), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms * Consumption (economics), the purchasing of newly produced goods for curren ...
. Historically, the ephemerality of dreams was utilised in ample East Asian literature as a metaphor for immaterial reality whereas Baroque writings depicted the matter as analogous to life. Scholar of
comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...
Stuart Lasine noted that writers have frequently invoked ephemerality as a negative aspect of the
human condition The human condition is all of the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered and analyzed ...
. Ephemerality was profound to Dōgen and was intertwined with sorrow and regret; he used "the imagery of ephemerality" in a ''
waka Waka may refer to: Culture and language * Waka (canoe), a Polynesian word for canoe; especially, canoes of the Māori of New Zealand ** Waka ama, a Polynesian outrigger canoe ** Waka hourua, a Polynesian ocean-going canoe ** Waka taua, a Māori ...
'' concerning death. Ephemerality has received increased attention from modern academics, in fields such as: literary studies,
art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...
, book history, digital media studies, performance studies – "and the 'archival turn' in the humanities as a whole". The ephemerality of dance has engendered concern since at least the sixteenth century. Curators of
modern Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...
and
contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is ...
art have increasingly expressed a similar interest; curator of said genres Jan Schall described them as varyingly ephemeral. Ephemerality present in digital literature and poetry has seen
critical Critical or Critically may refer to: *Critical, or critical but stable, medical states **Critical, or intensive care medicine * Critical juncture, a discontinuous change studied in the social sciences. *Critical Software, a company specializing ...
analysis. Russell questioned if scholarly conceptions of "the everyday" was deeply intertwined with ephemerality, despite attention to a relation being thus far faint. Social historians and historians of sound have contended their subject's ephemerality by utilising more material forms; creative soundwork has long been subordinate to these forms on account of its ephemerality. The ephemerality of the internet and features that engender ephemerality, such as link rot, has elicited concern in regards to scholarly practice. Ephemerality has been studied in the context of dancing. Witnessing a dance that will be rendered ephemeral is resultingly commodified and of greater desire to prospecting audiences; true is same of fairs. Muñoz posisted that the physical proximation of dance, which coupled with the "shared rhythm", results in a unified yet ephemeral status of those engaged. ''
La Sylphide ''La Sylphide'' ( en, The Sylph; da, Sylfiden) is a romantic ballet in two acts. There were two versions of the ballet; the original choreographed by Filippo Taglioni in 1832, and a second version choreographed by August Bournonville in 1836. Bo ...
'' sees ephemerality as a notable theme. Professor of Dance Mark Franko contended that the artform is approaching a state of being "post-ephemeral" while Diane Taylor viewed the lasting impact a performance may have as negating notions of ephemerality. The documentation of other ephemeral events: protests, installations, exhibitions, are often meager – public events, of varying size, naturally generate ephemeral material. " phemeralityand disposability" have been perceived as components "of an American ethos";
alternative history Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, altern ...
novels '' The Man in the High Castle'' and ''
The Plot Against America ''The Plot Against America'' is a novel by Philip Roth published in 2004. It is an alternative history in which Franklin D. Roosevelt is defeated in the presidential election of 1940 by Charles Lindbergh. The novel follows the fortunes of the R ...
'' depict Americana and the nation itself as ephemeral. Ephemerality has been central to Buddhism; '' Yogācāra'' teaches a version of ontology that centers universal ephemerality''.'' Ephemerality has been identified as relevant to queer cultures;
José Esteban Muñoz José Esteban Muñoz (August 9, 1967 – December 3, 2013) was a Cuban American academic in the fields of performance studies, visual culture, queer theory, cultural studies, and critical theory. His first book, ''Disidentifications: Queers of ...
argued that queerness and ephemerality are intertwined, as the former has been expressed in methods which are prone to fade upon the "touch of those who would erase queer possibility". Freud considered culture as the prevailing element exempt from ephemerality. Scheibe saw the likes of live theater, travel abroad, stand-up comedy, and political pundits as engendering greater ephemerality by reducing attention spans and sense of personal history. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' perception of ephemerality "represents a thoroughly modern experience". Ephemerality was furthermore promient in the late 20th century, on account of multiple social features;
Reiko Tomii is a Japanese-born art historian and curator based in New York. Specializing in Japanese modern and conceptual art in its global context during the postwar period, Tomii is one of the art historians publishing in the English language on postwar Jap ...
described ephemerality as a "defining issue of the 1960s". In the 21st century, ephemerality "continues to signify concerns about the overflow of information, its evanescence, and questions of what or should be preserved".
David Harvey David W. Harvey (born 31 October 1935) is a British-born Marxist economic geographer, podcaster and Distinguished Professor of anthropology and geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He received his Ph ...
defined
postmodernism Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
as "a total acceptance of ephemerality". Architecture of an ephemeral nature appears as increasingly commonplace, on account of global and capricious hyper-mobility and mass displacement.
Marc Augé Marc Augé (born September 2, 1935 in Poitiers) is a French anthropologist. In an essay and book of the same title, ''Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity'' (1995), Marc Augé coined the phrase "non-place" to refer to spa ...
observed ephemerality as key to the likes of airports, malls, supermarkets, offices blocks, and hotels thus rendering them, per his definition, "
non-place Non-place or nonplace is a neologism coined by the France, French anthropologist Marc Augé to refer to anthropological spaces of transience where human beings remain anonymous, and that do not hold enough significance to be regarded as "places" ...
s". Architecture scholar Anastasia Karandinou argued that the practice's modern relation to ephemerality correlated with digital media's evolution, which she says has enabled new conceptions of space and everyday thinking. Of an indefinite and contentious nature, the definition of a region is ephemeral.


See also

* Ephemeroptera * Vanitas *
On Transience "On Transience" () is a philosophical essay by Sigmund Freud. It consists of a dialogue between Freud and Rainer Maria Rilke in which they discuss the meaning of transience. It was written in November 1915 and published the next year. Content F ...


References

* * * * * * * *


Further reading

*
Christine Buci-Glucksmann Christine Buci-Glucksmann is a French philosopher and Professor Emeritus from University of Paris VIII specializing in the aesthetics of the Baroque and Japan, and computer art. Her best-known work in English is ''Baroque Reason: The Aesthetics o ...
, ''Esthetique De L'ephemere'', Galilee, {{ISBN, 2-7186-0622-3 Concepts in aesthetics Concepts in metaphysics