Comments on: The ephemeral culture of biomedicine http://www.corporeality.net/museion/2007/12/07/the-ephemeral-culture-of-biomedicine/ Medical Museion Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:58:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Thomas http://www.corporeality.net/museion/2007/12/07/the-ephemeral-culture-of-biomedicine/comment-page-1/#comment-246282 Thomas Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:45:38 +0000 http://www.corporeality.net/museion/2007/12/07/the-ephemeral-culture-of-biomedicine/#comment-246282 (So, blog posts are temporally ephemeral too, then?) Otherwise I'm not sure I understand the relation between material and temporal ephemera? Adam, is this parallel to the relation between material and temporal presence? Th (So, blog posts are temporally ephemeral too, then?)

Otherwise I’m not sure I understand the relation between material and temporal ephemera? Adam, is this parallel to the relation between material and temporal presence?

Th

]]> By: Jan Eric Olsén http://www.corporeality.net/museion/2007/12/07/the-ephemeral-culture-of-biomedicine/comment-page-1/#comment-246278 Jan Eric Olsén Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:50:39 +0000 http://www.corporeality.net/museion/2007/12/07/the-ephemeral-culture-of-biomedicine/#comment-246278 Ephemera certainly is an intriguing aspect of biomedicine. The term no doubt says something essential about the materials employed in the labs and clinics of today, not to mention the curatorial problems that software poses, recently discussed here on the blogg. The term is also used though to describe the psychological effect that certain objects have on our minds. Thus seen, it has more to do with the temporality of being than with the momentary quality of certain materials. A while ago, I read Christine Buci-Glucksmann's essay Esthetique de l'éhpémère (Editions Galilée, 2003) hoping to find some suggestions as to how ephemera could be applied as an analytical tool in contemporary biomedical culture. According to Buci-Glucksmann, we live in a culture of flux and global instability rather than in one of stable objects and permanence. Todays mediascapes have yielded a new type of post-ephemeral image, what Buci-Glucksmann terms "images-flux", that is the bits of instant presence that make up the images on our electronic screens , the digital equivalent to the plastic fugitives of the biolab, I suppose. In this regard, digital images and plastic tubes are materials that are intrinsically ephemeral. But, following Buci-Glucksmann, they're also materials that are tied to the present in a certain sense, given the definition of the ephemeral as an intensified form of temporality that makes us sense ourselves as glimpses between "being" and "non-being". This notion of ephemera goes of course back to cultures of Renaissance and Baroque Europe. For sure, these remarks can't do justice to the complexity of Buci-Glucksmann's essay. However, applied to biomedical culture, I wonder how one should think the relationship between material ephemera and temporal ephemera. Does plastic and digital ephemera really prompt notions of Tempus fugit or should we rather think this relation in other ways? Ephemera certainly is an intriguing aspect of biomedicine. The term no doubt says something essential about the materials employed in the labs and clinics of today, not to mention the curatorial problems that software poses, recently discussed here on the blogg. The term is also used though to describe the psychological effect that certain objects have on our minds. Thus seen, it has more to do with the temporality of being than with the momentary quality of certain materials. A while ago, I read Christine Buci-Glucksmann’s essay Esthetique de l’éhpémère (Editions Galilée, 2003) hoping to find some suggestions as to how ephemera could be applied as an analytical tool in contemporary biomedical culture. According to Buci-Glucksmann, we live in a culture of flux and global instability rather than in one of stable objects and permanence. Todays mediascapes have yielded a new type of post-ephemeral image, what Buci-Glucksmann terms “images-flux”, that is the bits of instant presence that make up the images on our electronic screens , the digital equivalent to the plastic fugitives of the biolab, I suppose. In this regard, digital images and plastic tubes are materials that are intrinsically ephemeral. But, following Buci-Glucksmann, they’re also materials that are tied to the present in a certain sense, given the definition of the ephemeral as an intensified form of temporality that makes us sense ourselves as glimpses between “being” and “non-being”. This notion of ephemera goes of course back to cultures of Renaissance and Baroque Europe. For sure, these remarks can’t do justice to the complexity of Buci-Glucksmann’s essay. However, applied to biomedical culture, I wonder how one should think the relationship between material ephemera and temporal ephemera. Does plastic and digital ephemera really prompt notions of Tempus fugit or should we rather think this relation in other ways?

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