Permanence to Process
Rethinking Ephemerality on Un/stable Grounds
Ephemeral Encounters and Epistemologies is an interdisciplinary research network that brings together scholars from the humanities and social sciences to investigate ephemerality in its material/immaterial forms and theoretical conceptualizations. The network explores how transient forms – ranging from collaborative art, soundscapes and periodicals to queer publications – shape the making and unmaking of proximities among human and non-human actors.
Understanding the ephemeral, amongst other approaches, as “an act of assemblage, a tactical making and unmaking of old and new formations” (Vélez-Serna), the network examines how fleeting forms of matter, knowledge and practice give rise to affective relations and alternative epistemologies. It rethinks cultural permanence, archival practices and the politics of collecting through the lens of transience, asking what it means to remember – or to let go.
The network’s first hybrid workshop, “Temporary Intensities”, took place in October 2025 in Tübingen and online, bringing together researchers from diverse disciplines to discuss how ephemerality informs relations, knowledge practices and artistic creation. The first workshop was funded by the Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State Governments.