Overlooking the Ephemeral

Abstract

This essay considers philosophical and aesthetic issues at stake in dealing with ephemeral arts such as performed music and exhibited film. Taking inspiration from Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht’s writings on presence culture and meaning culture, it explores possible stances towards beautiful objects – stances that precisely do not treat them as texts to be explained – including extreme attitudes such as silence and reticence. Refusing to regret the ephemeral is proposed as a form of cultural optimism, one that was more common in earlier historical eras. Finally, in offering examples from German cinematic history, the essay also poses a question about attentiveness, about how professional deformations in academic culture can alter perception and engender forms of partial deafness and partial blindness.