reviews by the editorial staff

Book

The Measure of Oblivion Funes

FOUNDER

Federico Bucci

DIRECTOR

Elisa Boeri

DEPUTY DIRECTOR

Elena Fioretto and Claudia Tinazzi

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Ángela García de Paredes, Jean-Philippe Garric, Ana Tostões, Elisa Valero Ramos, Bianca Gioia Marino, Andrea Sciascia, Filippo Lambertucci, Chris Whitehead

EDITORIAL BOARD

Samanta Bartocci, Luca Cardani, Luciana Macaluso, Lorenzo Mingardi, Beatrice Moretti, Elena Pozzi, Rosa Sessa

EDITORIAL STAFF

Alessandro Benetti, Alberto Bologna, Federica Causarano, Annalucia D’Erchia, Francesca Giudetti, Fabio Marino, Martina Meulli, Michela Pilotti, Sofia Celli, Giorgio Danesi, Roberta Folgiero, Lino Cabras

PHOTO BY

Andrea Baglini, Ela Bialkowska OKNO studio, Varga Csaba, Cesar Fernando de Oliveira, Marcel Gautherot, Anna Iakovlieva, Haniel Israel, Mykola Levchuk, Mirko Li Greci, Massimo Listri, Musacchio Pasqualini / MUSA, Kateryna Polishchuk, Thomas Ruff, Alex Santos, Dmytro Soloviov, Andrea Valentini

ARCHIVE

ACMo, Agenzia LAORE Sardegna, Alberto Galardi, Archive of the Municipality of Pisa, Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana, Berlinische Galerie, Biblioteca Consorziale di Viterbo, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense di Brera, Brandenburgisches Landesamt für Archäologie und Denkmalpflege, BRASILHIS Database, Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Dante Bini Archive, Eco-Museum of the Trompia Valley, Estado de Minas, Galleria Gaburro Collection, N.A. Galliano, Geoportal Berlin, IBGE Cidades, Instituto Moreira Salles, Landesarchiv Berlin, Macau Antigo, Magistrat der Stadt Berlin, Mart, MAXXI, NCAP, Parisio Photographic Archive, Pupia Crime, State Archives of the Kyiv Region

ISSUE N.4

Heritage Cities and Oblivion August 2026

Edited by Samanta Bartocci (Università degli Studi di Sassari), Lino Cabras (Università degli Studi di Sassari), Annalucia D'Erchia (Politecnico di Milano), Luciana Macaluso (Università degli Studi di Palermo) and Claudia Tinazzi (Politecnico di Milano)

ISSN

2974-8216

Periodicity

Biannual Magazine

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REVIEWS BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF | Edited by Claudia Tinazzi (Politecnico di Milano)

The Measure of Oblivion The Science of Mental Selection

In an age obsessed with the total archival accumulation of digital traces and the relentless imperative of historical preservation, Perché dimentichiamo. Una scienza dell'oblio by Sergio Della Sala operates a necessary, counter-intuitive gesture: defining forgetting as a primary structural mechanism of mental and architectural efficiency.

Much like Allan Sekula’s critique of the sea as a "forgotten space" subsumed by global capital, Della Sala examines the human brain beyond romanticized interpretations of its recording capacity. The brain operates as a dynamic, highly selective threshold. Della Sala – a neuroscientist who demonstrates a rare balance between scientific rigor and narrative lucidity – highlights how recent scientific literature has accumulated an overwhelming disproportion of studies dedicated to the term "memory", while reserving a marginal share of research for oblivion. In the face of this cultural asymmetry, the author invites us to invert our traditional epistemology and constructs a true "praise of oblivion", demonstrating that what we retain of the world is the residual topography left behind by systematic erasure.

Throughout the discussion, the author deconstructs the persistent neuro-myths that dominate contemporary public discourse. With an approach rooted in critical realism, he examines the phenomena of eyewitness testimony, false memories, and cognitive biases, showing the plasticity with which the architecture of memory adapts and distorts itself. Della Sala interprets these imperfections as essential adaptive features. Total recall – the hypothetical condition of exhaustive retention – reveals itself as a paralyzing design failure, an unnavigable clutter where signaling is drowned out by ambient noise.

«Forgetting is the condition of existence for free thought and cognitive synthesis».

The systemic implications of Della Sala's theoretical framework extend far beyond individual psychology, offering profound resonance for spatial and cultural disciplines. Just as urban systems require demolition, waste management, and spatial vacancy to remain livable, human cognitive architecture relies on continuous pruning to ensure its functionality. By investigating the biological necessity of forgetting, the text shows how deep understanding requires careful selection rather than mere exhaustive cataloging. Oblivion reveals itself as an active, creative, and liberating force, a refined survival tool that allows the mind to abstract, generalize, and design the future.