Ephemerality

The ephemeral nature of Granite Plateau Creek on the Mawson Plateau means the creek is usually a series of waterholes
The travelling festival Burning Man was described by one scholar as the "very definition of ephemerality".[1]

Ephemerality (from the Greek word ἐφήμερος, meaning 'lasting only one day'[2]) 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.[3] "There is no single definition of ephemerality".[4] With respect to unique performances, for example, it has been noted that "[e]phemerality 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".[5] 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".[6][7]

  1. ^ Popov, Lubomir; Ellison, Michael Bruce (2013-03-01). "Performance, Space, Time: The Production of Interiority in Black Rock City". Interiors. 4 (1): 53–74. doi:10.2752/204191213X13601683874163. ISSN 2041-9112. S2CID 129716791.
  2. ^ Ephemeros, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, "A Greek-English Lexicon", at Perseus
  3. ^ Charman, Karen; Dixon, Mary (2022). "Theorizing the "Public"—Recognizing Ephemeral and Migrating Publics and the Educative Agent". Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies. 22 (3): 282–289. doi:10.1177/15327086221087661. ISSN 1532-7086. S2CID 247969223.
  4. ^ Vélez-Serna, Maria (2020). Ephemeral Cinema Spaces : Stories of Reinvention, Resistance and Community. Amsterdam University Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-90-485-3782-2. OCLC 1158015759.
  5. ^ Will Straw, Alexandra Boutros, Circulation and the City: Essays on Urban Culture (2010), p. 148.
  6. ^ Ronald Beiner, Political Philosophy: What It Is and Why It Matters (2014), p. 10.
  7. ^ Hughes, Kit (2017). "Disposable: Useful cinema on early television". Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies. 12 (2): 102–120. doi:10.1177/1749602017698476. ISSN 1749-6020. S2CID 219960862.